
The Union of Southern Nations (UNASUR) expressed its solidarity with Argentina after US Supreme Court decision to dismiss the country’s appeal in its legal dispute with holdout hedge funds, rejecting “the behavior of speculative agents that endanger the agreements reached between debtors and creditors”.

New York district court judge Thomas Griesa on Monday appointed a Manhattan attorney to supervise talks between Argentina and hedge fund holdout bondholders after the government of President Cristina Fernandez asked him to organize negotiations with its creditors.

Argentina asked a U.S. judge on Monday to issue a stay of his ruling against the country in its case against holdout creditors as it sought to avoid a possible new default. The country is in a 12-year-old legal fight with investors who declined to participate in bond restructurings (2005 and 2010) after the country defaulted on 100 billion dollars in sovereign debt in 2002.

Argentina on Sunday took its battle against paying hedge fund investors in its defaulted bonds to the US media, placing adverts in major newspapers demanding US courts help foster fair and balanced negotiations.

US Federal Judge Thomas Griesa, ratified on Friday through an official letter that Argentina’s proposal to carry out a debt exchange and pay its bondholders in Buenos Aires represents a “violation of the rulings and procedures.”

In a conciliatory speech compared to previous statements, President Cristina Fernandez said on Friday her government would negotiate with all of Argentina's creditors in a bid to avoid a new debt default that would further weaken the country's ailing economy.

After a day of fury and discussions with cabinet members, advisors and experts, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez will be sending a government delegation to New York to meet Judge Thomas Griesa and the hedge funds holdouts' solicitors and begin, hopefully, a round of negotiations to reach a settlement on the bonds litigation.

The following piece by Charles Lane published in the The Washington Post offers an interesting debate about future bailouts and sovereign debt restructuring, following on Argentina's case.

Uruguay's president Jose Mujica delivered a message from Barak Obama to Cuba's Raul Castro proposing the opening of dialogue to discuss the blockade, reported the Montevideo media on Thursday. The occasion was the recent G77 summit held in Bolivia.

Payment of bond service due on June 30 in New York has been made impossible by Wednesday's lifting of a stay by a U.S. federal court, Argentina's economy ministry said on Wednesday, in a move that appeared to push the country closer to default.