On the
afternoon of April 11, the IMF's Anoop Singh, head of the Special Operations
Division, held a highly unusual, and unperfected press conference in Buenos
Aires, to brutally threaten the Duhalde government. Singh acted like an
imperial overseer: the press conference was organized by IMF spokesman
Francisco Baker, who flew in to Buenos Aires from Washington for 48 hours
solely for that purpose. It was held at the Finance Ministry auditorium,
but Finance Minister Remes Lenicov and other officials didn't show their
faces. It was the IMF's show, in which Singh warned "it will be very
difficult, and decidedly painful for the population, to try to correct
the current situation without the firm support of the international community.
And, for this, it is {essential} to have a program backed by the IMF."
[emphasis in original].
Singh then proceeded to read to reporters the conditional ties which Argentina
must accept. At the top of the list was the demand that provincial governments
eliminate their deficit and stop printing local bonds; and that the bankruptcy
and economic subversion laws be altered to favor foreign "investors."
Responding to questions about specific timeframes and amounts, Singh would
only say that "the timeframe and the amount {will depend on how quickly
a consistent program is devised, and the Argentine economy recovers}."
This IMF hitman then echoed U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and
his own IMF boss, Anne Krueger: The IMF, of course, wants to "help."
But, "it is the [Duhalde] government, together with the Argentine
people, which must arrive at a consensus on the type of economic reforms
needed at this time, and then carry them out." The responsibility
for finding a solution lies inside Argentina, not abroad, he said. "Once
a solid program is put together, then financial assistance" will
appear.