Public Hearing to Set in Motion the Commission for the Investigation of the Debt
Buenos Aires, 14/10/14 - In a Public Hearing today in the Chamber of Deputies , popular organizations and representatives from around the country demanded from Congress the immediate suspension of payments on the public debt, and the commencement of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission, created a month ago with the sanctioning of the deceptively titled Law of "Sovereign Payment".
Convened by the Assembly for the Suspension of Payments and Investigation of the Debt and for the Defense of National Patrimony and Public Goods, the Hearing saw the participation of National Deputies Víctor de Gennaro for the Bloque Unidad Popular (Popular Unity Block), Pablo López and Néstor Pitrola for the Partido Obrero (Workers' Party), Bloque FIT, and Pablo Bergel and Gustavo Vera, lawmakers from the City of Buenos Aires, Bloque Bien Común (Block for the Common Good).
During the course of the Hearing, presentations were given by the Belgian Eric Toussaint, former member of the the Ecuadorian Presidential Commission for a Comprehensive Audit of the Public Credit, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, member of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo - Linea Fundadora (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo - Founding Line), Nora Cortiñas, Ambassador Miguel Angel Espeche Gil, Professor Camilo Rodríguez Berrutti of the Catholic University of La Plata, Beverly Keene for Dialogue 2000. In addition, representatives of key social and political organizations, including the Argentine Workers´Central (CTA), PTP-PCR, MST-Nueva Izquierda, the Federation of Energy Workers FeTERA-Flores, Attac-Argentina and the Million Indigenous Women´s March, took the floor to demand Congressional action to initiate the Parliamentary Investigation and meanwhile, to suspend all debt payments. The Hearing also received the support of the Jubilee South /Americas network (Jubileo Sur / Américas).
The attendees pronounced themselves in full support of the prompt constitution of the Investigative Commission, notwithstanding the discouraging precedents as well as the concrete circumstances surrounding the inclusion of the creation of a "Permanent Bicameral Investigative Commission", in the same law that declares it in the public interest to pay a debt whose potential "irregularities" they propose to investigate, and in the midst of the Executive's tiresome "fight" to keep paying what the Argentine people don't owe. As was pointed out in the Hearing, the Law effectively grants a self-amnesty to those responsible for the debt and its beneficiaries.
"The decision to create a Parliamentary Investigative Commission, even if just to 'please the crowd', constitutes a recognition on the part of Argentine political power of the impossibility of continuing to deny and cover up the illegitimacy and illegality of the debt," declared the diverse groups gathered since July in the Assembly. "It is impossible to continue fooling all of the people all of the time, about questions that are evident and central to the defense of the nation, the recovery of our sovereignty, and the fulfillment of human rights and respect for the environment."
The full statement of the Assembly can be read here: " Homeland or Debt: the Only Creditor is the People" . In future notes, we will provide more information about the key points of the Hearing and the requirements proposed for the effective functioning of the Commission and a full investigation of the debt, in order to allow necessary progress toward Truth, Memory, and Justice: non-payment of the debt, the sanctioning of those responsible, and reparations for the crimes and violations committed.
DIALOGUE 2000 - JUBILEE SOUTH ARGENTINA