Argentina officials in U.S. for last-ditch effort to avert default

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina’s government said Monday it will make another effort to reach a deal with U.S. creditors ahead of a looming deadline that risks sending the country into default.

Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said an Argentine delegation will travel to New York and meet a court-appointed mediator there today.

But the mediator, Daniel A. Pollack, said in a statement that while the Argentines will meet him, they have not yet accepted his recommendation of face-to-face talks with the plaintiffs in the dispute, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer’s NML Capital Ltd.

Those creditors bought Argentine bonds on the cheap and rejected the government’s restructuring offers following its record $100 billion default in 2001. They are demanding payment of some $1.5 billion in unpaid debts.

By Wednesday, Argentina has to make a payment to other creditors who accepted the restructured bonds or fall into default. But U.S. federal District Judge Thomas Griesa has forbidden Argentina to pay them without paying the holdouts as well.