Argentina Proposes Nationalization of Biggest Oil Company
President sees ‘the recovery of sovereignty’ in take-back of natural resources from corporations
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has proposed a bill to seize back major oil shares from the country’s biggest oil company YPF, owned by Spain’s Repsol. The move is facing aggressive opposition from the corporation and from the Spanish government, threatening that Argentina will become “an international pariah”.
Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner holds a test tube containing petrol during a ceremony at the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires April 16, 2012. (Photo: Reuters/Stringer) “We are the only county in Latin America, and I would say in practically the entire world, that doesn’t manage its own natural resources,” Fernandez said. She said her proposal “is not a model of statism” but “the recovery of sovereignty.”