ARGENTINE CONGRESS EXPEDITES PASSAGE OF COUNTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 001183 SIPDIS SIPDIS PASS NSC FOR JOSE CARDENAS, ROD HUNTER STATE FOR S/CT -- NOYES STATE FOR EB/ESC -- DAS SIMONS AND JEAN CLARK STATE FOR EB/ESC/TFS - LEANNE CANNON STATE FOR INL/C/CP (PETERSON),INR/EC, S//CT (HILL),IO/PSC (SANDAGE) TREASURY FOR TFFS (HEFFERNAN, VANLINGEN),OFAC, FINCEN DHS FOR ICE -- D.THOMPSON JUSTICE FOR OIA AND AFMLS PARIS PASS US MISSION OECD E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/14/2027 TAGS: KTFN EFIN PTER SNAR ETTC PREL AR SUBJECT: ARGENTINE CONGRESS EXPEDITES PASSAGE OF COUNTER TERRORISM FINANCE LEGISLATION REF: A. BUENOS AIRES 1125 ¶B. BUENOS AIRES 907 ¶C. BUENOS AIRES 78 ¶D. BUENOS AIRES 794 ¶E. BUENOS AIRES 803 ¶F. BUENOS AIRES 855 ¶G. BUENOS AIRES 881 Classified By: Charge Michael Matera For Reasons 1.4 (B and D). ¶1. (SBU) The Argentine Chamber of Deputies passed the GoA's draft counter-terrorism and counter-terrorism finance law on June 13, just one week after it passed the Senate on June 6. Neither house made changes to the government's draft, so the law will go directly to the office of the President for signature. The exact date that the law will enter into force is still unclear. Post understands that the President has 10 working days to sign it after it reaches the executive office. If he does not sign it by the end of the 10-day period, it will be "tacitly promulgated" (automatically approved) and published in the Official Gazette. The law will enter into force eight days after the GoA publishes it in the Official Gazette. ¶2. (C) The Chamber approved the law with a vote of 102 in favor and 35 against (after having cleared the Senate with a vote of 51-1),with President Kirchner's Victory Front coalition overriding objections from the opposition. An opposition Deputy told Charge after the vote that the opposition PRO party had questioned the law's vague definitions of acts of terror, but did not have sufficient votes to block passage or add amendments. Therefore, the opposition will try over the next few months to address this issue in the implementation phase of the legislation. ¶3. (C) The GoA's National Coordinator for anti-money laundering and counter terrorism finance, Juan Felix Marteau, who is also the GoA's representative to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),told Econoff June 14 that President Kirchner had recently intervened to get Congress to expedite passage of the law. Marteau understood from his superiors in the Ministry of Justice that the increasingly frequent signals from FATF member countries, the Argentine financial sector, and press articles regarding the importance of passing the law -- and avoiding possible FATF sanctions -- had convinced the President to act. ¶4. (C) Comment. One month ago none of Post's GoA or private sector contacts thought there was any chance the CTF law would get through Congress prior to the June 25 FATF plenary in Paris. At best, our GoA contacts hoped it would get through the Senate (see reftels for background). The fact that it took less than three weeks from start to finish to get through Congress, even in the midst of an election year and a domestic airline strike that complicated Congressional representatives' travel to the Capital, proves that if the President wants something to pass Congress, it will. End Comment. MATERA