ARGIE leader Cristina Kirchner is hiring a jet from a British firm after she
was forced to ground her own luxury plane in a debt row.
She will splash out £622,000 on a Bombardier Global Express jet from charter
company Chapman Freeborn for her tour of Asia.
The news is a massive embarrassment for the president — who regularly rants
against British sovereignty of the Falklands and whose government has called
for a boycott of British business.
It comes days after The Sun responded to her latest attack by printing a
letter in a Buenos Aires paper, warning Argentina: “Hands off.”
Officially, Mrs Kirchner has been forced to find alternative transport after
her £40million Boeing 757, codenamed Tango 1, was grounded for “technical
reasons”.
The £30million Bombardier can seat 13 and has a stateroom with a bed,
satellite wi-fi and even staff to serve drinks.
But sources revealed the real reason for the switch was fears that her own
jet could be confiscated.
In October, Argentina’s ship ARA Libertad was seized in Ghana when US-based
NML Capital — which claims it was owed £1billion — got a court order banning
it from leaving port.
Argentina fears Tango 1 will suffer the same fate from any of a number of
creditors if it touches down on foreign soil.
The move by Mrs Kirchner — slammed last year for using Tango 1 to take son
Maximo to hospital with a sore knee — has caused fury among air charter
companies in her own country who are banned from taking customers to the
Falklands.
Last week Mrs Kirchner sparked outrage in an open letter to PM David
Cameron demanding Britain negotiates the sovereignty of the Falklands and
insisting we stole them in the first place.
The Sun responded with a letter to Kirchner, printed in the Buenos Aires
Herald, pointing out Britain had sovereignty there before Argentina even
existed.
We declared: “Until the people of the Falkland Islands choose to become
Argentinian, they remain resolutely British.”
Some Argies responded by burning British flags and copies of the Herald in the
streets.
Mrs Kirchner, 59, who is spending the holidays with her family in the southern
province of Santa Cruz, refused to respond to our letter.
a.west@the-sun.co.uk
'Queen' blew £70k on shoes
WITH vast wealth and extravagant tastes, Cristina Kirchner is nicknamed “the
Queen” in Argentina.
One of Latin America’s richest leaders, she boasts a family fortune of
£11.5million, a five-star hotel and many other assets. The average
Argentinian earns £6,000 a year.Mrs Kirchner, 59, is said to have blown
£70,000 on 20 pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes during an official trip to
Paris in 2011.
And last October she was accused of spending £1million doing up one floor of
her office. Much of her family’s property was acquired during Argentina’s
military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
Mrs Kirchner worked as a lawyer at the time and has been accused of making a
fortune as banks evicted thousands who could not pay mortgages. She has been
mocked in the Argentine press and dubbed “Bimbo” and “Botox Evita”.
She had a thyroid op in 2011 — but detractors say the scar on her neck is
really from plastic surgery.