‘Attempt to intimidate’: US firm may face terrorism charges in Argentina

The government of Argentina is ready to use an anti-terrorism law to seek criminal charges against a US-based international printing company, which unexpectedly closed its plant on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Workers of RR Donnelley in the Argentinian capital came to work on Monday to be informed of the plant’s closure due to an "insurmountable crisis," according to AP.

The company’s sudden filing for bankruptcy and shutting down its printing presses has left around 400 people jobless.

"We are facing a real case of fraudulent behavior and an attempt to intimidate the population," Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said in a Thursday speech cited by Reuters.

She believes there has been no sufficient ground for the company to shut down in a move which undermined the country’s economy. It could then be a violation of the anti-terrorism law, the president assumed. Argentina enacted its anti-terrorism law in 2011, but has not yet applied it.

Kirchner accused the printing company of being linked to foreign hedge funds or “vulture funds”, as they are called in Argentina, whose decade-long legal battle against the country in the US courts resulted in Argentina’s July default.

“There is an almost Mafiosi network on an international level,” she said.

RR Donnelley has not yet commented on the situation.