Argentine naval frigate returns home Argentine naval frigate the Libertad has been welcomed home with all the pomp and ceremony of a warship returning victorious from battle. Flag-waving crowds lined the seafront in the Atlantic resort of Mar del Plata while President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner helicoptered in and was joined by busloads of her loyal supporters for a rousing speech. She boarded the frigate to welcome each crew member. The Libertad, a three-masted eighty-metre long sailing ship, was held for 78 days last year in the Ghanaian port of Tema. It was seized in October on the orders of a local court. It ruled in favour of NML Capital, a subsidiary of US hedge fund Elliot Capital Management, which says it is owed $370m by the Argentine government as a result of its debt default eleven years ago. President Kirchner attacked what she called global predators. "We must realise that our fight is not just relevant to Argentina, but we must all take a stand to resist these extortions," she said. Argentina argued that impounding the naval training ship and its 300 or so crew violated the immunity of military vessels under international maritime law. In December, the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea meeting in Hamburg agreed and the Ghanaian authorities allowed the ship to sail home. The decision was welcomed by the Argentine government, which has had time during the Libertad's voyage across the Atlantic to organise a spectacular homecoming. President Kirchner said when the ship was impounded: "They can take the frigate but not our freedom, our sovereignty or the dignity of this country." The seizure of the Libertad caused a scandal in Argentina, which led to the resignation of navy chief Admiral Carlos Alberto Paz. The government held him responsible for allowing the frigate to dock in Ghana when they said he knew that US hedge funds were pursuing Argentina in foreign courts. The Libertad, a 50-year-old training vessel, had already called at ports in Brazil, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Senegal. When it was impounded, most of the crew was flown home but 44 remained. They pulled up the gangplank and armed themselves with automatic weapons when Ghanaian authorities tried to board to move the ship to another berth. Mrs Kirchner left Mar del Plata to visit the ailing Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in a hospital in Cuba, taking a private jet. She will go on to official visits in east Asia. Critics has have said she's not using the presidential aeroplane since she fears it might meet the same fate as the Libertad. Her government has said the decision was taken on purely economic grounds. In 2001 and 2002, Argentina defaulted on more than $100bn of debt. Most of those loans were later restructured, giving creditors about thirty per cent of their original investment back. Some, including Elliot Capital Management, held out, pursuing the Argentine government through the courts.