MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK and US media blast the Kirchners for attempting “to lock-hold the press”

Mrs Kirchner “black-art” tactics to control supply of newsprint

British daily Financial Times ran an op-ed Tuesday morning blasting Argentina’s presidential couple for their attempt to “secure a lock-hold on Argentina’s press,” and accusing them of mirroring the “black arts” tactics of the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary party.

“The Kirchners are at it again,” the piece begins, explaining that after the recent controversies involving the pension funds and the central bank reserves, they now “appear to be trying to secure a lock-hold on Argentina’s press.”

The FT op-ed piece follows a similar article from the Monday edition of the Wall Street Journal saying that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner “aims to control the supply of newsprint” in Argentina.

The WSJ article, which opens by citing a quote from legislator Elisa “Lilita” Carrió, makes reference to “loyalist warnings” about the country's possible return to authoritarian rule. It mentions Carrió's declarations about how the government is trying to “silence critics.” In addition, and despite clarifying that it is still too early to declare liberty at risk, the WSJ delves into the alleged intentions behind ex Argentine president Néstor Kirchner and his wife and current president, and their actions.

The FT column mentions Mrs. Kirchner’s plans to declare production and distribution of newsprint a public interest, to which it calls “a baroque tale.”

“This looks like a deliberate bid to bring Clarín to heel - part of a pattern of authoritarian populist governance that is weakening already enfeebled institutions and cowing independent voices in business and society,” the piece reads, explaining that the Kirchner’s “war with Clarín” began after they fell out with the large media group “over both policy and the paper’s vaulting ambitions.”

Despite pointing out that these tactics are less blunt than those of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez used to silence his critics, the Kirchner’s methods are “more like the black arts the Institutional Revolutionary party used to deploy in Mexico over more than seven decades: get on message or go out of business.” Methods that the FT considers “were arguably more effective.”

The Wall Street Journal also refers to the “hearsay and rumours” behind the financial transactions of Papel Prensa and its sale in 1976.

Over the course of the past week, there have been numerous versions of how the sale actually happened. While declarations from Lidia Papaleo de Graiver (widow of former Papel Prensa owner David Graiver) spoke about “settling a debt” with the people of Argentina, David's brother Isidoro Graiver told a different story: the operation was legitimate and consented with no pressures of any kind.

The Gravier family members were later imprisoned and tortured by the Argentine military regime following disclosure that Mr. Gravier was managing kidnap-funds from one of the main guerrilla groups of the time Montoneros. Apparently Montoneros believed that the death of Gravier in an air crash in Mexico had been made up to keep 17 million US dollars they had handed the banker.

Finally, the WSJ mentions the human rights agenda upheld by Mrs. Kirchner and her government. While saying that the president likes to “make herself a champion of human rights,” the WSJ writes that although “members of the military” have been put in prison, the Kirchner administration has yet to imprison the “former terrorists” that were part of the Montoneros guerrilla movement during the afore mentioned time period.