Roberto Navarro, Argentina's top rated news anchor, forced out by alleged government pressure

[sandensea]

Cable news anchor Roberto Navarro, host of Argentina's top-rated current events program Economía Política, was fired yesterday. Executives at Channel 5, according to Navarro, admitted receiving pressure from the government to force his removal.

Navarro had reportedly drawn ire from the authorities as a result of a number of investigative exposés into alleged corruption and other wrongdoing by the two year-old Mauricio Macri administration, of whose trickle-down policies he's been critical.

His weeknight show had been the first to reveal Macri scandals such as:

·The dollar futures case (in which officials and relatives profited from a 40% devaluation a week after taking office)
·Th partnership between Macri and disgraced contractors Lázaro Báez and Brazil's Odebrecht
·Alleged vote buying to secure congressional approval for a $9 billion payout to vulture funds and other holdout bondholders in March 2016
·Numerous undeclared Macri family offshore shell companies (beyond those uncovered by the Panama Papers leaks)
·Plans for the secret purchase of $2.5 billion in U.S. military equipment
·And the attempted unauthorized sale of the ARSAT-3 satellite to Hughes Electronics this July.

Navarro, 57, has no intention of leaving investigative journalism however.

"We have important denunciations to publish in (online journal) El Destape that concern Vice President Gabriela Michetti's role in laundering money from state banks through her foundation for use in campaign finance," he said in a radio interview today.

He revealed that another top Macri ally, congressional candidate Gladys González, solicited a bribe through WhatsApp. "I wanted to air it and was told that I couldn't mention her," he said.

Channel 5's parent company, the Indalo Group, is currently facing 10 billion pesos ($570 million) in back taxes and penalties from its 'Oil' service station chain. Navarro alleges that the group's news division director, Mariano Frutos, informed him that if he was not dismissed, he (Frutos) would "go to jail."

"A government minister informed me on August 13 that I would be removed, that it had been decided, and that they expected more sympathetic journalists," Navarro said. "Economía Política, which I produce, was then limited as to its content - even the headlines."

"This is happening in the context of (indigenous activist) Milagro Sala's arbitrary imprisonment and the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado - of a democracy that has become precarious."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicaymedios.com.ar%2Fnota%2F9306%2Froberto_navarro_fue_el_gobierno_quien_exigio_mi_salida%2F

Argentine news anchor Roberto Navarro in one of his last broadcasts. Behind him a reference to activist Santiago Maldonado, who disappeared on August 1.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This journalist has reached the level of prominence which marks him as Macri's feared enemy.

From now on, he must be intensely watchful for his own security.

Fascists despise truth-tellers. Just as the numerous dead journalists buried all over Colombia, whose deaths trained the cautious other journalists to start self-editing for survival.

One of Colombia's very best journalists, Hollman Morris, who exposed false positives had to hire bodyguards for himself and his family, and send his daughter to school in a bullet-proof car. His brother, another journalist, was also living under the gun until Uribe finally ran out of luck and the Senate refused to allow him to run for many more terms.

Sounds so much as if Roberto Navarro has crossed into that terrain possibly before anyone could guess. Probably the right-wing has been hating him a very long time.

There were so many strong, principled people on the "enemy" death lists during the Dirty War, sending many into exile, journalists, even activists singers, writers, etc. To stay, under their hateful gaze does mean living with a daily threat.

One has to admire these strong people who live for their beliefs, and dare to speak about it, even when it means the worst can happen because of their courage.

Sandensea, wasn't there once a journalist in Argentina who moved to Uruguay, and continued to do his work from there, knowing it would all be heard in Argentina, after all? I can't remember his name, or his time.

Hope Roberto Navarro can be as effective as he hopes through El Destape.

Thank you.

[sandensea]

2. And as Macri's history of wiretapping journalists shows, he's never been a fan of press freedom.

Now that they've pushed Navarro out, my guess is that'll lean on Channel 5 to silence its two other news anchors, Victor Hugo Morales and Gustavo Sylvestre.

Sylvestre, you may recall, had already been the target of a State Intelligence eavesdropping operation (as shown by Intelligence documents leaked in October).

As far as Uruguay, there've been quite a few Uruguayan journalists in Argentina over the years (who've emigrated mostly for the better job opportunities - among them Victor Hugo Morales); but relatively few Argentine journalists in Uruguay (mostly retirees).

Perhaps the best known Argentine journalist to live in Uruguay for political reasons was Juan Bautista Alberdi, who was forced to flee by the Juan Manuel de Rosas dictatorship in 1838. He later fled to France, returned to Buenos Aires upon Rosas' overthrow in 1852, and went on to author the Argentine Constitution in 1853.

Alberdi, who based Argentina's constitution on the United States' and saw both as living documents that should be adapted over time, foresaw the problems Argentina later had with its (formerly) highly-politicized and reactionary armed forces.

"Give armies to countries with no enemies," he warned, "and you create a complex that will occupy itself with making an unmaking governments, with making civil war in the absence of foreign ones, and with becoming a governing class."

Juan Bautista Alberdi, 1810-1884.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Overwhelmingly accurate statement. He knew it so long ago, too.

The image of his face reveals an intensely intelligent, concerned person. It is unmistakable.

He was a man who couldn't be easily entertained or distracted. If only there had been so many more people like him throughout the world.

His image stands out in a world which values slickness, doesn't it? It's much more seduced by stupid, ignorant, pleasure-seeking, undisciplined tools. God knows there are enough of them everywhere. Far too many.

"Making civil wars in the absence of foreign ones." That reminds one of the prediction made long ago that when the US ran out of enemies, it would fight against itself. Looks uncomfortably universal, doesn't it?

When the human race evolves, there will be a whole new world. It's about time, isn't it?

Thanks for the information.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Kicking for a modern hero, Roberto Navarro. n/t