Argentine opposition Mayor Mauricio Macri, who is also running for president, ordered on Thursday the closure of a television channel spearheading an intense investigation of the mayor as he is implicated in an unfolding corruption scandal.
The mayor of Buenos Aires backtracked on the decision several hours after C5N television channel condemned the closure as a violation against freedom of expression. The signal of the channel could not be seen for several minutes after power was shut down and the open signal taken off the airwaves.
Se cayó la imagen de @C5N y se cortó la luz en el canal. Ahora se pudo restablecer la señal. Seguí [EN VIVO] pic.twitter.com/IjoluLVHt1
— C5N (@C5N) septiembre 17, 2015
(Through their Twitter account, C5N showed images of their darkened studio and informed their audience of the loss of power)
Citizens and journalists responded on social media and rejected what they saw as an attempt to censor the station. Support for the channel became a trending topic for Argentina’s Twitter users.
Despite the local government “revocation” of the closure, claiming it was an administrative mistake, they notified the channel hours after the decision.
Sobre la clausura a C5N, se trata de un error administrativo. Por Ley, el @gcba garantiza la libertad de expresión y derechos de información
— Cristian Ritondo (@cristianritondo) septiembre 18, 2015
(The vicepresident of Buenos Aires’ Parliament, PRO member Cristian Ritondo, said through his Twitter account that the decision was an administrative mistake and that the government of the city guarantees freedom of expression
C5N had exposed, together with the Tiempo Argentino newspaper, startling revelations that millions of dollars worth in public funds had been transferred to Macri's own party through one of its candidates.
As the TV station explained on a statement published on their Facebook account, this was not the first attempt to silence them. The station revealed that for two months the city's government had boycotted publicity for the channel.
Quieren quitarle la libertad de poder informar a la gente a @C5N. pic.twitter.com/dclvB0B7sp
— C5N (@C5N) septiembre 17, 2015
(As the channel’s offices were closed by local officials, C5N released a statement in which they argued the measure is linked to their revelations in a corruption scandal involving Macri)
Mauricio Macri, who has governed Buenos Aires since 2007, is the presidential candidate for the right-wing Republican Proposal (PRO) party, which he co-founded. PRO is leading the opposition and, until the end of August, stood in second place in opinion polls with 26.8 percent of the vote behind the government’s favored candidate Daniel Scioli.
Mainstream media in Argentina has dubbed the new corruption scandal involving Macri as the “Niembro affair,” as it directly involves PRO's head deputy candidate for Buenos Aires and businessman, Fernando Niembro.
The newspaper Tiempo Argentino obtained documents showing 192 contracts from the city's government worth around 28 million pesos (almost US$3 million) was granted to La Usina productions, a PR firm which belongs to Niembro. It is feared that those funds ended up in PRO’s election campaign.
The contracts were never opened to public bids and many of them show that the company had no qualification to perform the tasks it was hired for.
One of the contracts awarded to Niembro’s company stands out from the rest, which was to build a water refinery plant financed by the local government.
Others documents show receipts for activities, which were paid by a handful of ministries from the local government, including a school of journalism.
Furthermore, the company La Usina productions had no employees and had not reported any income to taxing authorities.
Although Niembro resigned his candidacy on Thursday, after issuing a letter claiming he stepped down do to protect his party from the scandal, the main political parties in the country are insisting that the case needs to be brought to a judicial investigation of the government of Buenos Aires.
The million-dollar scheme has sparked anger and outrage among Argentinians, but Mayor Macri has still not disclosed official documents which would account for the results of those projects that were allegedly carried by Niembro's company.
“If they file a (legal) complaint, we will go (to the courts) with the papers and collaborate,” said the once presidential hopeful.
Mauricio Macri is currently facing a legal process himself. In 2010, investigations showed that the government of the city of Buenos Aires had installed a clandestine phone tapping program, prompting authorities to issue travel restrictions for the politician.
So far courts have not been able to determine what role was played by Macri himself in the spying network, since the tapping targeted his brother-in-law and one of his detractors, Jewish leader Sergio Burnstein.
Before becoming the mayor of the city, Macri and his father had already been brought to trial by the Argentine justice for the crime of smuggling. Through the Macri Group, the family owned the auto-parts company Sevel, with offices in Argentina and Uruguay.
According to investigations by the Argentine Justice, Macri used both companies to report different values of auto-parts and evaded 55 million pesos (almost US$ 6 million) in taxes.
The Macris were absolved by the Supreme Court of Justice, but the judges, which ruled in their favor soon were forced by the Senate to resign, after finding irregularities that proved the judges favored former President Carlos Menem and his political allies.
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