ARGENTINA: Reporter’s Murder Throws a Spanner in the Works

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 28 1997 (IPS) - The murder of press photographer Jose Luis Cabezas – the most serious attack on the media since the return to democracy in 1983 – creating an uncomfortable obstacle that could well upset President Carlos Menem’s reelection plan.

Just as the ruling party were launching their initial proposals for another constitutional reform Saturday, to allow Menem to stand for re-election for a third term in 1999, Cabezas’ charred body was found in his burnt out rental car, a bullet lodged in his temple.

As Senator Eduardo Menem, the President’s brother, said: “it would be neither convenient, nor reasonable, nor favourable to reform the Constitution for nothing more than reelection at this moment.”

The issue also makes Menem’s main competitor, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Eduardo Duhalde, mighty uneasy.

For the brutal murder of Cabezas, which caused outcry amongst national and international organisms, took place uncomfortably close to Duhalde’s summer house, practically in sight of his guards.

“They were aiming for effect when they chose the location,” said the governor.

Duhalde is the most likely presidential candidate for the Justicialist (Peronist) Party if the new constitutional reform does not go ahead, but the kidnapping of Cabezas only metres from his front door brought the imminent launch of his offensive grinding to a halt.

For the Buenos Aires police are under suspicion, and this provincial police force is directly under the command of Governor Duhalde.

Also his personal guard allegedly did not notice the abduction of Cabezas.

Even more suspiciously, the reporter was known to be investigating a group of Buenos Aires police officers linked with serious crime.

The crime thus stuck itself right in the middle of the latent political debate between the President and the Governor – considered the two main figures of the Argentine political scene.

On Saturday, Senator Jorge Yoma, a direct collaborator of Menem, said the option of a further Constitutional reform would be presented to the people in February.

The constitution was modified by the ruling party in 1994 in order to allow Menem to be reelected, allowing him the opportunity to return to the presidency in 1995 – which he did.

But this reform only allowed for one re-election.

However, the “re-reelection” move is warmly supported by the business community, even though popular support for the leader has fallen to 19 percent according to the most recent surveys, as they believe his presence guarantees the continuity of the present economic model.

But the president rejects the challenge. “For those tearing their hair out over the issue, for the opposition who want to unite to destroy Menem and Menemism, I can tell them I have decided not to enter in the re-election game because I’ve already done it once,” he said.

Political analyst Eduarod van der Kooy said Duhalde “does not convince” the business community as a presidential candidate. He also said the governor “appears incapable of breaking the sort of psychological power Menem has over him.”

And to a certain extent this is true.

Menem managed to twist Duhalde’s initiative to convoke a summit of the Justicialist Party to his favour, making good use of the debate and discussion of changes in the economic planning to attack unemployment and ease the social discomfort caused by adjustment.

The President put himself at the head of the meeting earlier this month, harvesting the enthusiastic applause of his ministers when he reported on how the affairs each one had on the agenda were going.

In this power scheme, the murder of Cabezas has hit hard on Duhalde who was forced to cut short his holidays. The governor offered 100,000 dollars Monday to anyone supplying information on the killers, trebling the offer Tuesday.

Newspaper reports said the photographer was working on a book which revealed links between the Buenos Aires police and a series of serious crimes against the Israeli embassy (1992) and a Jewish- Argentine institution (1994), along with drug trafficking and the stolen vehicle trade.

In the most recent editions of the magazine Noticias, where Cabezas worked, the reporter had published a report on a series of robberies to summer homes in Pinamar, where the police were supposedly involved.

Even Duhalde’s representatives admitted the killing had affected the internal disputes within the justicialist party.

“We cannot write off the possibility that the police are involved in the murder of Cabezas, but we believe those spreading this information are government people who do not want to see Duhalde become president,” said one Justicialist leader.