Argentina: the main Argentine union expresses its “absolute rejection and repudiation” at the announcement of the Télam closure

MADRID, 3 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The national board of directors of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the main union in Argentina, has expressed this Saturday its “absolute rejection and repudiation” of President Javier Milei’s decision to close the National News Agency Télam and has warned of that “an emblematic communications company is being put at risk.”

«This initiative, which repeats other sad examples of past governments, with fallacious arguments that only cover up strictly political and economic motivations, puts at risk an emblematic communication company founded 78 years ago – the second most important in the Spanish language and internationally recognized. – adding anguish and anxiety to the families of its workers,” the CGT argued in a statement collected by the aforementioned agency.

In this sense, the union organization has expressed its “absolute rejection and repudiation” of the president’s announcement and has indicated with “alarm and concern” that the national government “continues on a path of deterioration for the Argentine people.”

“With State policies that, on the one hand, ignore some specific responsibilities and, on the other hand, in others, show active interventionist authoritarianism,” they have added from the Confederation.

Aside from this issue, the CGT has claimed that “it is urgent to promote the immediate repeal” of the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) proposed by Milei, alleging that there is “a fierce adjustment that favors a minority of concentrated sectors of the economy and makes “return the damage to the productive heart” of Argentine society.

For its part, the Inter-Union Communication of the CGT, the Central Workers of Argentina (CTA) and the Central Workers of Autonomous Argentina (CTAA) have also expressed their “strong repudiation” of the “attempt to close” the agency and has stated that the decision “attacks freedom of expression, the right to information and the plurality of voices,” according to another statement also collected by Télam.

“As in the Government of (former President Mauricio) Macri, this new purpose of cutting off voices and the attempt to fire press workers is an authoritarian measure,” the Intersindical has condemned, ensuring that it will support “all actions so that “Do not carry out this measure that attempts to silence the diversity of voices that give the federal character of this historic agency.”

These statements come after President Javier Milei announced this Friday in his speech at the opening of ordinary sessions of Congress that he would close the Télam agency, arguing that “it has been used in recent decades as a Kirchnerist propaganda agency.”