By Michael Soltys, Buenos Aires Herald Senior Editor

Economy Minister Amado Boudou put a brave face on running the show when he insisted that the removal of National Securities Commission (CNV) chairman Eduardo Hecker was his decision and not that of the controversial Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno but his actions belie his words — on the same day a decree signed by Boudou gave Moreno full control of Papel Prensa newsprint manufacturers. Even if the capital flight of the last two years was also a factor in Hecker’s demise, the chief motive for his removal was his refusal to report adversely on Papel Prensa’s balance sheet and thus pave the way for a government trusteeship — an intervention which would be one more nail in the coffin of press freedom because it would give the government free rein to distribute newsprint in direct proportion to favourable editorial comment.

Boudou issued his ritual denials of any Moreno interference on Thursday but this newspaper’s editorial on Friday argued that the best way to defuse the rumours was not to lay a finger on Papel Prensa — the government has thus moved to deny itself this escape route even before the editorial appeared. As if placing Papel Prensa under Moreno were not enough, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner herself again criticized the newspaper Clarín (a major shareholder in Papel Prensa) the same day, calling the cause of trade union reform and pluralism the “cynicism of lies” because she sees it as a ruse to divide the workers — thus attacking one dubious monopoly (as she views Clarín) in the name of the even more dubious monopoly of current trade unionism.

The minister clearly needs to deny that Moreno is calling the shots within the CNV because this prospect can only strike terror among the capital markets he is assiduously wooing in order to gain access to the credit vital for replenishing depleted government coffers but he needs to work much harder to make his denials convincing. Thus far Boudou seems to feel that it is enough to say the right things (especially to holdout creditors or the Paris Club) but his words are not translated into action or directly contradicted by developments elsewhere, as with this assault on the neutrality of the CNV. Boudou’s initiative to place the INDEC statistics bureau under his direct control at the outset of his ministry has yet to result in any real change but when it comes to the equally vital task of refereeing capital markets, he does not even pretend to be anything more than a puppet.