The closure of the state-owned Télam uncovered the awarding of million-dollar contracts to
leaders of La Cámpora, who had been officials of that
official news and advertising agency.
Two Télam contracts with the consulting firm Monteagudo, from campers
Santiago "Patucho" Álvarez and Tomás Aguerre,
were announced for $42.15 million and $26.28 million.
Both contracts were within the framework of the "Annual Strategic Advertising and Communication Plan", according to spreadsheets published by the Compr.Ar system, by the El Disenso news portal.
Another contract of $64.8 million, from 2021, was also announced between Télam and the production company
La Ñata, owned by Kirchnerist businessman Roberto Navarro and his two children
, to be in charge, together with the company Geo Media, of creating digital communication pieces in the government of Alberto Fernández.
The benefits to leaders of La Cámpora
The Ministry of Media and Public Communication of the national government commissioned Télam in 2019 to provide "creativity and production" services.
And the state news and official advertising agency
outsourced the contracting to the company Massomedia SA,
whose fantasy name is Monteagudo.
Massomedia is in the name of the camper
Tomás Aguerre, former head of Télam's advisory cabinet
, although his "real brain", according to El Disenso, was Santiago "Patucho" Álvarez.
And it was the agency that "was always in charge of the Kirchnerist electoral campaigns," the news portal maintained.
"Patucho" was at that time creative director of Monteagudo
(the Massomedia agency) and one of the main references of the party organization managed by Máximo Kirchner, for which he created the branding of Unidad Ciudadana and the figure of "Nestornauta", the reconversion of Néstor Kirchner into the mythical figure of Juan Salvo, the main protagonist of El Eternauta, the novel by Héctor Oesterheld, a screenwriter who disappeared during the last military dictatorship.
Former president of Télam, until mid-2015, "Patucho" then took over as director of the Monteagudo agency.
And during Alberto Fernández's management, the Camporista leader was vice president of Corporate Affairs, Communication and Marketing of YPF, until last December, where
he had a salary of around $15 million per month.
The note about Télam's contracts with Massomedia had originally been published in El Disenso, on May 12, 2021. However, given the closure of Télam, the same news portal republished the same news this Thursday, with the date updated, which
was now replicated by C5N
under the title "Télam was the terminal of million-dollar contracts for a consultancy firm for leaders of La Cámpora."
Santiago "Patucho" Álvarez
cited this Thursday that note published on the news portal of Kirchnerist businessmen Cristóbal López and Fabián de Sousa, to assure:
"This is a lie. I have never received any money from Télam in my life."
The impact that C5N's note had on social networks was immediate.
And this Thursday it led to the ironic hashtag
"Hackearon C5N" becoming a trend on X (exTwitter).
The internal commission of the Argentine Television Union (SATSAID) in C5N repudiated "the company's use of this conflict
to settle its differences with La Cámpora
. Our solidarity with the Télam colleagues and their families," said the union commission in a release.