The Minister of Economy, Luis "Toto" Caputo, responded to the accusations spread by operating journalists and harshly questioned the publication of false information and news.
In this context, he demanded that Justice act and called for sanctions against those who spread this type of disinformation.
Caputo's reaction began in the morning after he shared on his X account an image of a newspaper whose headline stated: "The attack on journalism intensifies: more than 300 messages with insults and unfounded accusations".
The message from Luis Caputo
In response, the minister argued that the headline should state exactly the opposite and questioned the behavior of a sector of journalists, which is responsible for spreading fake news but does not tolerate the Government's responses from Javier Milei.
"The title should be exactly the opposite: The attack FROM journalism intensifies. A sector of journalism claims the right to lie and slander, but we should not get angry or expose their slanders", he wrote.
Then, Caputo cited a post from the operating "journalist" Beto Valdez, who had made a series of false accusations against the minister related to the decision to modify the control system for fuel dispensers and a supposed link between the minister and a businessman.
In his post, Valdez claimed, without evidence, that the change would benefit the Lenor Group, owned by Julio Made, and linked the decision to a supposed closeness between Made and Caputo's circle. He also stated that the transfer would have created a captive market and questioned the increase in verification costs for the dispensers.
The message from Luis Caputo
Sanctions against the operators
Caputo directly responded to those false claims and denied knowing both the mentioned group and the businessman referred to in the post.
"Here’s another example of what I just tweeted. I have never in my life heard of or even spoken about a Lenor group, nor a businessman Made. But it seems that for certain journalists, lying is an acquired right," the minister stated.
Additionally, he demanded sanctions against the disinformation promoted by the operating journalists: "The justice system should act. We need a law that punishes this type of behavior. It is unreasonable for someone to write things without any basis and not face consequences".
Luis Caputo
The discussion was also supported by the Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation, Federico Sturzenegger, who cited Caputo's message and rejected Valdez's false claims.
"I also have never heard of that group. I suppose this must be something like 'the thief sees everyone as being of his own condition'. After so many years using the State to build their businesses, they cannot believe that someone comes simply to do things right", he affirmed.
Sturzenegger also explained that the modification aimed to eliminate a state subsidy related to controls and questioned the model that transferred those costs to taxpayers.
"In this case, we simply eliminated a subsidy that the State imposed on taxpayers for the benefit of large oil companies to cover controls that they should have done themselves. That is another aspect of progressivism: under a false pretense, they set up a business at the expense of the people. Fortunately, Javier Milei has arrived", he concluded.
