Papel Prensa
Encyclopedia
Papel Prensa is the largest Argentine manufacturer of newsprint
, furnishing 75% of the local market in the staple. The public–private partnership became the focus of one of a series of controversies between Clarín and Kirchnerism
(the ruling Argentine political faction) in 2010.
Production Development Fund in 1969 by de-facto President Juan Carlos Onganía
. The plan envisaged the establishment of a public-private newsprint manufacturing facility that could substitute imports of the staple, which excluding Papelera Tucumán, accounted for practically the entire annual demand of over 340,000 metric tons; the nation's 179 news dailies had a combined circulation of nearly 4.3 million in 1970, the second-largest in Latin America, and the highest on a per capita basis.
The fund stipulated the enactment of a 10% excise tax on all imported newsprint for a ten-year priod, during which the state would retain a share in the company. A bidding process was launched in 1971 for the plant's development, though none met capacity requirements, and its construction was assigned to the Ministry of Industry. The company itself was formally established on July 12, 1972, with a 27% ownership by the state, and the remainder by a consortium led by publisher César Civita
and the company he directed, Editorial Abril.
who, through partner Rafael Ianover, became the firm's largest private shareholder. Secretly, however, Graiver acted as the investment banker for the Montoneros
guerrilla group. He reportedly laundered
US$17 million in funds that the Montoneros had received from illicit activities, principally kidnapping
. These investments included a variety of interests in both Argentina and overseas, and by 1976, Graiver owned a significant stake in Jacobo Timerman
's La Opinión
(one of the leading newspapers and the leading magazine publisher in Argentina), as well as numeous other businesses and banks in Argentina, New York
, and elsewhere. Graiver contracted US$67 million in debts, however, and reportedly died in a plane crash near Acapulco
on August 7, 1976. He was indicted
for embezzlement
in 1978 by Manhattan
district attorney
Robert Morgenthau, who believed the elusive banker to possibly be alive.
to sell her family's stake in Papel Prensa, as was Ianover. She was also coerced by the Montoneros, who sought to recover the US$17 million investment managed by Graiver. A military tribunal sentenced Papaleo and Graiver's brother and father to 15 years' imprisonment, though an appeals court later cleared the defendants of all charges.
Papaleo and the other private partners negotiated the sale of their shares on November 2 with the three most important Argentine newspaper publishers at the time (Clarín
, La Nación
, and La Razón
). Papaleo, however, had collected but U$S 7,000 when, on March 14, 1977, she was illegally detained by the Buenos Aires Province Police. Papel Prensa, which at the time was not operational, received a significant injection of capital during a period of state receivership
that ended in January 1978, and on September 27, its San Pedro
facility was inaugurated, substituting around US$90 million annually in newsprint imports. The private shareholders of Papel Prensa, including Graiver's widow, were ultimately indemnified by President Raúl Alfonsín
's administration in 1985.
The Clarín Media Group
acquired La Razón and its corrponding shares in Papel Prensa in 2000, raising its stake to 49 percent; the Argentine government maintained its 27.5% share.
, Papaleo testified in 2010 to having been personally threatened by Clarín executive Héctor Magnetto
during the sale, and subsequently tortured by police to forfeit further payment, as well as her remaining shares in La Opinión. Charges were filed to the effect of the sale's alleged illegality by the federal government in August 2010, a decision the company's directors claimed was a government attempt to control the still-significant newspaper media. Papaleo, however, recanted her testimony within days, affirming simply that she had been pressured to sell her shares, though never under duress. This latter assertion was echoed by Isidoro Graiver (her brother-in-law) and by María Sol Graiver (the couple's daughter). Her brother, Osvaldo Papaleo, reiterated claims that the sale of Graiver's Papel Prensa shares was arranged under pain of death, and that ulterior motives explained the recent retractions. A joint declaration by Clarín and La Nación dismissed those reports: they pointed that the kidnappings and the Papel Prensa operation had already been investigated after the democratic restoration of 1983. Justice had not found by then any link between the Gravier kidnapping and the operation, nor any irregularity in it. Lidia and Osvaldo Papaleo and Rafael Lanover had declared to the justice the abuses made against them by the dictatorship, and did not report by then any of the things that they reported in 2010. Bartolomé Mitre (director of La Nación) and Héctor Magnetto (CEO of Clarín) accused the Secretary of Human Rights of tampering with the 1988 judicial ruling, adding new lines absent in the original, that would point an alleged favoritism from the Junta towards their newspapers. For instance, a line in the original document said "The problem with the price, however, is intrascendent to the scope of this body, and, besides, it was accepted by the sellers -The Gravier Group- and has only been mentioned to prove the hurry to negotiate". According to Mitre and Magnetto, the period was surreptitiously turned into a comma, followed by "and the existence of a single buyer imposed or chosen by the national authorities".
These controversies coincided with a highly politicized six-month work stoppage at the San Pedro plant amid accusations of abnormanlly high pay for managerial staff. The strike ended following wage increases agreed to in early December.
Newspaper circulation declined in Argentina after the 1970s, and in 2009 Papel Prensa produced 170,000 tons of newsprint annually (75% of the Argentine market) for 170 dailies.
Newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...
, furnishing 75% of the local market in the staple. The public–private partnership became the focus of one of a series of controversies between Clarín and Kirchnerism
Controversies between Clarín and Kirchnerism
The Argentine media corporation Grupo Clarín and the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner have been involved in a number of controversies since 2008...
(the ruling Argentine political faction) in 2010.
Establishment
Papel Prensa ("Press Paper") originated in the establishment of the Paper and CelluloseCellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....
Production Development Fund in 1969 by de-facto President Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
. The plan envisaged the establishment of a public-private newsprint manufacturing facility that could substitute imports of the staple, which excluding Papelera Tucumán, accounted for practically the entire annual demand of over 340,000 metric tons; the nation's 179 news dailies had a combined circulation of nearly 4.3 million in 1970, the second-largest in Latin America, and the highest on a per capita basis.
The fund stipulated the enactment of a 10% excise tax on all imported newsprint for a ten-year priod, during which the state would retain a share in the company. A bidding process was launched in 1971 for the plant's development, though none met capacity requirements, and its construction was assigned to the Ministry of Industry. The company itself was formally established on July 12, 1972, with a 27% ownership by the state, and the remainder by a consortium led by publisher César Civita
César Civita
-Life and times:Cesare Civita was born in New York to Vittoria Carpi, an opera chanteuse, and Carlo Civita, an Italian Jewish businessman. Raised in Milan, he developed an early interest in commerce, and in 1936, was named general manager of the prestigious publishing house, Arnoldo Mondadori...
and the company he directed, Editorial Abril.
David Graiver
Civita and Editorial Abril sold their shares in late 1973 to a consortium led by banker and developer David GraiverDavid Graiver
David Graiver was an Argentine businessman and banker whose business interests would become the focus of investigations and intrigue during his short life, as well as since his death.-Early life and career:...
who, through partner Rafael Ianover, became the firm's largest private shareholder. Secretly, however, Graiver acted as the investment banker for the Montoneros
Montoneros
Montoneros was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing...
guerrilla group. He reportedly laundered
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
US$17 million in funds that the Montoneros had received from illicit activities, principally kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
. These investments included a variety of interests in both Argentina and overseas, and by 1976, Graiver owned a significant stake in Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman was an Argentine publisher, journalist, and author who was persecuted and honored for confronting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War...
's La Opinión
La Opinión (Argentina)
La Opinión was an Argentine newspaper, founded by the journalist Jacobo Timerman in 1971. Its ideology was broadly centrist, inspired partly by the Paris daily Le Monde.-Development:...
(one of the leading newspapers and the leading magazine publisher in Argentina), as well as numeous other businesses and banks in Argentina, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and elsewhere. Graiver contracted US$67 million in debts, however, and reportedly died in a plane crash near Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
on August 7, 1976. He was indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
for embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
in 1978 by Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Robert Morgenthau, who believed the elusive banker to possibly be alive.
Sale and controversy
His widow, Lidia Papaleo, returned to Argentina on September 16, and was enjoined by the newly installed dictatorshipNational Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
to sell her family's stake in Papel Prensa, as was Ianover. She was also coerced by the Montoneros, who sought to recover the US$17 million investment managed by Graiver. A military tribunal sentenced Papaleo and Graiver's brother and father to 15 years' imprisonment, though an appeals court later cleared the defendants of all charges.
Papaleo and the other private partners negotiated the sale of their shares on November 2 with the three most important Argentine newspaper publishers at the time (Clarín
Clarín (newspaper)
Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
, La Nación
La Nación
La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
, and La Razón
La Razón (Buenos Aires)
La Razón is a local newspaper distributed in the public transportation system in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was founded in 1905 by Argentine journalist Emilio Morales an as an afternoon and evening newspaper in broadsheet format. The daily was acquired by a prominent news editor, José A...
). Papaleo, however, had collected but U$S 7,000 when, on March 14, 1977, she was illegally detained by the Buenos Aires Province Police. Papel Prensa, which at the time was not operational, received a significant injection of capital during a period of state receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
that ended in January 1978, and on September 27, its San Pedro
San Pedro, Buenos Aires
San Pedro, which full name is Rincon de San Pedro Dávila de los Arrecifes, is a city and port of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the side of the Parana River. It's the head city of the Partido de San Pedro, which also includes the following settlements: Rio Tala, Gobernador Castro,...
facility was inaugurated, substituting around US$90 million annually in newsprint imports. The private shareholders of Papel Prensa, including Graiver's widow, were ultimately indemnified by President Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
's administration in 1985.
The Clarín Media Group
Grupo Clarín
Grupo Clarín is the largest media conglomerate of Argentina.-Overview:Established as such in 1999, it includes the Clarín newspaper , Papel Prensa , the Artear media company, and numerous other media outlets.Rooted in the successful, 1945 launch of the centrist daily,...
acquired La Razón and its corrponding shares in Papel Prensa in 2000, raising its stake to 49 percent; the Argentine government maintained its 27.5% share.
Renewed accusations
Amid a series of political controversies between Clarín and KirchnerismControversies between Clarín and Kirchnerism
The Argentine media corporation Grupo Clarín and the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner have been involved in a number of controversies since 2008...
, Papaleo testified in 2010 to having been personally threatened by Clarín executive Héctor Magnetto
Héctor Magnetto
Héctor Horacio Magnetto is an Argentine executive associated with the Clarín Group, the country's largest media company.-Life and career:...
during the sale, and subsequently tortured by police to forfeit further payment, as well as her remaining shares in La Opinión. Charges were filed to the effect of the sale's alleged illegality by the federal government in August 2010, a decision the company's directors claimed was a government attempt to control the still-significant newspaper media. Papaleo, however, recanted her testimony within days, affirming simply that she had been pressured to sell her shares, though never under duress. This latter assertion was echoed by Isidoro Graiver (her brother-in-law) and by María Sol Graiver (the couple's daughter). Her brother, Osvaldo Papaleo, reiterated claims that the sale of Graiver's Papel Prensa shares was arranged under pain of death, and that ulterior motives explained the recent retractions. A joint declaration by Clarín and La Nación dismissed those reports: they pointed that the kidnappings and the Papel Prensa operation had already been investigated after the democratic restoration of 1983. Justice had not found by then any link between the Gravier kidnapping and the operation, nor any irregularity in it. Lidia and Osvaldo Papaleo and Rafael Lanover had declared to the justice the abuses made against them by the dictatorship, and did not report by then any of the things that they reported in 2010. Bartolomé Mitre (director of La Nación) and Héctor Magnetto (CEO of Clarín) accused the Secretary of Human Rights of tampering with the 1988 judicial ruling, adding new lines absent in the original, that would point an alleged favoritism from the Junta towards their newspapers. For instance, a line in the original document said "The problem with the price, however, is intrascendent to the scope of this body, and, besides, it was accepted by the sellers -The Gravier Group- and has only been mentioned to prove the hurry to negotiate". According to Mitre and Magnetto, the period was surreptitiously turned into a comma, followed by "and the existence of a single buyer imposed or chosen by the national authorities".
These controversies coincided with a highly politicized six-month work stoppage at the San Pedro plant amid accusations of abnormanlly high pay for managerial staff. The strike ended following wage increases agreed to in early December.
Newspaper circulation declined in Argentina after the 1970s, and in 2009 Papel Prensa produced 170,000 tons of newsprint annually (75% of the Argentine market) for 170 dailies.