What we learned this week
LABOUR PAINS WORSEN FOR MOYANO
In the countdown to next Wednesday’s labour protest march, which will be headed by former CGT chief Hugo Moyano, potential support seems to have dwindled while the judicial pressures on the teamster mounted as a federal judge ordered his family’s banking secrecy to be lifted. Luis Barrionuevo, head of the Blue and White CGT (the smallest of Argentina’s three labour umbrella groupings), confirmed on Wednesday that he would not be joining the march since he felt that it had been diverted from its original aims into the defence of a rival leader. But rather more damaging to the protest’s success is the lack of support from transport workers – their main union UTA was the first to confirm that they would not be bringing the country to a halt and last week railwaymen also ratified, while reaching a wage agreement with the government, that they would be backing away from the protest. Moyano was harshly critical of the absences in advance as “traitors.” The Moyano family’s banking secrecy meanwhile was lifted by Morón Federal Judge Néstor Barral in the framework of a case concerning irregular real estate purchases but the main accusations centre on alleged money-laundering via massive cash flows between the teamsters union, OCA courier company and Independiente football club, all controlled directly or indirectly by Moyano. The protest has split the main CGT down the middle with only one of its three secretaries-general (Juan Carlos Schmid) backing the march but despite the open divisions the labour umbrella is not proposing to discuss a new leadership before May.