International pressure kept the Menem government from passing a series of restrictive press laws. In 1997, an Argentine photojournalist was murdered in a manner reminiscent of the death squads of the 1970s. A well-known businessman with extensive ties to Menem s inner circle and, allegedly, organized crime was accused of instigating the outrage. The businessman committed suicide in 1998 after convincing testimony linked him to the murder. In May 1999, a crusading editor of a Patagonian weekly was also murdered.
Labor is dominated by Peronist unions.
Union influence, however, has diminished because of corruption scandals, internal divisions, and restrictions on public sector strikes decreed by Menem to pave the way for his privatization program. In 1998, a deadlocked congress approved a government-sponsored labor flexibility initiative after a congressional deputy allegedly filmed by state intelligence agents in a gay bordello the agents operated changed positions on the measure and voted for it. Menem s authoritarian ways and manipulation of the judiciary have resulted in the undermining of the country s separation of powers and the rule of law. In 1990, Menem pushed a bill through the Peronist-controlled senate that allowed him to stack the supreme court with an additional four members and to fill the judiciary with politically loyal judges. He used the supreme court to uphold decrees removing the comptroller general and other officials mandated to probe government wrongdoing.