Venezuela trade case: Randazzo accuses media of making up bribe accusations http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/33141

(Argentine) Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said that accusations of alleged payments that Argentine businessmen had to make in order to do trade with Venezuela are related to the Media Law controversy.Talking about bribes is not correct because it's simply not true. Argentina increased its trade with Venezuela from $100 to $1.2 billion in the last few years," he explained, and added that those who traded products with the Bolivarian republic "deposited their money in a third party account, and with that Venezuela purchased Argentine goods."

Many companies have exported their products and they have all rejected the accusations, which were published in a nation-wide newspaper and respond the Media Law controversy," he stated.The Minister explained that the story was printed in many newspapers afterwards because "they are all functional to that paper," while explaining that the Government doesn't target journalists. "We repudiate their exposure ("escraches") just like we do with everybody else," Randazzo stressed.

Randazzo then said that the Government "has come up with a law that stimulates media democracy, that doesn't mean it's against journalism." Before closing, the Minister connected the accusations made by former Argentine Ambassador to Venezuela Eduardo Sadous to "a fight started by a few monopolic media groups who don't want the implementation of the Media Law, a law that was strongly debated in both Houses of Congress."