Scandal in Salta: a series of chats would confirm that a deputy from La Cámpora was the mastermind behind creating fake news

More than 200 pages of conversations between national deputy Emiliano Estrada and his employees that appear in a court file would confirm that the leader of La Cámpora was the mastermind of a network of fake news to defame politicians, businessmen and journalists from Salta . The material is part of the case for public intimidation that is being processed by the federal court, in which four other people are also accused.

According to the investigation, Estrada used resources from the National Congress to finance these operations with salaries assigned to other functions. According to reports, the files, which include screenshots and conversations, show that he not only ordered the creation of fake accounts, but also defined the scripts for the videos, supervised their editing, established the publication schedules and coordinated their distribution.

The case was uncovered by Clarín and reveals that in June of last year, Estrada had requested the opening of an account called "El Desenmascarador" to launch a smear campaign against political adversaries. But the legislator completed his strategy by falsifying an account similar to that of the media outlet InformateSalta, called "Informante Salta", with the aim of giving greater credibility to the disinformation campaign.

The tests that complicate the situation of the Campora supporter arise from chats that had been deleted from cell phones and computers, but were able to be recovered and attached to the case. Specifically in these messages, Estrada gave direct orders on the management of the fake accounts, even ordering the elimination of evidence once the smear campaigns were already underway.

According to the messages that have been leaked, Estrada targeted Governor Gustavo Sáenz; the mayor of Orán, Baltasar Lara Gros; the provincial deputy Víctor Lamberto and the national deputy Pamela Calletti, who in one of the last sessions of the Lower House presented a question of privilege against the legislator of Unión por la Patria after accusing him of being the architect of a “fake news factory” .

At that time, Calletti, head of the Federal Innovation bloc, pointed out that this group "generated slander through videos that attacked politicians and journalists in Salta, and that linked them to drug trafficking." And she specified that two people who work in the Chamber of Deputies went to testify and confirmed having "fulfilled the requests of our boss Emiliano Estrada."

According to information provided by this newspaper, Florencia Inés Bustamante, an employee of Estrada in the Chamber of Deputies, confirmed in a statement before the court that it was the legislator who gave her "orders and directives for all the work."

He also admitted that he was involved in “creating” accounts on the social network Tik Tok “with the aim of specifically harming certain people in the media, business and political spheres.” What is commonly known as a dirty campaign.

Even when the scandal broke out, the Campora supporter tried to pass himself off as one of the victims of fake news and published a video in which he criticized him, with the aim of diverting the investigation.

Estrada was Juan Manuel Urtubey's Minister of Economy and candidate for vice-governor of Kirchnerist senator Sergio “Oso” Leavy, but then he ended up getting closer to Kirchnerism and in 2021 he was one of the candidates of the organization headed by Máximo Kirchner, and thus he gained access to the seat in the Lower House.