Exit the Butcher Boy

An old friend of President Juan Peron's recently returned from a visit to the U.S. and paid a call at Buenos Aires' government house. Peron asked what the people in North America thought of his regime "Well, Mr. President," replied the visitor, "they are worried about the lack of freedom in the Argentine press." "What do you mean?" said Peron. "We have freedom of the press. Just look at La Nacion and La Prensa. They attack me all the time. I read them every morning myself." The visitor answered: "This man Visca you have here has brought lots of bad publicity to Argentina. They say he goes around closing newspapers." Whereupon Peron pressed a button, barked an order through an interoffice microphone: "Get rid of Visca!"

Last week the President's order was executed. The Peronista press no longer reported the doings of Deputy Jose Emilio Visca, for six months the butcher-boy terror of the Argentine press (TIME, Jan. 16, Feb. 6, Feb. 27). In a new list of members of the congressional committee to investigate anti-Argentine activities, the press-purging committee over which Visca had presided, his name did not appear.

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