According to Macri’s defense, “there is not a single conduct described in time, manner and place” that could lead to any crime on the part of the former president.
The former Argentine president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) defended his innocence on Wednesday in the case in which the alleged illegal espionage during his government is being investigated, just eleven days before the South American country holds legislative elections.
The investigation, led by magistrate Martín Bava, dates back to September 2020, when the Federal Intelligence Agency, already with the Peronist Alberto Fernández as president, denounced that the previous government carried out illegal espionage on relatives of the 44 crew members of the ARA submarine San Juan de la Armada, found sunk in 2018 after a year missing.
In the judicial summons before Judge Bava, which was held in the courts of the Buenos Aires city of Dolores (200 kilometers south of Buenos Aires), the defense of the ex-president stressed that Macri “neither spied nor ordered to spy” on the relatives of the victims of the submarine.
“Macri did not find folders with transcripts of illegal wiretapping in the possession of anyone,” said the lawyer for the former president, Pablo Lanusse, after the conclusion of the hearing, which lasted for almost an hour.
Political interference
During the appearance, the second in just a week, Macri did not answer questions from the judge and limited himself to submitting a brief, in which he considered himself to be “processed” before the legislative elections on November 14 for the alleged offense. of impartiality of the judge.
“We are in the presence of a judge manifestly incompetent in every sense, a judge who does not have impartiality and a judge who in recent days demonstrated and exposed his dependence on the Executive Power and the dark political powers behind this case,” denounced Lanusse.
According to Macri’s defense, “there is not a single conduct described in time, manner and place ”that could lead to any crime on the part of the former president.
“We have offered evidence to demonstrate the fanciful, whimsical and arbitrary pseudo-construction of non-existent facts with which they want to impute him and with those who clearly want to prosecute him without any content or proof of Mauricio Macri,” he said.
This situation occurs in the middle of the campaign for the legislative elections of November 14, in which Macri is not running for any political office, but his coalition comes with an advantage after being the most voted in the primaries last September.
Second appearance
The first appearance of the former president for this cause, which took place on October 28, could not be held since Macri had not been relieved of the obligation to keep secrecy in intelligence matters in his capacity as former head of state.
However, a day later the current president, Alberto Fernández, signed a decree exonerating his predecessor from that duty, allowing the magistrate to summon Macri again.
In the brief presented before the judge, Macri lamented the “absolutely record way” with which President Fernández wrote that decree, demonstrating the alleged “leading role” of the Government in this case.
Disqualification requests
The suspension of the appearance last Thursday resulted in a challenge against Judge Bava presented by the former president’s lawyer, which is already in the hands of the Federal Chamber of Mar del Plata, which will determine on November 12 if the judge continues or not at the forefront of this cause.
Despite this, Judge Bava maintained his appearance on Wednesday, demonstrating, in the opinion of Macri’s defense, his political intentions.
“Judge Bava had in his hands the key to supposedly demonstrate to the entire Argentine society what it claims for itself and what it lacks, which is its non-existent impartiality and independence, because it could have postponed the declaration to November 20 and give the House time to decide whether to keep it, “warned Lanusse.
The accusation
These appearances by Macri in Dolores are the first since he left power, after losing the 2019 elections to Alberto Fernández and the former president and now vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The ex-president faces charges for allegedly having “ordered and made possible the systematic performance of illegal” intelligence tasks, which “sought to influence the political and institutional situation of the country”, specifically regarding the claims made by relatives for the sinking of the submarine, as well as knowing your data and those of your environment, and your activities.
After a year of unsuccessful searches – which included help from various countries – the ARA San Juan was found, in November 2018, in an operation by the American company Ocean Infinity, although its remains and the corpses of its crew were not refloated.
Almost three years later, the judicial investigation continues to clarify what happened and detect if there were irregularities in his disappearance and search. (I)
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