Ignacio Ortelli
02/16/2020 - 16:40
- Clarín.com
- Politics
It is not - nor will it be - the most scandalous case of corruption but it is symptomatic of the difficulties the political class has in discerning the public from the partisan . In the framework of the revision of the last decisions adopted by the previous management that Alberto Fernández ordered, the Government initiated an internal summary and denounced the disappearance of the archives containing the audiovisual material of the presidential acts during the entire presidency of Mauricio Macri.
Strictly speaking, these are eight rigid disks of between 4 and 6 terabytes of capacity that, according to the preliminary report that initiated an internal investigation, contained "the archives of all presidential events since the inauguration of President Macri."
The summary, which Clarín agreed exclusively, points to Sophia Feroce, national director of Project Production and Monitoring who until December 2015 reported to the chief of staff, Marcos Peña, and was the political authority in the area.
“On December 9, part of the employees noticed that Sophia Feroce was removing the records. Afterwards, it was commented that at that time she said she was wearing them because they had sensitive material , ”said the document, written by the staff in the area of transmissions.
The presentation reached the highest levels of the communication area of the new Government and the Secretary of Communication and Press - and presidential spokesman - Juan Pablo Biondi, who ordered Feroce on several occasions to urge her to return the records. It was before Alberto Fernández's tour of Europe. According to sources aware of these contacts, the former official, who is currently working at the PRO headquarters in Balcarce at 400, had promised to do so, but finally did not.
“We decided to wait a few weeks to formalize the process, because the intention is not to generate problems for anyone. We do not believe in the judicialization of politics. That's why he was given time. But we need to recover the material and we didn't get an answer. So it was already formally given to the Legal area ”, they exhibited at Casa Rosada.
The officials involved in the summary suspect that it is not only the need of the Macri political team to have archival images of the former president. “The originals and copies are missing. Obviously there was something they didn't want us to see, ”they reason.
In that sense, they expose the contradiction in the behavior of the referent of the area, which appears in the summary. “After the elections of October 27, 2019, an informational meeting was held regarding the steps to be taken in case of wanting to carry out different procedures due to the change of Government. During that meeting Alfredo Di Tomaso (in charge of the technical part of the Casa Rosada transmissions) asked Sophia Feroce what they were going to do with the file and she informed herself that it was left, that there was no problem ”, details the summary.
Sources from the former Chief of Staff - in charge of the area - consulted by Clarín , indicated that there was no political order to withdraw the material.
And they frame the complaint in a possible revenge of employees of the area against Feroce. "They grab it with her because we lower wages and cut overtime," they relativize.
The funny thing is that, before Clarin's consultation , Feroce said "do not remember" having taken the material. He maintained that he is “traveling” and that on his return he will “fix” if he has them. “When I return I will see if I have them. I took my things, the backup of my computer. Why do I want that material, which is uploaded to YouTube ? ”He replied. And although he explained that he had “no problem” with the staff, he admitted to being aware of videos that circulated on December 10, where a group that worked under his area is seen giving him insults, in the middle of an improvised celebration in the roofs of Casa Rosada.
The concrete thing is that to accompany the summary, and advised by the legal department, Di Tomaso - his former subordinate - made a certificate of loss at the 1D Neighborhood Police Station of the City of Buenos Aires, in which he reports what happened and It even details the serial numbers of the discs , which according to the inventory were acquired under purchase order 1009/2019.
The estimated cost of each disc, always according to the summary, ranges from 16 thousand pesos.
In the Government, just as they questioned the reforms that were made in Casa Rosada, they argue that "it is not an economic issue." "The cultural heritage of the State is affected , since these discs contain the original material and the copy of the activities of a President, which are of public interest."
It is that, given this situation, they point out, today they are not in a position to process a request for material from the General Archive of the Nation or even from the National Library . "There is no record 'raw', only what was left on YouTube," they say.