Alberto Fernández has already signed the decree and the Government will control the Witness Protection program again

Ignacio Ortelli

02/19/2020 - 19:46

• Clarín.com
• Politics

In the next few hours, President Alberto Fernández will reverse with one of the last decisions that Mauricio Macri had taken: he will move forward with the repeal of the decree of necessity and urgency that transformed the Witness and Imputed Protection Program into an integrated autarkic Agency by representative of the three powers of the State.

This was confirmed by Clarín by high official sources, who pointed out that Alberto F. has already signed his signature for the repeal of DNU 795/19. And that its publication in the Official Gazette is imminent.

On November 28, 11 days after leaving power and in the midst of controversy with Kirchnerism and the rejection of Justice, Macri created an agency and ordered it to be conducted by an official with the rank of national director, proposed by the Ministry of Justice and elected by the National Executive Power; and by an advisory council composed of the president of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation , and a representative of the Attorney General's Office and another of the Ministry of Security.

Among the arguments enumerated in the text of the decree signed by Fernández, it is recalled that the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation ruled on the decree and expressed its concern "for the compatibility of its application in relation to the constitutional and legal powers" of that chamber.

On the other hand, he maintains that when Macri made the decision “there were no exceptional circumstances” to sign the DNU, as provided in article 99, paragraph 3 of the National Constitution to avoid the ordinary procedure for the enactment of a law in Congress.

" There are no objective elements that support the reasons of need and urgency that lead to the dictation of this tool," argues the text. And remember that the program "remained unchanged for more than 16 years, until days before the end of the previous government's mandate."

For that reason, he points out that “the institutional design of the program should be restored, as created by the law that gave rise to it”. That is, by 25,764, of 2003, and 27,304, of the "effective collaborator" sanctioned in 2016 under the previous government. In this way, and although progress was not made in the implementation of the Agency, from the formal point of view, the program will once again remain under the Executive's orbit , through the Ministry of Justice conducted by Marcela Losardo.

Macri's decision came after, after the triumph of the Front of All in the elections of October 27 , a group of witnesses conveyed their concern about the change of government, the possibility of leaking data on his whereabouts and It was the axis of reprisals by former and current officials injured by their testimony.

The concrete thing is that the Witness and Imputed Program has more than 200 people under this regime, but only about 15 witnesses who entered into the framework of corruption investigations such as Ciccone or the cause of the notebooks.

In this last group are the former Secretary of Public Works José López, arrested infraganti when he transferred 9 million dollars to a convent of General Rodríguez; Oscar Centeno, driver of Roberto Baratta, number 2 of Julio de Vido in Federal Planning and whose notebook of the coimas was the road map that Justice used to advance the investigation; and Alejandro Vandenbroele, whose testimony was key in the file for the purchase of the former Calconeo Ciccone.

Precisely, days ago, Justice initiated an investigation to determine if, under the Witness Protection program, Vandenbroele received payments for 1.5 million pesos to open a boutique hotel in Mendoza and if that eventual disbursement influenced his statement against former Vice President Amado Boudou.