Daniel Santoro
02/28/2020 - 17:56
- Clarín.com
- Politics
Convinced of the implementation of an “institutional coup” against Justice, Elisa Carrió asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to act as a first step in defense of the protection system for witnesses and defendants in Argentina.
In a note sent yesterday to the president of the IACHR, Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, Carrió required that the historic inter-American organization " request reports and carry out regular and extended follow-up in time" on that program that should protect the repentant from the causes for corruption
The note is signed by Carrió, and his deputies Mariana Stilman, Juan Manuel López, Maximiliano Ferraro, Mariana Zuvic, Mónica Frade, Héctor Flores, Marcela Campagnoli, Ruben Manzi, Alicia Terada, Leonor Martinez Villada, María Lucila Lehmann, Laura Castets, Javier Campos and Paula Oliveto.
In 1979, the IACHR made its historic visit in which it collected, for the first time, complaints about missing persons during the military dictatorship. If the IACHR accepts the request, the Government must defend itself against these accusations in that international forum. The request was made at a time when internationally there are campaigns in defense of the so-called "whisteblowers" , whistleblowers such as the damned US soldier Chelsea Manning who leaked documents to Wikileaks.
Although Carrió will not make public appearances until the end of Lent for Holy Week for his religious convictions , his collaborators try with this and other measures to curb the “institutional coup against Justice” that Cristina Kirchner drives in her opinion.
Carrió told his collaborators that the “institutional coup against Justice, includes the pension reform (especially those due to changes in the law of substitution of judges), the dismantling of the witness protection program, the video of President Alberto Fernández talking about the theory of lawfare, the project to intervene Jujuy's justice, plus the initiative of Senators K to end preventive prisons and the D'Alessio case. "
This week, former vice-president of former Vice President Amado Boudou, Alejandro Vandenbroele, also denounced to the IACHR how his rights of accused-collaborator were violated with the leak of the agreement he had reached with Justice. The first to regret leaving the witness protection program, as soon as Kirchnerism won the elections last December, was financier Leonardo Fariña.
In the letter, Carrió - who on March 1 ceases to be a deputy but does not withdraw from politics - said that Cristina “ seeks impunity by violating the essential rights of witnesses and accused who require protection of their integrity and the safety of their families. " "We are facing a clear process of deactivation of the Witness Protection System and imputed collaborators, which is currently in charge of a National Directorate that operates within the scope of the Ministry of Justice of the Nation," he added.
He stressed that “Cristina Kirchner, is accused in more than one case for corruption (with two prosecutions against her and with an oral trial in process); and for that reason, he has a clear interest in that these causes do not prosper ”, as do other senior ex-officials of his former.
Then, he stressed in the letter that “it is obvious, that it should not be left in their hands or in the hands of their political partners, the fate and care of witnesses and imputed collaborators who have declared against their interests or interests from other former officials investigated. ”
He warned that the program was in the hands of the Vice Minister of Justice and former number two of the AFI Juan Martín Mena , prosecuted in the cause of the cover-up of Iran in the attack against the AMIA and thus “the witnesses and the accused will be subject to a reasonable fear about the future of your personal and family safety, as well as your outpatient freedom. Circumstances these that will undoubtedly impact and will surely condition them , before their future declarations. ” He then said that the confidential agreement with Vandenbroele was leaked by the Government to the K El Destapeweb media "with the clear purpose of exposing it and breaking its will ." "It is no accident that the cases in which secret information was published and disseminated are precisely those of those who repented against the political partners of President Fernández," he added.
"Clearly, this exposition frightens and puts at risk witnesses who have been key in the development and investigation of corruption causes of the governments of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, and " instructs all those who want to imitate their proceeding to collaborate with justice in those types of cases, ”added the note to the IACHR.
He recalled that former President Mauricio Macri signed decree 795/2019 (5) - which was not implemented - by which he created the National Agency for Protection of Witnesses and Defendants. At the same time, “our force has promoted a bill to modify the current law by providing for the transfer of the Program to the scope of the Judiciary ; institution that could become a dead letter with the new government, at least in relation to corruption offenses ”.
Decree 795/2019 gave greater hierarchy and independence to the director in charge of the National Witness Protection Agency, and created an Advisory Council composed of the President of the Court of Cassation, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Security. However, the decree of Macri 795/2019 has been repealed by the decree 168/2020 of President Alberto Fernández.
