Lucia Salinas
05/31/2020 - 22:21
- Clarín.com
- Politics
Man of extreme confidence of Cristina Kirchner, Juan Martín Mena -co charged in the Pact with Iran with the current vice president-, is one of the key pieces in the judicial reform promoted by the government and whose main objective is the cleaning of Comodoro Py where the former president accumulates nine elevated cases to oral trial (seven of which are in corruption cases). In addition, the Secretary of Justice was gaining ground in determining places in the Ministry led by Marcela Losardo.
The last one was one of the arm wrestles that Juan Martín Mena won within the Ministry of Justice. He opposed the decision of the head of the portfolio to appoint Emiliano Blanco as undersecretary for Penitentiary Affairs. The confrontation led to the presentation of his resignation as Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, a position that Blanco currently holds. It has not yet been notified if the resignation was accepted or rejected, a decision that must be made by President Alberto Fernández, amid the inmate declared in the Ministry of Justice.
Mena's political career does not exempt him from his last post prior to December 2015, when the government of Cristina Kirchner ended. It was the second of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI). The reform of this body, which is well known to the current Secretary of Justice, is another of the objectives of the current administration.
His intervener Cristina Caamano denounced the previous authorities and former President Mauricio Macri for violation of correspondence and violation of the computer system, that is, for illegal espionage tasks. This resulted in an indictment against the former leaders and those who managed the AFI.
Apart from this situation, there were other areas in which Mena gained power during these months. When the Government decided to leave under the orbit of the Ministry of Justice the program of Witnesses and protected defendants made up of some defendants in causes of corruption who testified against the vice president, this system was under his command as secretary of Justice.
On the program are people like Oscar Centeno, Roberto Baratta's former driver and one of the main witnesses to the case known as the notebooks of bribes. Also, former Secretary of Public Works José López who declared before the court that Cristina Kirchner was aware of the cartelization mechanism for public works. Laura Muñoz, ex-wife of Alejandro Vanderbroele, another of the repentants in a case linked to the Ciccone case where Amado Boudou is convicted, is also part of this system that Mena controls.
In all this progress, a central issue and in which the former deputy director of the AFI intervenes, is the judicial reform that essentially points to Comodoro Py where corruption cases are investigated, and where Cristina Kirchner accumulates nine files raised to oral trial.
This modification of the Judicial Power has in principle the intention of expanding the number of courts in the federal courts. Of the twelve, the number could go 46 in total. But it also seeks to review the number of the Supreme Court and the Council of the Magistracy.