Bernardo Vazquez
04/24/2021 8:32 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 04/24/2021 8:32 PM
The Minister of Transportation Mario Meoni was fired on Saturday in Junín by his relatives, his closest friends and the President of the Nation Alberto Fernández, among others, after a brief ceremony, which included the wake at the Dos Reis house, and the later burial in the Parque Rosedal cemetery, in the Buenos Aires town.
Hundreds of people came to say
goodbye to the 56-year-old official, who died on Friday night
, after starring in an accident with his car on Route 7, near San Andrés de Giles, where he overturned near 22.30. The car that moved Meoni's body passed through the Sarmiento club stadium, of which the minister was a fan, in one of the most emotional moments of the day, and then through the municipality of Junín, a party of which he was mayor from 2003 to 2015.
For a while at least,
the political rift was pushed aside
. Beyond the multiple messages of condolences published by opposition leaders on social networks, there were other gestures that reflected this.
Pablo Petrecca, current mayor of Junín, decreed three days of mourning
from 10:30 on Saturday. Petrecca belongs to the PRO and is the one who beat Meoni in the last two elections as mayor.
Alberto Fernández traveled by helicopter after noon
directly to the cemetery, where Meoni's remains were buried.
The President was accompanied by his partner,
Fabiola Yáñez,
the Secretary General
Julio Vitobello and
his spokesman
Juan Pablo Biondi
.
In addition, among the ministers present stood out
the Chief of Cabinet
Santiago Cafiero,
that of Tourism and Sports,
Matías Lammens,
and the Public Works,
Gabriel Katopodis
.
The person in charge of articulating both ceremonies with the Meoni family was
Sergio Massa
, a close friend of the minister, who traveled the same night of his death to San Andrés de Giles.
Fernández had fired Meoni through social networks shortly after the news of his death was known.
On Saturday morning, however, the President gave an interview to Radio 10 in which, with a broken voice, he regretted his loss, which he considered "enormous."
"Believe me, I lose someone ... ufff.
I loved him very much and he was really valuable
. He was one of those specimens of politics who are purebred, but who give their best with effort, commitment, honesty and solidarity," described the President, who he learned the news through Sergio Massa.
He commented, in that sense, that "with Sergio (Massa)
we always talked to him and told him to stop traveling to Junín on Friday nights
, because he had the habit of driving his car and leaving alone. We were always concerned because he was not a minister who finished work at five in the afternoon, hopefully he would leave his office at ten ".
The head of state recalled that they always told him: "'Stop, that at some point our bodies fail us.'
When Sergio called me at one-thirty in the morning and we cried together saying why don't we just go ball? By God
. "
He added: "He never lost the concept of ordinary people, so driving his car with Sergio we were saying.. 'Loco, pará, do not you can go to ten p.m. on Fridays handling Junin' But
one day life betrayed him
. "
According to the first data that the autopsy showed,
Meoni would have died due to a great loss of blood due to the impact
.
In medical terms, the Transport Minister suffered "
hypovolemic shock
."
For its part, on Saturday afternoon the
Transportation Safety Board (JST)
released a report with details of the fatal accident at kilometer 112 of Route 7, in San Andrés de Giles.
"The JST investigators carried out a first inspection of the accident site, the initial photographic survey of the road and the surroundings was carried out. In addition, among other actions, measurements were taken of the traces present in the place and the accident vehicle. carried out the evaluation of the climatic conditions. All the documentation related to the event was also requested from the different authorities, "the text says.
One of the most moved was
Massa
.
Meoni's friend since 1999, when both entered the Buenos Aires legislature, one as a Peronist and the other as a radical, he
was the first to know the news of his death
, and also to communicate it.
At 22.40 on Friday they sent a message to his cell phone from the Ministry of Security of the Province of Buenos Aires in which they warned him about an accident with a deceased in San Andrés de Giles and asked him if he could check if it was Meoni, Since inside the Ford Mondeo he was driving there was documentation from the Ministry of Transportation.
Just two minutes later, they sent him a photo to corroborate the identity and he confirmed it. From that moment,
Massa began to search for the family and called the President to communicate the sad news
. They contacted the ceremonial personnel of the Ministry and also Valeria Arata, a deputy from the Buenos Aires province of the Frente Renovador, to go to Junín, to the home of the Meoni family.
Then,
with Malena Galmarini
, his wife, and owner of AySA, they
traveled directly by car to San Andrés de Giles, where the incident occurred
. There, they waited two hours for the Scientific Police and the expert who should verify the death to arrive, and around three in the morning Meoni's body was transferred to Junín, where they would later perform an autopsy.
Later, Massa returned to Tigre and from six o'clock he began to tell his team what decision Laura Oliva, Meoni's wife, had made about how the wake and burial would be.
At 7.20 a.m. the dialogue with Alberto Fernández took place, in which both cried for the loss of Meoni
and shortly after Massa traveled to Junín in a rented helicopter to coordinate both ceremonies with Oliva, Meoni's twin children, Robertino and Felipe. 16 years old, and the minister's brother.
