Argentina: Macri Indicted and Banned from Leaving the Country

Argentinian ex-president Mauricio Macri will be prosecuted in a high-profile spying case, according to the courts. | Photo: Twitter/@TRTWorldNow

Published 1 December 2021

Opinion

The West and the Majority World - Repression Versus Openn...

by teleSUR/MS

Texas National Guard on the border with Mexico, 2024.

Migration, Trump, Biden and What is to Come

by Jose Cabañas Rodriguez

The former president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), was indicted by his country's justice system in the case investigating the alleged spying on the relatives of the crew of the Navy submarine (ARA) San Juan, sunk in 2017.

It was also made known that Judge Martin Bava charged the former president for 100 million pesos (approximately one million dollars) and has been banned from leaving the country. Since the former president is currently in Chile, such a decision will take effect as soon as he returns to Argentina.

Furthermore, he will not be allowed to leave his usual place of residence for more than ten days without notifying the court beforehand and, in case of "any change of address," he will have to inform Bava.

RELATED:

Argentina: 2 Intelligence Directors Prosecuted For Espionage

According to the accusations, the former president was the one who authorized the illegal spying on the relatives of the 44 victims. Therefore, he is "criminally responsible for the crime of carrying out prohibited intelligence actions as the perpetrator" in "ideal concurrence with the crime of abuse of authority of a public official," according to the judicial resolution to which La Nación had access.

The case against the former president was initiated when an auditor of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), Cristina Caamaño, filed a lawsuit in 2020. In the course of the process, it became known that surveillance tasks were coordinated against the relatives of the crew members from the AFI base in Mar del Plata. These tasks were carried out without judicial authorization or any valid justification.

Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri has been charged with illegally spying on relatives of sailors whose submarine sank in 2017, a loss that was one of the most embarrassing incidents of his presidency. https://t.co/6PZBGWFsAW
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 1, 2021

The events occurred while the submarine was still missing. The surveillance was carried out "with the aim of anticipating to the highest authority of the State at that time, what would be the claims of the collective of relatives, who at that time were the protagonists of one of the most important national issues," as stated in Bava's previous resolution.

Macri is not the only one prosecuted in this case. It includes eleven more people, including the former heads of the AFI in Macri's administration, Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani. The two former operational directors of Counterintelligence of the AFI, Martín Coste and Diego Dalmau Pereyra, were also indicted.

The ARA San Juan submarine disappeared on November 15, 2017, and only one year later, it was found at a depth of 907 meters and 600 kilometers from Comodoro Rivadavia, not far from the area where its last signals were recorded.