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News > Argentina

Argentina’s Ex-President Macri Refuses to Appear Before Justice

  • Former President Mauricio Macri, Argentina.

    Former President Mauricio Macri, Argentina. | Photo: Twitter/ @TRIBUNAcomar

Published 20 October 2021
Opinion

Mauricio Macri would have ordered illegal intelligence tasks whose purpose was to know the actions of the relatives of the crew members of a submarine disappeared in 2017.

On Tuesday, Argentina's former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) announced that he will not attend the judicial investigation for spying on the relatives of the 44 sailors who died in the submarine ARA San Juan.

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“I will not allow rights to be violated and power abused with political intentions... For this reason, I will not appear tomorrow until my lawyer's proposals are resolved to guarantee me due process and defense in court,” he tweeted, vowing that he “never spied or asked to spy on the relatives.”

Previously, Dolores Federal Judge Martin Bava decided to summon Macri to testify and prohibited him from leaving the country. According to the former President, however, this judge is an incompetent official who responds to the interests of the President Alberto Fernandez’s administration.

"From the first minute, Judge Bava violated my guarantees, and he got involved in a case that should not be investigated in Dolores and in which I have nothing to do with it. It is... an arbitrary accusation seeking to persecute me," the ex-president said.

Between 2017 and 2018, Macri would have ordered illegal intelligence tasks whose purpose was to know the actions of the relatives of the crew members of the submarine. According to the summons to the investigation, this espionage sought to influence the country's political and institutional situation and the claims made by the relatives.

The submarine ARA San Juan disappeared in Nov. 2017 and was found by the company Ocean Infinity in 2018. The remains of the ship and the corpses of its crew, however, were never refloated.

In 2019, a Parliament's investigative commission determined that the Navy chain of command had shared responsibilities in the irregularities related to the disappearance and search of the submarine. In Sep. 2020, the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) denounced that former President Macri, his former intelligence chief Gustavo Arribas, and official Silvia Majdalani were involved in illegal espionage actions.

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