Former officials of the Buenos Aires administration of María Eugenia Vidal were denounced this Monday before the Justice after the discovery of videos in which meetings of the then Minister of Labor Marcelo Villegas were recorded, who promoted the setting up of cases against union leaders.
The criminal complaint was filed this Monday by the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), led by Cristina Camano, before the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court of La Plata 3, headed by Ernesto Kreplak, it was officially reported.
“They left in evidence the existence of a judicial table in Buenos Aires that sought to reach an agreement to destroy the union movement, “Caamano said in dialogue with Télam, shortly before making the judicial presentation.
Presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti reported that President Alberto Fernández had instructed Caamano to appear before the Justice in order to investigate the possible commission of crimes.
“In a routine procedure for cleaning hard drives, the AFI found recordings of a 2017 meeting at Banco Provincia in which Buenos Aires officials belonging to the Vidal government agreed to set up cases against union members,” Cerruti reported. from their social networks.
Caamano remarked that in These footage shows “a meeting on June 15, 2017, where there is a judicial table in the province of Buenos Aires armed by Vidal’s mafia.”
According to Caamano, the then Minister of Labor from Buenos Aires (Marcelo Villegas), the Minister of Infrastructure (Roberto Gigante) and the former Deputy Secretary of Justice of the province (Adrián Grassi) participated in that meeting, as well as a senator (Juan Pablo Allan), the mayor of La Plata (Julio Garro) and five construction businessmen.
They were Marcelo Jaworski, CEO of Copetro; Fabián Cusini, builder and real estate organizer, president of Agrineco; Fernando Sacrachi, director of ACIP; Guillermo Moretto, president of the College of Architects of La Plata, three people who could not be identified and three others only mentioned by their first names.
“They talk about a Gestapo to end the unions, that is what the one who was Minister of Labor says, it is like a doctor who says he wants to kill patients, or a teacher who does not want to teach writing or reading, is all that is bad what is said in that meeting “, said the auditor.
In that sense, he added: “Justice has to determine it but apparently Vidal has responsibility in this, since if his ministers are holding such a meeting it is difficult for the governor not to know it.”
Part of the video by which the AFI will denounce Vidal’s management. The former Minister of Labor, Villegas asks businessmen to denounce the Pata Medina and tells them: “We have checked with the Procuratorate, with the prosecution, with the judge, that this is going to work.” pic.twitter.com/Ly3MxB2PD4
– Rosario Ayerdi (@rosarioa) December 27, 2021
For Cerruti, meanwhile, “the mere mention of a ‘Gestapo to end unionism’ recalls the worst times in this country. The rule of law must govern for everyone, regardless of their ideology or actions.. It is a debate that Argentine society settled when it embraced democracy in 1983, “he added.
After noting that “it is not indifferent either that the participants (ministers, a mayor, businessmen and secretaries of State) show off having ‘everything agreed’ with the Procurator General of the province, Julio Conte Grand, the judge and the prosecutor”, Cerruti stated that “the circumstances in which this filming took place should also be investigated to corroborate whether it was a modus operandi of the previous government to carry out illegal espionage on the meetings that were taking place in public buildings.”
The footage shows Villegas giving assurances to the businessmen present of the implementation of a strategy coordinated with the Judicial Power and endorsed by “Nation and province” pTo promote an investigation and prosecute union leaders in the construction sector.
In the audios, the then Minister Villegas is heard saying: “Believe me that, if I could have it, and this I will deny it anywhere, if I could have a Gestapo, an onslaught force to end all the unions , I would”.
Also, according to what is heard in the footage, the alleged plan was not directed only at the unions, but also at public workers.
The video with statements by the former Minister of Labor of Vidal, Marcelo Villegas, demonstrates once again the existence of a coordinated and illegal action between the Executive and sectors of the Judicial Power in the government of Cambiemos, to persecute political and union opponents.
– Julio Alak (@Julio_Alak) December 27, 2021
The information was found by the AFI in videos recorded during the meeting in a room of the Banco Provincia de La Plata and is part of the complaint filed this Monday morning by the inspector Caamano before the federal justice of La Plata, for the judge to carry out an investigation for alleged commission of a serious crime of public action.
“The laws are the laws, I have to modify Law 10,430, get stability from the public employees of the province, something that a grandson of mine will see in 100 years,” Villegas proclaimed.
According to the complaint to which Télam had access, in another of the extracts of the statements Villegas affirms: “The scheme is as follows, we need to pre-constitute a series of elements to promote a legal case, this legal case is promoted from the point of view of what is labor or from the point of view of more than labor, of threatens and these words are promoted with testimonies of about ten people that we are already working on them “.
“The presentations that you make to us as institutions, with that volume is given to a judicial instance from which the prosecutor, with all the support of the general attorney, has to be measures to generate more volume and then approve these measures. We have checked with the attorney, with the prosecution, with the judge that this is going to work, “Villegas completed his idea.
Three months after that meeting, on September 27, the head of the Uocra in La Plata, Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina, was arrested and on that occasion the business chambers and the former governor, María Eugenia Vidal, and former president Mauricio Macri they celebrated the situation.
“The threat is not the way; today there is no place for pressure; we are not going to live with that, there is a Justice that is not willing to live with that,” said the governor at that time.
