The Government of Bolivia informed this Monday the discovery of 40 thousand ammunition, out of a total of 70 thousand, irregularly sent to that country during the administration of Mauricio Macri, in the days in which the coup d’état against former Bolivian president Evo Morales took place, in a fact that is being investigated by the Argentine justice system as alleged contraband.
The finding was confirmed by the Argentine ambassador to Bolivia, Ariel Basteirowho explained that it is about 40,000 ammunition that was in the possession of the Bolivian Air Force, in addition to the 26,900 found last year in the hands of the police of that country, out of a total of 70,000 sent by the Government of Let’s switch to Bolivia in November 2019.
“This confirms all the evidence of the crime,” Basteiro expressed, in dialogue with El Destape Radio.
In statements to Télam, the ambassador considered that these 40,000 ammunition found “reinforce the complaint of smuggling” and even join “other elements that continue to confirm” the commission of this crime.
For example, he mentioned “meetings of the Argentine Embassy (at the time of Cambiemos) with other embassies in which they spoke of preparing the ground for a coup to advance” against Morales.
Similarly, judicial sources considered that it is a “significant advance for the judicial investigation” and stressed that, although the answer is not complete, it clears up questions that existed about the fate of the supplies.
The Bolivian Government of Luis Arce found the anti-riot bullets that were delivered to the Bolivian Air Force (FAB) in the early morning of November 13, 2019 and that they had been distributed “in different barracks and organizations” of the FAB.
The discovery of the ammunition is part of a warrant that the Bolivian justice sent to Argentina.
The document consists of a series of reports that show that the then de facto government of Jeanine Áñez -after the expulsion of Morales from the Bolivian Presidency- received the weapons material sent irregularly by the macrista management.
In Argentina, Judge Alejandro Catania seeks to reconstruct the fate of the anti-riot munitions that left Argentina with the supposed purpose of being used in the defense of the Argentine embassy headquarters in La Paz and the residence of the ambassador, but that would have been diverted to other hands.
In Bolivia, in addition, it is being investigated whether the ammunition sent by the government of Mauricio Macri was used in the repression of the popular demonstrations that took place in the streets of that country against the blow dealt to the Morales administration.
Justice seeks to determine what material was downloaded from that November 2019 flightwho downloaded it, where it was taken and what documentation exists about it.
so still It is expected to receive from Bolivia the documentation supporting the incriminating papers that are already in the file because they were provided by the complainants.
The facts that gave rise to this investigation were denounced on July 12 through a presentation signed by the Minister of Justice, Martín Soria; the then Minister of Security, Sabina Frederic, and the head of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), Mercedes Marcó del Pont.
In the file are imputed the former president Macri; his Ministers of Security and Defense, Patricia Bullrich and Oscar Aguad; the then ambassador to Bolivia, Normando Álvarez García; the former director general of the Gendarmerie Gerardo José Otero; and the then directors of Logistics and Operations of that force, Rubén Carlos Yavorski and Carlos Miguel Recalde, respectively.
The prosecutor of the Economic Criminal jurisdiction Claudio Navas Rial also charged former Cambiemos administration officials Marcos Peña (Chief of Staff), Jorge Faurie (Foreign Minister) and Fulvio Pompeo (Secretary of Strategic Affairs of the Nation).
The Gendarmerie commander Adolfo Héctor Caliba was also accused in the file, indicated as the one who coordinated with the Bolivian Police the sending of repressive elements during the days in which the coup against Morales took place.
