Human rights organizations demanded this Tuesday a “full investigation” of the trip that magistrates, Buenos Aires officials and media businessmen made last October to Lago Escondido, where the British tycoon Joe Lewis owns a ranch, they asked the Judicial Council to analyze whether the act constitutes a bribery crime and announced that They will request a hearing from the members of the Supreme Court of Justice.
In a press conference that they offered this Tuesday at the exEsma property for International Human Rights Day, which was commemorated last Saturday, the organizations warned that “democracy is at risk” and they asked the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, for the “removal” of the Security Minister, Marcelo D’Alessandro, and the Buenos Aires City Attorney, Juan Bautista Mahiques, involved in that trip that is being investigated by the Federal Justice of Bariloche.
These requirements were formulated in the framework of the press conference where a document was read to which more than 40 human rights organizations from all over the country adhered.
Present there were the Secretary for Human Rights, Horacio Pietragalla Corti, and members of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Founding Line, Relatives of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons, and representatives of other organizations.
“Human rights organizations are going to request a hearing from the Supreme Court of Justice. We demand a complete investigation of the trip to Lago Escondido; we support and urge making the pertinent complaints before the Council of the Magistracy, and we consider that there should be a trial academic to Julián Ercolini. We also request (Horacio) Rodríguez Larreta the removal of the officials involved in the event,” they said in the document.
In that sense, It was recalled that it was the human rights organizations that managed to get the Supreme Court to “go back” with the application of the 2×1 criterion to facilitate the release of those convicted of crimes against humanity.
“We count on the popular mobilization to defeat the ‘lawfare’ and, in this way, end the persecution of the comrade (vice president) Cristina (Fernández de Kirchner), and of society as a whole,” they remarked.
Before the reading, Pietragalla Corti maintained that “We are in a context where we have to reflect” and that “puts us on alert.”
Next, the reading of the document was in charge of the referent of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Founding Line, Taty Almeida, and Mabel Careaga, daughter of Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, one of the founders of the entity.
The reading was also accompanied by the Nobel Peace Prize, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; the president of Relatives of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons, Lita Boitano from a table set up on the property, where the slogan “If there is ‘lawfare’, there is no democracy” could be read.
? We share the Document that was read this morning at the press conference given by human rights organizations and the Human Rights Secretariat, within the framework of Human Rights Day.
➡️https://t.co/2xb0wAEkn3 pic.twitter.com/1wuCSCy1XA– Grandmothers Plaza Mayo (@abuelasdifusion) December 13, 2022
A poster could also be seen there demanding the release of the detained Jujuy social leader – a reference to the Tupac Amaru – Milagro Sala group.
“In recent times we are experiencing moments that fill us with fear. A few weeks ago, the whole of society saw in the foreground how an attempt was made to assassinate our Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,” they said in the text, referring to the assassination attempt that took place. last September 1st.
Faced with this act of political violence, “only comparable to that carried out during the dictatorship,” they denounced that “the most questioned sector of federal justice chose to bias the investigation and not deepen the leads.”
“Without justice, there is no democracy; without democracy, there are no human rights”
“Now, through a shameful ruling, the judicial sector itself is trying to ban Cristina Fernández de Kirchner,” they warned in reference to the sentence to six years in prison and disqualification from holding public office that the Vice President received from the Federal Oral Court (TOF) number 2 in the trial of the Traffic case which ended on December 6.
“When the criminal sentence is handed down without evidence on the acts of corruption accused, with biased judges, prosecutors who ignore the principle of innocence, It is an unlawful sentence”they pointed out in the document prepared.
Likewise, warned that “our democracy is at risk” and they called on society to “become aware of how dangerous a Judicial Power that stands above the will of the people can be.”
“Without justice, there is no democracy; without democracy, there are no human rights,” the document concludes.
At the end of the press conference, Pérez Esquivel warned that “democratic fragility is at risk in the country and throughout the continent” and called for “strengthening democracy” from all social sectors.
Present were representatives of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, HIJOS Capital, Asociación Buena Memoria, Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos, APDH La Matanza, Commission for Memory, Truth and Justice in the North Zone and Mothers in Struggle and the deputy from Buenos Aires of the Frente de Todos, Victoria Montenegro.
The president of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, sent her support for the document released but could not be present for health reasons.