The former head of the Platense Uocra, Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina, who was released this Thursdaysaid this Friday that it was persecuted for “defending the sacred right of workers” and said that “those who have to be imprisoned” are those who made up the “anti-union table” of the government of Mauricio Macri.
“They defamed me, they threw me into the oven with the fire on, but I’m still standing because I have nothing to hide,” Medina said this Friday during an interview with Radio Con Vos, in which affirmed that Macri, (María Eugenia) Vidal, (Marcelo) Villegas and (Julio) Garro “all those who espionaged me and my family must be imprisoned”.
“They persecuted me for being a leader who always defended the sacred right of workers. I am going to denounce the entire anti-union table,” he continued.
This Thursday, the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation confirmed the release arranged last March for Medina -but the prohibition of carrying out union activity is maintained- after which he was released.
Medina fulfilled house arrest since September 2017 in his home in the town of Punta Lara, in the municipality of Ensenada, by order of the federal judge of Quilmes Luis Armella.
At that time it was prosecuted for crimes of illicit association, money laundering and extortion, and also placed an embargo for 200 million pesos.
The measure was ordered by Chamber II of the aforementioned court, made up of judges Carlos A. Mahiques and Guillermo Yacobucci and judge Angela Ledesma, by declaring inadmissible an extraordinary appeal presented by the prosecution.
In this way, the freedom for the former trade unionist, accused of acts of corruptionwhich had been ordered last March by the Federal Oral Court 2 of La Plata.
The union leader referred to the file that Federal Judge Ernesto Kreplak instructs in the case known as the “Gestapo of Buenos Aires”, in which a video found in the AFI is investigated, in which a meeting of ministers, legislators, agents intelligence and businessmen while they put together a strategy to impute crimes to Medina.
In that video, Villegas states: “Believe me that if I could have (and I’m going to deny this anywhere) a Gestapo, an onslaught force to end all unions, I would.”
In the interview, “Pata” Medina said that he “never” had a company, despite the versions that indicate that he was the owner of a catering service; he acknowledged being the owner of a 70-square-meter wooden house in Cariló, but He remarked that “this is not illegal” and asserted: “I never put my hand in the pocket of the workers.”
In statements made to Télam, the trade unionist’s lawyer, César Albarracín said this Thursday that Medina’s release is “a very important decisionbecause it takes note of the very serious irregularities and crimes committed by the spies, macrista officials and businessmen from the Gestapo table “.
“Now we are going to demand that the remaining restrictions that are still in force cease, such as exercising union activities, an absolutely unconstitutional impediment for a person who has no convictions against him,” he said.
The lawyer stated that they will demand “that the investigation carried out by Judge Kreplak be deepened, and progress is made in the pending accusation against María Eugenia Vidal and Mauricio Macri“.
