construction unionist Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina accused the former Minister of Labor of Buenos Aires, Marcelo Villegas, of “putting together a gang to hunt down trade unionists” and said “until now they couldn’t prove anything they were accusing me of“, in reference to the case that was opened against him during the administration of Mauricio Macri, and in the framework of the investigation into the formation of a judicial table intended to persecute trade unionists and opponents in the previous government.
“Until now they couldn’t prove anything they were accusing me of” the trade unionist told Radio 10 this Saturday from his home where he has been “almost a year and a half in house arrest, which added to what he has done in two prisons, will be a total of almost five years of arrest.”
This Friday, the former minister of María Eugenia Vidal, Marcelo Villegas, admitted before the Justice that in 2017 he was summoned to a meeting at the Casa Rosada to talk about situations linked to the trade unionist and that the then president Macri took advantage of the occasion to make his government officials available, among whom was the head of the intelligence services, Gustavo Arribas.
“When I entered I realized that there was a meeting in progress, to which I was added to deal with the last topic: Pata Medina and UOCRA La Plata, which is why I had been called. I emphasize that it was the last topic to deal with of the current meeting, since after discussing that issue we all withdrew,” Villegas said in the brief that he presented before federal judge Ernesto Kreplak.
On this matter, Pata Medina said today that Villegas “wanted to put together that ‘gang’ to hunt down trade unionists and come after my head” and, in the same way, considered that “There are prosecutors who seem to be affiliated with a political party”.
“They accused me of everything, practically of being a terrorist, but what caught my attention the most was the actions of this justice and that they call me to testify on a more political than judicial issue,” he added.
The former Vidal official was appointed by the justice system as the convening minister of the meeting held on June 15, 2017 at the Buenos Aires headquarters of Banco Provincia (Bapro), which was also attended by directors of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), and in which the exclusive topic was to analyze actions against leaders of the Uocra de La Plata.
The case of the judicial table was initiated by a complaint filed by the current controller of the AFI, Cristina Caamaño, after the discovery by that body of videos of the meeting held at Bapro.
Medina assured that when he saw the video of the Villegas meeting at the Banco Provincia he “was very scared for my family.”
“Two months before these causes were put together for me, I was meeting with the former governor, Maria Eugenia Vidal, showing her some progress on some hydraulic works in La Plata and she congratulated me. I had a supposedly good relationship with her and with Mayor Garro,” he recalled. .
Medina also said that he also had “two meetings with Villegas, before the cases where I asked him why they had paralyzed the hydraulic work in La Plata that left 600 people on the street and he told me that they had an order to investigate what I had done the previous government. I told him that had nothing to do with it, but everything remained the same and what caught my attention was that a project that cost 2,000 million pesos when it was interrupted for six months, later went on to cost when it was finished, about 8 billion,” Medina said.
Villegas’s passage through federal court 1 of La Plata lasted less than an hour: he heard the accusation against him; he refused to answer questions and left a written release in which he denied having participated in illegal maneuvers.
Then he related how the efforts of the province of Buenos Aires were in problems between construction entrepreneurs and trade unionists in that area.
“I emphatically deny having clandestinely armed one or several causes for Mr. Juan Pablo Medina and his relatives, nor having participated in a maneuver for those purposes. I am oblivious to any action that has been eventually orchestrated for it,” Villegas said in the letter. to which Télam had access.
