Former Buenos Aires Minister of Labor Marcelo Villegas admitted before the Justice that in 2017 he was summoned to a meeting at the Casa Rosada to talk about situations related to the construction unionist Juan Pablo “Pata” Medina and that the then president Mauricio 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 they added me to discuss the last topic: Pata Medina and UOCRA La Plata, which is why I had been summoned. I emphasize that it was the last topic to discuss in the current meeting, since after dealing with that topic we all left, ”Villegas said in the brief that he presented before federal judge Ernesto Kreplak.
“The participants were sitting in armchairs around a coffee table in front of the fireplace in the president’s office, and the attendees were the president of the Nation himself, an engineer Mauricio Macrithe minister Patricia Bullrich (Security) Minister German Garavano (Justice), Minister Jorge Triaca (Work) Minister William Dietrich (Transportation) and Mr. Gustavo Arribas (Federal Intelligence Agency),” Villegas explained.
The former Buenos Aires Minister of Labor is accused of having participated in 2017 in the assembly of legal cases to harm the then leadership of the La Plata sectional Union of Construction Workers (UOCRA).
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.
He then recounted how the efforts of the province of Buenos Aires were in problems between construction entrepreneurs and trade unionists of that item.
“Emphatically I deny having clandestinely armed one or several cases against Mr. Juan Pablo Medina and their relatives, nor have participated in a maneuver for those purposes. I am oblivious to any action that has been eventually orchestrated for it, “said Villegas in the letter to which Télam had access.
“From the province a strategy was ‘put together’ that encompassed the political, legal and judicial aspects to address the problem that this subject had generated. And if the work carried out to provide a solution to this problem is intended to be called ‘having put together a cause’, I was actually part of it,” said the former minister of the management headed by María Eugenia Vidal as governor of Buenos Aires.
The former head of the labor portfolio of the province of Buenos Aires indicated in his defense that he effectively received “people who claimed to be victims of crimes” by the Uocra and that from his position as minister he advised and provided “containment and support” to the businessmen who, as stated in the letter, complained about the problems they had with Medina but did not want to appear before the Justice to make complaints for fear of reprisals.
“Governor Vidal told me to make the corresponding complaints and to support me in the Ministry of Justice. I explained that I didn’t think it was advisable for me, the Minister of Labor, to denounce a union representative, since they were going to brand the complaint as political. She agreed and told me to talk to the victims and assist them together with the Ministry of Justice, which was their specific mission”, she maintained.
For his story, the former Buenos Aires minister used a division of “ski lifts”: on the one hand, he referred to the “provincial ski lift”on which he provided details, and on the other “Nation ski lift” to whom he said he had appeared when he was summoned to the Casa Rosada but about whom he said he did not know the details and in both cases he affirmed that the paths of the law were always used.”
Villegas maintained in his brief that he did not remember the date on which he passed through the key meeting held at the Casa Rosada (in the file it appears that it would have been on May 4, 2017), but he detailed that he explained “all the facts” there. linked to the Medina issue and assured that “the key was that the political power support the victims and justice so that it operates with total freedom”
Macri’s response, as Villegas stated in his download, was: “Well, perfect, if you need something from those who are here, let them know.”
“It turns out that after the meeting at Government House with President Macri and some members of his cabinet, I do not remember the way in which the lawyer (Juan Sebastián) Destéfano appears on the scene. I always believed that he was a lawyer for the Presidency of the Nation, since that’s how he introduced himself or they introduced him to me. A long time later and through news that was disseminated in the mass media, I found out that he was the head of Legal Affairs of the Federal Intelligence Agency, “said Villegas.
“Beyond the almost zero contact with Destéfano, and having attended the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) only once, I wish to leave a timely record of some issues, which I understand to be of the utmost importance to clarify that I had absolutely nothing to do with with the alleged illegal assembly of any legal case”, he continued on page 10 of his defense, in which he stated that “I did not have and never had contact with that body or its members. Neither before, nor during, nor after the events that VS is investigating.”
Vidal’s former official was pointed out to the Justice, by other defendants, 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 to be carried out against leaders of the Uocra de La Plata.
The case was initiated by a complaint filed by the current controller of the AFI, Cristina Caamañoafter the discovery by that body of videos of the meeting held at Bapro.
Records of that encounter were found while routine hard drive cleaning procedures were being carried out, according to official reports.
Villegas is accused of having intervened, during 2017, in his capacity as Minister of Labor of the province of Buenos Aires, in the design and implementation of a strategy -decided or authorized at higher levels of the national and provincial government- that Its purpose was to judicialize the situation of the existing conflict around the actions of Uocra, the La Plata branch, or its Secretary General (Medina) and relatives.
“This judicialization strategy would not have been limited to providing or favoring the provision of complaints or evidence, or more generally, to guarantee the necessary conditions for the judiciary to fulfill its original functions but, operating simultaneously at a second level, would have implicated the execution of diverse illicit actions tending to guarantee a predetermined result in those processes”, reads the accusation against him, as Télam was able to reconstruct.
Among these actions, “different legally prohibited intelligence activities would have taken place, such as carrying out field tasks and consulting various databases without a judicial order that enables it by agents of the Federal agency of national intelligence whose product was then used by officials of that same agency to generate reports,” the researchers maintain.
The case also investigates whether there were pressures, suggestions or negotiations between officials of the AFI and/or the provincial government with judicial authorities and/or the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which implied “violations of criminal procedural regulations related, at least, to matters of competence”.
“If I could have a gestapo, I would”
Villegas is the author of the most resonant phrase of the video that started this cause: “Believe me that, if I could have, and I am going to deny this to you anywhere, if I could have a Gestapo, an onslaught force to end all the guilds, I would do it”.
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 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.
Records of that encounter were found while routine hard drive cleaning procedures were being carried out, according to official reports.
With this Friday’s statement, Judge Kreplak ended a week in which he investigated the three former officials of Vidal’s Buenos Aires government accused in the case in which the alleged assembly of legal cases is being investigated: on Wednesday, the then minister declared of Infrastructure of the same province Roberto Gigante, on Thursday the former Undersecretary of Justice, Adrián Grassi and this Friday Villegas.
