Former President Macri and his former Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, were denounced for the case of the military supplies sent to Bolivia after the coup d'état of November 2019. | Photo: Página 12
Buenos Aires, July 14 (RHC)--The Government of Argentina denounced former President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) and other officials of his mandate for the shipment to Bolivia of military supplies that were used to repress the population after the coup d'état against former President Evo Morales.
According to the text, known on Monday, it denounces "the illegal shipment of weapons and ammunition to Bolivia perpetrated on November 12, 2019 by the National Government headed by former President Mauricio Macri, with the participation of high authorities of the National Executive Branch."
It adds that "the criminal act consisted in the irregular shipment of armament and ammunition to Bolivia, through an adulteration in the quantities and destinations declared in the different control instances and, in particular, before the customs service".
The complaint is signed by the Minister of Security, Sabina Frederic; the Federal Administrator of Public Revenues, Mercedes Marcó del Pont; and the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Martín Soria.
The promoters point out that the purpose of the shipment was "to put this repressive material at the disposal of the dictatorship that had recently taken power in the neighboring country, headed by Jeanine Áñez."
On the other hand, they consider that "the possible commission of the crimes of smuggling aggravated by the number of people involved, by the quality of public officials, by the participation of an official of the customs service, and by being weapons and ammunition of war."
To the above, they add "the crimes of embezzlement of public funds, abuse of authority and crimes that jeopardize the peace and dignity of the Nation provided for in articles 219 and 220 of the Penal Code."
According to evidence presented last week by the Bolivian authorities, former President Macri made available to the de facto government at least 40,000 AT 12/70 cartridges, 18 MK-9 tear gas sprays and five MK-4 tear gas sprays, as well as 50 CN gas grenades, ten CS gas grenades and 52 HC gas grenades.
The denouncers maintain that the delivery of this military equipment "was intended to be concealed under the need to protect the Argentine embassy," but "the institutional gravity of the fact is consolidated when it is noticed that the material sent had as final destination the Bolivian armed forces."
The text emphasizes that "it is not just any type of smuggling, but one that had the purpose of reinforcing the capacity of action of armed forces that had seditiously taken up arms against a constitutional government and against the Bolivian people".
It also recalls that these armed forces committed numerous human rights violations days later, among them the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata.
As it happens in Argentina, the Government considers that in Bolivia an investigation must also be activated to identify and establish responsibilities on those who were behind the shipment and arrival of "war material" from Argentina in the middle of the 2019 crisis that resulted in the resignation of Evo Morales and the seizure of power by Jeanine Áñez.
