Chilean artists who left a suspicious suitcase were released

CORDOBA. Judge Hugo Vaca Narvaja ordered the release of two Chilean artists arrested Sunday afternoon in Palermo after leaving a suspicious briefcase in a hotel in that city during the holding of the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) and l & # 39; alert. maximum security.

At noon today, prosecutor Graciela López de Filoñuk has accused Gabriela Medrano Viteri and Felipe Zegers of article 189 bis of the Penal Code, which provides for offenses against public security committed with the aid of # 39; explosives.

The Chileans traveled to Buenos Aires in the early hours of Sunday and left a suitcase suspected of being
an explosive device in the hotel where they were in Córdoba, where they participated in the First International Meeting: Linguistic Rights as Human Rights in Latin America, "Counter-Conflict convened, inter alia, by Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National University of Córdoba (UNC).

The article of the Penal Code for which the couple was imputed, 189 bis, applies to those who "in order to contribute to the commission of crimes against the common security or to cause damage to machinery or the manufacture of products, acquire, manufacture, supply, secure or have in its possession bombs, materials or devices capable of releasing nuclear energy, radioactive material or nuclear substances, or their wastes, radioactive isotopes, materials or substances explosive, flammable, asphyxiating, toxic or biologically hazardous materials intended for their preparation. "This crime, he adds, will be punishable by a term of imprisonment or imprisonment of 5 to 15 years.

The Chileans have been under investigation for a long time and the official defender Mercedes Crespi has asked for his release. They granted it, but they will continue to be the subject of an investigation. They were released for lack of merit.

The case has aroused considerable controversy, particularly in academic and cultural circles, and provincial and national governments have been criticized for labeling those who accredit a broad and recognized international track record in the field of architecture as "terrorists". . Medrano Viteri-like in the art of urban intervention, like Zegers.

But the Córdoba police and justice believe that in the context of the event, the arrest of the couple of artists and the detonation of the suitcase of suspicious contents left in their room; hotel were justified.

Vaca Narvaja said of
THE NATION"That's what had to be done, it worked well, the briefcase was suspicious." Yesterday, a friend of the Chileans told through the networks that Medrano Viteri and Zegers were artists and that
They had come to perform at a festival on language rights in the framework of human rights. He argued that what they had left in apartment apartment N131, Belgrano 100, was not an explosive, but was part of a replicating urban facility through loudspeakers, fragments of the Declaration of Human Rights in an inclusive language. . Alleged detainees said today that they were right to leave the bag because "they did not need it anymore and it was too heavy to carry with the rest of the baggage".

Suspicions

Judge Vaca Narvaja said the police had acted on the basis of what had been found, that he was a suspect. Added to this is the fact that dogs trained for explosives were "direct" to briefcases and the context, not minor, that the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) was held in the city. which implied a "special conjuncture" due to the presence of high dignitaries and recognized international personalities in the field of letters and art, such as President Mauricio Macri, the kings of Spain and the singer Joaquín Sabina.

The magistrate explained that what the witnesses and the friend of the Chilean couple had told was still to be included in the file and that they had to declare it themselves. Then your procedural situation will be resolved.

Meetings

Maria Loreto Zapata Camos, who is in charge of the Chilean consulate, met with her fellow citizens today and she saw them at the federal court's office in that city, where they are being held. The data was confirmed on this support by the consulate. It was also learned that the parents of Medrano Viteri and Zegers arrived in Argentina today to accompany the couple.

Carolina Ortega, an Argentinian journalist friend of the Chileans, is the one who warned against the situation and said that
The artists perform urban interventions and one of them brought consisted of two speakers, a box, a battery and cables that were those of the briefcase. It has not yet been expertly determined if this is plausible.