Parlasur approved the procedure for opening the impeachment trial against Pepín Rodríguez Simón | Macrista operator asked for her deportation to be reconsidered

Fabián “Pepín” Rodriguez Simón appeared this Wednesday in the zoom of the Parlasur session where the procedure to analyze his expulsion from the body was going to be discussed. He grimaced at the camera and scolded his peers but couldn’t stop. the decision of 64 parliamentarians to approve the regulations and the start of the impeachment procedure against him, arising from his flight to Uruguay and his decision to refuse to attend the investigation to which he was summoned by Judge María Servini for threats and extortion to the shareholders of the Indalo Group. “You cannot carry out a procedure which does not respect the norms of legality”, protested the judicial operator of Mauricio Macri. Then he victimized himself with a vivid comparison: he said that at the time he himself opposed the way José López was thrown after the episode of the bags of millions of dollars in the convent. of General Rodríguez, for whom he ended up in prison.

The removal process itself will begin on Friday when Parlasur’s Committee on Budget and Home Affairs meets, which will establish an agenda. Among the first steps will be the summoning of the plaintiffs – from the Frente de Todos and the Argentine Federal Bloc – and Rodríguez Simón. What we were discussing this Wednesday was the approval of an impeachment bylaw which includes ethical standards. The operator macrista questioned it, even invoking the Pact of San José in Costa Rica. He claimed a “background code” on the grounds that he does not know what he is accused of. “What is a lack of decorum? Hanging in the light of someone else? Use the influences? You have to define what the behavior is. If this were done, we would have a code of ethics that defines what a lack of decorum is, we would have the type of sanction and procedure to apply, ”Pepín surprised with his proposal.

“He was once told that being a fugitive is an ethical fault. Leaving the country and refusing to return for an investigation is a lack of decorum. Now he wants protection and contradicts the courage he has shown during the four years of Cambiemos administration, when he insulted Parlasur and threatened to put us all in prison to the point of saying to us ‘go choose the books because you will have time to read’ “, declared the parliamentarian Oscar Laborde (Everyone’s front) to Page 12. “Even the president of the body, Celso Russomanno, who answers to (Jaír) Bolsonaro, voted by this procedure”, noted Laborde. In addition to the 64 votes for the opening of the procedure, there were 5 abstentions, which in this case represents support for Rodríguez Simón. Four were from Together for Change: María Luisa Storani, Lilia Puig, Armando Abruza and Walter Nostrala. Another was from one of his allies, the Civic Front of Cordoba, Humberto Benedetto. The whole process can take several months and requires, at the end of the process, a special majority of 77 votes. The Mercosur Parliament has 120 members, whose attendance at sittings fluctuates.

“I do not know why they are asking for my removal. It is the procedure that counts. I ask you to review this decision, because what is done is unusually serious,” insisted Rodríguez Simón, wearing a jacket. and a shirt, once again repeating the American Convention on Human Rights. the key man of the “judicial table” of the Macri government he came to occupy a seat in Parlasur in 2015, when he was second on the Let’s Change list for this parliament. At that time, he was under investigation for his role in the Public Spaces Control Unit (UCEP), from where they beat people in the streets, from which some of his fellow parliamentarians report that ‘he boasted and declared that he was being persecuted by “justice K”. As now in the case where he was declared in absentia by Judge Servini, where he disqualifies the investigation and presents himself as a politically persecuted person, an argument he used to seek refuge in Uruguay.Having arrived in Parlasur, he said he was not going to protect himself with privileges, which he tried to attribute to other parliamentarians, like Milagro Sala, who was still arrested.

In the part of his speech where he referred to José López, he tried to argue in self-defense: “Some of us objected when José López was fired because there was no procedure. , no code of ethics and no sanctions ”established. Then he said that in his opinion they should refer to the behavior of parliamentarians as such. “If I go to a session drunk, if I insult others …”, “it is a lack of decorum”.

When Pepín finished speaking, it was Herman Olivero (United for a new alternative), who took the opportunity to joke about the comparison with López, who declared that “that leaves a lot to be desired”: “José López threw the bags in a mud wall of a convent and he (Rodríguez Simón) threw the bags for Uruguay. It is a question of bags but it needs to be clarified. “He also said he was struck by some of the support he got because usually ‘to find someone who spoke well about you you had to walk a long time, because honestly we couldn’t find him’. Before Pepín, Jorge Vanossi (UNA) had asked for the floor, who was indignant because he had noticed the signing of Rodríguez Simón on a note from Parlasur on Nicaragua. “There is an ethical lack of this man and I am not prepared to sign a note signed by this person”he said vehemently. “There is a lack of ethics due to personal indignity, not just at Parlasur. This character served incompatible functions as he was on the board of YPF and was an advisor” to former President Macri.

Rodríguez Simón has been in Uruguay since December last year, when he was already under investigation following the complaint by businessmen Cristóbal López and Fabián de Sousa, owners of C5N and Radio10, among other media. This year, Servini banned him from leaving the country, but said he was in Uruguay and had a ticket from Buquebús to return in mid-May. When Servini summoned him to the investigation, he announced that he would remain in the neighboring country, where, on May 6, he applied to be recognized as a refugee. Servini declared it in absentia and demanded his international capture and Interpol even gave him action, but the judicial process has already been initiated in the courts of Montevideo, where generally, faced with a refugee claim that comes up against an extradition request, judges wait for the Refugee Commission to be issued, which has a mandate to 90 days, then they resolve accordingly. Although Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou initially gave signs of not putting up any obstacles, there is still no news.

Meanwhile, “Pepín” began to be investigated in another case, which is that of the “judicial table”, made up of former Macrista officials who supported the Cambiemos government in the conception of one’s own righteousness, through squeeze judges and judges and, among others, pressure until the resignation of the former lawyer Alejandra Gils Carbó, as well as the burning of files against former officials of Kirchnérisme and the architecture to protect Macri’s files from him. In all, and with an office at Casa Rosada, although not a formal advisor, there was Rodríguez Simón.