Weapons bound for Bolivia: the investigation was in the hands of Judge Alejandro Catania | It was resolved by the National Chamber of Economic Criminal Appeals

The investigation into the shipment of ammunition to Bolivia it was finally in the hands of the judge Alexander Catania. This was resolved by the National Chamber of Appeal in Economic Criminal Matters, who understands that the magistrate must pursue the case to aggravated smuggling who commits Mauricio Macri, Marcos Peña and Patricia Bullrich, among others in charge of the Changeons department, for sending repressive material to support the forces who consumed the coup against Evo Morales.

The decision on the competition was made this Wednesday by the chambermaid Caroline Robiglio, who agreed with the judge Javier López Biscayart in which the case had to be investigated before the magistrate of the economic criminal jurisdiction who received the first complaint.

In economic criminal jurisdiction there were two files on the shipment of ammunition to Bolivia: the complaint presented by the government of Alberto Fernández – through Sabina Frederic, Mercedes Marcó del Pont and Martín Soria– and the presentation made by the former Marist Eduardo Freiler. The two entered the Economic Criminal Chamber on the same day and were drawn with a difference of thirteen minutes. Freiler was fired first and settled in the Catania court while the government’s one fell in the López Biscayart court. The prosecutor Claudio Navas Rial intervenes in both cases, but promoted the investigation into the complaint of Soria, Frederic and Marcó del Pont.

In the first days of August, López Biscayart declined the competition, claiming that the first complaint that had reached the court was that of Freiler and was in the hands of Catania. There was no call. A week later, Catania refused to take over the case and maintained that his colleague was the one who was in charge of the investigation from the first moment, compiled the documentation and heard the prosecutor twice to engage the criminal action.

The Prosecutor before the Chamber, Gabriel Pérez Barberá, considered that, for a better and faster administration of justice, the cause should remain in the hands of López Biscayart. However, maid Robiglio did not share this reading and argued that in addition to ensuring prompt treatment, the premise of ensuring the constitutional guarantee of the natural judge. “There is a need to ensure transparency in the attribution of complaints that are filed,” wrote the judge.

Robiglio also assessed that the two files are at the initial stage of the investigation and that it was not the judges who granted a specific channel to the investigation, but prosecutor Navas Rial, who is the same in both cases. “Neither can we consider that the best and fastest administration of justice is linked to the quality of public officials, or not, of the plaintiffs., since no legal provision provides for the preponderance, on the basis of these parameters – distinction which, on the other hand, would lack a constitutional basis – of one appeal over another for the purposes of determining jurisdiction, ”added.

In this way the the investigation should return in the coming hours to the court of Catania. In recent weeks, the case was being processed before López Biscayart, who continued to collect information. On Tuesday, he asked the Defense Ministry for information on a summary opened by the authorities to investigate the shipment of ammunition to Bolivia and also the location of the Hercules C-130, which transferred on November 12 2019 gendarmes and weapons. at El Alto airport.

The cause is accused of Macri, Peña, Bullrich, former Minister of Defense Oscar Aguad, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Faurie and former Ambassador to Bolivia Normando Álvarez García. In addition, the former head of the gendarmerie Gerardo Otero and three other members of this force are under investigation: the former director of logistics Rubén Yavorski, the former director of operations Carlos Miguel Recalde and the former Bolivian Adolfo Caliba.

All are held responsible for the 70,000 balas antitumultos who left on the night of November 12, 2019 and arrived at El Alto airport at dawn the next day. The bullets were not declared in the Hercules cargo manifesto or before the Bolivian authorities. Upon arrival in El Alto, they were divided between the Bolivian Air Force (FAB) and the local police. As published PageI12, the gendarmes had no contact with the ammunition, let alone used it in training during their stay in the Plurinational State, as this was the first explanation that emerged from the ranks of the force.