5 years after the sinking: Taiana leads a tribute to the victims of the ARA San Juan

The Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, will lead this Thursday the central ceremony of homage to the 44 crew members of the ARA San Juan, victims of the sinking that occurred on November 15, 2017. Five years after the last communication of the submarine ARA San Juan, we honor the memory of the 44 crew members and continue to demand truth and justice. As Minister of Defense, I renew my commitment to continue accompanying their families, “said the official, through a message on Twitter.Taiana will lead from 18 the act to be held at the Mar del Plata Naval Base. The activity, in which the head of the Navy, Julio Guardia, will also participate, will be attended by about 200 relatives of the victims. In the tribute, the relatives of the sailors will place offerings on the cenotaph that remembers the 44 divers inside the maritime terminal, the natural pier of the ship until its last trip. Then they will participate in a religious service in the chapel of the Base Naval.La judicial investigation
For the fact, the Justice charged four officers for it. They are the sailor Luis Enrique López Mazzeo (Training and Enlistment Command), Claudio Villamide (Submarine Force Command), Héctor Alonso (Chief of Staff of the Submarine Force Command and Enlistment Evaluation Officer) and Hugo Correa (Head of the Operations Department). All are prosecuted for breach of the duties of a public official and aggravated culpable damage in the case carried out by the federal court of Caleta Olivia, in charge of Marta Yáñez.La main hypothesis is that the sinking was a consequence of lack of maintenance of the submarine. The Justice, meanwhile, has not yet defined whether it advances on former President Mauricio Macri, his Minister of Defense, Oscar Aguad, and the then head of the Navy, Marcelo Sur. That was a request made by the Federal Court of Comodoro Rivadavia to the magistrate. According to relatives, Macri and former officials of his government should be aware of the state of operation of the ship as a result of a budget shortfall and the risk involved in sailing as it did. Even in the case both Aguad and Sur testified as witnesses. Former officials of the former president’s maximum confidence, such as Pablo Clusellas or José Torello, among others, also gave their testimony. Another point under investigation is the alleged concealment of all that post-accident information from the victims’ relatives. In the extensive ruling of the Federal Court of Comodoro Rivadavia, a computer technical expertise was also ordered on images taken from the discovery of the submarine ARA San Juan. The study is pending and seeks to determine if there were images deleted or destroyed by the Navy of that finding. A separate chapter, but related to the case, is the ongoing investigation to determine whether Macri ordered – or was aware of – espionage tasks on the relatives of the victims of the sinking. Last year, the federal judge of Dolores Martín Bava prosecuted the former president, but in the middle of this year, the Buenos Aires Federal Court reversed that measure. According to the ruling of the camaristas Pablo Bertuzzi, Leopoldo Bruglia and Mariano Llorens, the approach of Macri’s security personnel or inquiries about his activities were nothing more than to ensure presidential security. This decision was appealed by the relatives and now it will be the Federal Court of Cassation that determines the future of the case.

Original source in Spanish