Attack on Congress: A Buenos Aires judge ordered that his case be passed to Comodoro PY

The Buenos Aires judge Norberto Circo decided to send Comodoro Py the investigation that the City is conducting into the attack on the surroundings of Congress. For the magistrate, it is clear that the events that took place last March 10, when the Chamber of Deputies dealt with the Monetary Fund's project, were a single episode and that is why it must be investigated all together and not in two separate cases.

The public prosecutor's office had opposed this initiative and maintained its competence to continue the process of what happened on the outskirts of Congress. That is why an appeal is likely to stop the arrival immediately in the Retiro courts. In the case being handled by the City, there are two detainees.

Everything is part of what happened around the Congress on March 10, following the treatment in the Chamber of Deputies of the Government's agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On that day, the premises of the National Congress were attacked, with stones directly at the offices of Vice President Cristina Kirchner, as she herself showed in a video she shared. The offices of Senators José Mayans and Claudia Abdala, which are also in front of the legislative building, were similarly affected. Outside Congress, a policeman was thrown a Molotov bomb and there were other incidents of damage that were advanced by the justice system in the City of Buenos Aires.

But federal judge Maria Eugenia Capuchetti asked her peer in the city to stop acting and to refer her actions. He said that “there is a link between the facts investigated here and those that are being processed in that jurisdiction and could have involved conduct organized prior to the completion of the events, in order to provoke the state of alarm sanctioned by Article 211, CP, with the purpose of affecting the legislative function”. He added that “it cannot be ignored that the members of the City Police who were attacked in the course of these same events were performing security functions in the vicinity of the National Congress”

“In this situation, I understand that the allegations are part of a broader hypothesis, as my colleague says,” said the Buenos Aires judge. Given this evidence, it is advisable for a single judge to intervene in both proceedings, since proceeding in the opposite way would mean duplicating the proceedings and would allow the issuance of contradictory pronouncements in respect of the same factual context, which could also affect the principle “nen bis in idem” (double judgment). Thus, it is necessary that, in the same plot, it is necessary for a single court to know, in order to guarantee the principles of speed and procedural economy,” said Judge Circo in the resolution acceded to Infobae.

The Buenos Aires case has two suspects in custody: Oscar Santillán and Venezuelan citizen Alexander Rodríguez Carrero, suspected of being part of an unlawful association that led and coordinated the incidents and committed crimes such as “attack on authority, aggravated damage to the city's heritage, obstruction of public roads, dirtying property and carrying non - conventional weapons”. Both Santillán and Rodríguez Carrero are linked to the Teresa Rodríguez Movement (MTR).

In the federal justice case, as Infobae reported, there are 11 suspects. Two of them - Jonatan Emanuel García and Leonardo Cáceres - were already investigated and refused to testify. One was released from prison and the other was granted exemption from prison after being barred from leaving the country. A third party involved, knowing that he was wanted, already put himself through a lawyer at the disposal of justice. There are four others with a request for capture because they could not be located at their homes. In addition, investigators identified a suspect as the person who hit stones at those who were thrown at the building. None of them has a record (except for one of them a case when he was a minor) and no public identification has been credited to a political party or organization. The case has no detainees, but the investigation into those involved continues.

The proceedings, which are still in progress, have not made it possible to establish that there has been an “organization” to attack the offices of the former president in a targeted manner, beyond seeing a “coordination” when attacking the headquarters of the National Congress, the sources said. “An intention against Cristina Kirchner in particular is not proven,” they insisted.

The presidency of the National Senate, in charge of CFK, requested this Monday to be a complainant in the case being processed by Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti with the prosecutor Carlos Rívolo. The judge has already accepted the request, but the lawyers of one of the detainees opposed it. It was argued that the presidency of the upper house, headed by the Vice-President of the Nation, is not a victim “of alleged crimes of harm” and therefore “does not own the legal property concerned”. For this reason, it is used in the presentation before Capuchetti, “the Tribunal should not accept it in the capacity it invokes”, that is, as a complainant.

“It is public knowledge that the events that happened on March 10, 2022, began with aggressions towards the National Congress. It is also notorious that on that day, a large number of people (still many unidentified), threw stones and paint into the national treasury, a circumstance that emerges from all the videos collected and the photographs exhibited in the media, which give clear and convincing evidence regarding the idea of the actions of this group of people: to dirty, destroy and even prevent, the vote that was taking place within the Congress of the Nation”, reviews the Buenos Aires judge when analyzing his competence.

“In this regard, in order to maintain a good administration of justice in this City of Buenos Aires and since the Public Prosecutor's Office of this City has carried out an excellent, effective and speedy investigation of the facts, which in principle turn out to be local competence, the truth is that they are framed in a more that cannot be lost sight of”, he said.

The ruling added that “from the evidence collected and the amount of measures requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office of this City of Buenos Aires, there are various actions taken by those accused here in relation to the attacks on the Congress of the Nation. It is enough to see Santillán and Rodríguez Carrero (even with a rubber band, the latter) throw stones at Congress, to reach that conclusion.” In addition, he said, “it is duly proven that the actions against the Congress of the Nation led to the attack on the police of this city of Buenos Aires and the subsequent excesses, causing damage to its public treasury.” Beyond that, he understood that there is only one court that must concentrate the entire file.

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