Ex-President Macri accused of alleged spying on the wreck of a submarine in Argentina | Globalism

In the official indictment, Judge Martin Bava said Macri will respond freely, but will be prevented from leaving Argentina. This is the first formal lawsuit against the former president since he left office in 2019, according to Clarin.

“The suspected illegal practices in this decision date back to the darkest times in our country,” the judge said, referring to the Argentine military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

• Find out who are the crew of the 44th submarine in Argentina

Macri is accused of facilitating espionage to obtain personal data and information on the families of the submarine crew. Including, according to the judge, verification of information such as political opinions, participation in social, trade union and party organizations.

“It is political persecution,” Macri said of the operation during a visit to Chile on Wednesday.

Macri presided over Argentina between 2016 and 2019, when He lost the election to incumbent Alberto Fernandez.

ARA San Juan submarine wreck

ARA San Juan disappeared on November 15, 2017, when it was returning from the port of Ushuaia, where it conducted military exercises, to the naval base in Mar del Plata.

Hours earlier, the commander warned of a malfunction caused by water entering through a ventilation duct that leaked into the electric battery compartment and caused a fire.

Although the Argentine Navy has confirmed on several occasions that this defect has been “corrected” and that the San Juan continued to sail to Mar del Plata, what is certain is that her trail was lost and she never reached the port of that city, where she must To dock on the 19th of November.

Only a year after its disappearance, the submarine was found in the canyons (a kind of submersible river), at a depth of 907 meters, 600 kilometers from the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, where the operations center was established. search.

An underwater explosion was recorded at the site three hours after the last contact with the submarine, when the ship’s captain reported overcoming a malfunction in the battery system due to the ingress of water through the breathing tube.

After speculation about the position of the submarine and its ability to replenish oxygen on board, this explosion thesis became evidence of the cause of the accident.

That would explain the inactivation of the emergency beacon and the complete interruption of the submarine’s communications.

Some crew members commented that British ships were following the ship. Some family members believe they could have passed through the exclusion zone of the Falkland Islands, whose sovereignty led to a dispute between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982.