The embattled former President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri has been charged with ordering the secret services to spy on relatives of 44 sailors who died when the Ara San Juan submarine sank in 2017.
In his ruling, Judge Martín Bava averred that Macri violated the country’s intelligence laws by demanding a dossier on the victims’ families.
But, Macri, who was president in 2015-19 and is now an opposition leader has maintained that the charges are politically motivated.
“I did not spy on anyone, I never ordered [anyone] in my government to spy on anyone,” he said earlier this month.
The judge ordered an embargo of about $1 million of the wealthy ex-president’s goods and barred the 62-year-old from leaving the country. There was no arrest order.
Local reports have it that the submarine disappeared on Nov. 15, 2017, as it sailed back to its base at the port of Mar del Plata after participating in a training exercise. The wreckage wasn’t found until almost a year later at a depth of 800 meters (2,625 feet), east of Patagonia’s Valdes Peninsula.
In its findings, an Argentine legislative commission concluded that the sinking was caused by the inefficiency of naval commanders and budget limitations, discarding theories the vessel was attacked or hit by a ship.
The report, which was done in 2019, also questioned the handling of the crisis by Defense Minister Oscar Aguad and by Macri, who the commission said showed a “low level of involvement with everything related to the tragedy.”
It was also gathered that relatives of the sailors were critical of the government’s handling of the sinking and of the search, accusing the government of trying to call it off too soon.
