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LATIN AMERICA |
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Mushrooming Spy Scandal in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES – Revelations of illegal
wiretapping by a former cop have sparked a
war of words between the city’s conservative
mayor and the center-left government of
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez.
Federal Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez (no
relation to the president) said Thursday
that Mauricio Macri “has other no other way
out” than to resign, likening the mayor’s
conduct to that of U.S. President Richard
Nixon during Watergate.
The illegal wiretaps were arranged by former
police inspector Jorge “Fino” Palacios and
Macri, Anibal Fernandez said.
Palacios and Macri, according to the Cabinet
chief, were “working on a kind of small
business in which what was done was to carry
out telephone intercepts to sell them (the
tapes) later to the highest bidder.”
Just back from a visit to Madrid, the mayor
and presidential hopeful held a press
conference Thursday to denounce the
Fernandez government as “irresponsible” and
corrupt.
Macri, the scion of an industrial dynasty
and erstwhile director of Argentina’s most
popular soccer club, Boca Juniors, also
vowed to press ahead with deployment of a
new municipal police force whose
organization the mayor originally entrusted
to Palacios, now under arrest.
Argentina is one of several Latin American
nations where law enforcement is in the
hands of the national and provincial
governments.
The scandal erupted last month, when it was
learned that Palacios tapped the phone of a
relative of one of the 85 people killed in
the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community
organization AMIA.
Palacios, himself facing charges for an
alleged cover-up in the AMIA case, stepped
down as head of Macri’s new Metropolitan
Police shortly after the damaging
revelations became public.
The uproar grew in recent days after the
judge overseeing the wiretapping
investigation, Norberto Oyarbide, said that
Palacios’ private security firm spied on
politicians, business executives, union
officials and journalists.
Citing evidence found on the computers
seized from Palacios’ company, the judge
said he suspected the espionage operation
also targeted President Fernandez and
husband Nestor Kirchner, who preceded his
wife as head of state.
Oyarbide likewise found links between
Palacios and Metropolitan Police deputy
chief Osvaldo Chamorro – dismissed Tuesday
by Macri – and Ciro James, a former federal
cop and Macri aid.
The judge said Thursday he did not expect to
subpoena Macri in connection with the case.
Macri decided to create the Metropolitan
Police after he failed to convince the
Fernandez government to transfer to his
administration’s control the Federal Police
units based in the city, along with their
$250 million annual operating budget.
While Macri and his political allies have
hammered the national government on the
issue of public safety, several Supreme
Court justices complained of
media-manipulated hysteria about crime and
said that statistics don’t bear out claims
of worsening delinquency. EFE |
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