LLA deputies skip Congress meeting to explain their visit to jailed torturers

All but one of La Libertad Avanza (LLA) deputies who visited a group of dictatorship-era criminals in jail in July skipped a Lower House commission meeting to explain the reasons for their trip. Human rights organizations demanded a rigorous investigation of the case in a letter sent to deputies. Deputy Lourdes Arrieta, who since visiting the prison has claimed she went without knowing she was about to visit repressors, was the only LLA lawmaker present in the meeting.

Guillermo Montenegro, Alida Ferreyra, and Rocío Bonacci filed written statements just before the meeting, while Beltrán Benedit, the lawmaker who spearheaded the visit, took no action. “They are, together with the rest of the ruling party’s bloc, hiding under the table,” Cecilia Moreau, a deputy from the opposition Peronist bloc Unión por la Patria , said during the meeting. The six deputies were summoned to speak at a joint meeting of the Constitutional Affairs and Petitions, Powers and Rules commissions to investigate their conduct.



The visit to convicted dictatorship criminals — most of them convicted to life for murder, torture and false imprisonment — at the Ezeiza prison on July 11 caused widespread outrage both inside and outside of Congress. Opposition deputies initially aimed to sanction the LLA lawmakers in a session, the initiative was rejected and the now joint commissions are addressing the case. Moreau read some of the written statements filed by the absent deputies.

Ferreyra, for example, wrote tha she went to Ezeiza “as a criminal lawyer” to review the “imprisonment conditions” of the repressors. “It is a document that I never thought I would have in my hands from a national deputy,” said Moreau, who spoke of an alleged plan to free the imprisoned repressors. Arrieta published two draft bills in late August that appeared to show a project to free dictatorship-era torturers from prison, seeking for charges and convictions awaiting appeal to be dropped.

Left-wing deputy Christian Castillo said national deputies are legally barred from acting as criminal lawyers. He added that dictatorship-era repressors have active criminal networks to this day. “There are many desaparecidos whose remains have not been recovered and their families still don’t have them,” he said, questioning whether the infamous dictatorship-era repressors might have given the deputies any information of their whereabouts.

“We want to know.” “The gravity of the situation demands that Lower House members make a decision and make it facing the citizens that voted for them,” said the letter signed by Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founding Line, H.I.

J.O.S.

(which groups children of dictatorship victims) and nine other organizations. The letter mentions WhatsApp comments that have been largely attributed to Beltrán, which described the convicted repressors as “veterans that fought against the Marxist subversion.” In the text, the organizations called for a congressional probe if the statements were proved to have come from him and, if so, sanction him accordingly.

“Those comments are a straight-up vindication of state terrorism, and an unacceptable attack against victims and their families.” They also demanded answers from the Lower House about the visit, which they called “a very serious and unprecedented episode.” “If those that are part of the legislative branch, chosen by popular vote, engage in conducts that are opposed to what our National Constitution and human rights international treaties establish, it is fundamental for their workplace to come up with a proper response within a reasonable timeframe,” they added.

The head of the Peronist bloc, Germán Martínez, said they would send questions about the repressors’ meeting to Arrieta. After that, they will urge Benedit to file a written statement. The meeting ended with the head of the commission, PRO’s Silvia Lospenatto, trading barbs with Arrieta about the contents of her written statement.

“You are not being judged here at all, so there is no exercise of the right to defense,” Lospenatto said, saying Arrieta did not know the commission’s rules. “It’s a basic thing — you are a deputy, you have to know the rules and who is Astiz,” María Eugenia Vidal, another lawmaker, said to Arrieta, referring to the fact the LLA lawmaker initially claimed that she had to google the imprisoned repressor’s name to know who he was. The meeting is expected to resume later in the week, and then the lawmakers could ask for voting on putting together an investigative commission.

The head of the commission, Silvia Lospenatto, said she would announce the date for the next meeting..