The case against the former Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, her deputy Pablo Nocetti and several heads of the Gendarmerie remains open in the federal court of Neuquén. Prosecutor Cristina Beute appealed the dismissal issued by Judge Gustavo Villanueva in favor of all the defendants, and insisted that the order given to the security force was contrary to the Constitution.
“The order issued violated constitutional and conventional precepts,” said the federal prosecutor in the text of her appeal.
Now the Federal Rock Chamber must decide, and there is a precedent: in a ruling dated September 26, 2018, that court stated that “There was no written order from the competent authority and that the
order that provoked the action of the security force lacked legality”.
Bullrich’s dismissal for the Campo Maripe case: Six years ago
The facts in question, as reported BLACK RIVER Journaloccurred just six years ago: June 21 and 22, 2017. By order of Bullrich, between 50 and 60 Gendarmerie troops broke into the Loma Campana area without warrant already order from the company YPFwho needed to carry out repairs, maintenance tasks and equipment replacement.
They cut roads and prevented members of the Campo Maripe community from moving freely and come to their homes.
The prosecutor remarked in her appeal brief that “the criminal event attributed to the then National Security Minister consists of having issued an order contrary to the National Constitution and the lawsaddressed to members of the National Gendarmerie, an order that unduly affected constitutional guarantees of the inhabitantsfor not having the corresponding judicial order ».
Bullrich’s dismissal for the Campo Maripe case: Coverage for YPF
“Specifically, the conduct consisted of ordering the performance by members of the National Gendarmerie, during the days of June 21 and 22, 2017, of a security operation for the benefit of the company YPF».
Pablo Noceti “was credited with having transmitted the order to the Headquarters of the V Region of the National Gendarmerie and later have controlled compliance with said ordermaking a telephone call to the Headquarters of the XII Comahue Group of the National Gendarmerie ».
Beute recalls that “the Federal Court of Appeals of General Roca and the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation” determined that “the state actions deployed had been illegal for lack of support in a written order of the competent authority.
Judge Villanueva’s ruling that dismissed Bullrich, Noceti and the accused Gendarmerie chiefs “incurs in non-observance of the substantive law and norms of constitutional and conventional hierarchy (…) It is arbitrary and void due to lack of grounds and apparent grounds.”at the discretion of the federal prosecutor.
“The order issued is contrary to the laws, the Judge has omitted all consideration of the fundamental constitutional and conventional regulatory framework applicable to the matter to be decided.”
Bullrich’s dismissal for the Campo Maripe case: “There were no urgent reasons”
Prosecutor Beute also indicates that “the right to transit of the inhabitants was affected in a general way, to ensure the performance of maintenance tasks that were not urgent by the YPF company (…) There are no communications from YPF with the National State who preach for reasons of urgency (…) There are no concomitant circumstances that indicate the existence of urgency».
On the contrary, he continues, “from the complaints accompanied by YPF it emerges that the difficulties in carrying out the work they existed since mid-2016″.
In this way, “there was the possibility of requiring a court order to stop the disturbances.”
Beute points out that “if there were problems since 2016, it is not explained why the conflict had not been prosecuted to obtain a court order for the use of force.”
“It is concluded, for the reasons stated, that the order issued violated constitutional and conventional precepts”.