Two years have passed since the explosion at school No. 144 in Aguada San Roque who took the lives of the workers Nicolás Francés and Mariano Spinedi and then to the teacher Monica Jara. The court case with nine defendants, including officials and businessmen, will be at the gates of elevation to trial in September. Meanwhile, the demand for justice remains intact on the part of the families and the ATEN teachers’ union. Today there will be a march that will end in front of the government house.
“It is a very heartfelt date for the group of education workers for what it represents. We are aware of an event that has moved our compañeros from Neuquén and at the national level,” the newspaper told RÍO NEGRO. ATEN Secretary General, Marcelo Guagliardo.
Today is a day of tribute to Mónica Jara, the teacher who died after being hospitalized for several days, but it is also a moment in which they demand “safe schools”.
He lawyer Darío Kosovsky (complaint by ATEN) said to BLACK RIVER RADIO that at this point the legal case is “At the gates of the requirement for elevation to trial”. The investigation that the prosecution, through the chief prosecutor Sandra González Taboada and the complaints are carrying out, has nine people charged between officials and contractors.
“What we tried from the beginning to suggest (that the explosion) is an avoidable tragedy,” said the lawyer. Along these lines, he said that “A preparatory inquiry about an accident is not the same as about maneuvers that -in our opinion- are going to be accredited and that have to do with negligence in the administration of public funds and that end in deaths”.
Kosovsky defined that one of ATEN’s mottos is the one that says: “Corruption kills”, and he is convinced that there are enough elements in the cause as to prove that fact. An accounting expertise is awaited together with the prosecution to determine the damage that was caused in the public administration, by funds that were poorly paid to a company that did not carry out the work as it should, he added.
One of the hearings for the formulation of charges in Cutral Co (Photo: file)
The lawyer was specific when pointing out that, despite the fiscal accusation against officials for acts of corruption, even so “The decision on the preventive removal of officials has not even been made.” On the other hand, regarding the company, Kosovsky pointed out that it was proven that after the explosion at the school, “payments related to the work continued to be made,” that is, that “They didn’t even stop those payments.”
The final deadline for the investigation is set for September 26 and before that date, he considers that the hearing for the opening of the trial should be held. There was criticism of the attitude of the provincial authorities because there were no sanctions or disciplinary procedures, nor was there a political gesture towards society to remove officials from their posts. “A school exploded, three people died and the relatives were not received, there was not even a mea culpa,” manifested.
For the general secretary of the Neuquén teachers, the deaths of gas operator Nicolás Francés, the assistant Mariano Spinedi and the teacher Jara, “It is one of the most important debts that Governor Omar Gutiérrez has”, who, shortly after finishing his term, did not have “the initiative to remove from office those who are currently in office.”
Guagliardo considered that “it is a challenge for the governor (Rolando Figueroa) who assumes.” He was very critical of that decision: “Public Works is a very sensitive area and there must be changes,” he said.
In this sense, he said that it is necessary to modify this structure because the safety of thousands of people in the province depends on them. “If the current governor did not remove them, the next one has to,” he concluded.
The legal case that is being followed in the II Circumscription, based in Cutral Co, has as defendants the Undersecretary of Public Works, Roberto Deza; the directors of Contracted Works, Carlos Córdoba and Raúl Capdevilla; the inspector of the work Sergio Percat; to the General Directors of Rural Education, Fabio Luna and of Primary Level, Patricia Cresatti.
Then, to Héctor Villanueva, the managing partner of Arte Construcciones; Diego Bulgheroni, technical representative and the builder Eduardo Afione.
The crimes that are foisted on them range from culpable havoc aggravated by its death result, in real bankruptcy with fraudulent administration; breach of duties of a public official in real bankruptcy with culpable homicide.
Two years after the explosion in San Roque, there will be a strike and mobilization in Neuquén
The explosion occurred on June 29 around 1:50 p.m., in the Aguada San Roque area. Both the French gas operator, as well as his nephew and assistant, Spinedi and the teacher went to the sector where the girls were sleeping (no students until then) when there was an explosion and a fire. The two workers died instantly and Monica managed to get out through a window and died thirteen days later.
The gas leak occurred in a transition nipple that was threaded to a “T” fitting, as the prosecution argued at the arraignment hearing.
Listen to the complete interview with Dario Kosovsky at BLACK RIVER RADIO:
Strike and march of ATEN two years after the explosion of the school in Aguada San Roque
Today there is a strike by the Neuquén teachers’ union, which will gather at 11 o’clock at the monument to San Martín in the capital of Neuquén. From there they will march to the Government House to demand safe schools.
Angélica Lagunas, general secretary of ATEN capitalspeak BLACK RIVER RADIO and explained the reasons for the mobilization and the strike: “we demand justice first of all because we are reaching 2 years and the case has not yet been raised.”
And he clarified: “We call it the triple labor crime. And why do we say that it is a labor crime? Because it was a crime that could be avoidedIt was a very adverse situation, we were coming from the pandemic, the schools for 2 years were not fixed and many of them were not in good condition. This date expresses the pain of what a policy can bring, which is the one carried out by the Government of the province, but also by the national Government of abandonment of public schools “.
And he updated the situation of school 144: «To this day the school is operating in a trailer. 2 years have passed and the government of the province has not yet put the school on its feet, has not fixed it and has not released those trailers so that the boys and girls can once again have the space as they deserve and accordingly.
Finally he said: “The Government of the province is preparing a path like the one it prepared with Carlos Fuentealba, of many years of waiting to later make a trial where the penalties are derisory. Today we are going to march to say Enough with impunity, investigate now, go to trial and we want the maximum sentences for all those responsible«.
Listen to Angélica Lagunas, general secretary of ATEN capital, on RÍO NEGRO RADIO:
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