Argentine presidential offices raided by investigators for first time in history

[sandensea]

Argentine Federal Judge Sergio Torres ordered a massive raid on Wednesday at thirteen Buenos Aires offices belonging to President Mauricio Macri, his family conglomerate, and numerous officials in his administration.

The raid, pursuant to conflict of interest investigations over Macri's decision last year to open more domestic air routes, included three offices in the presidential office building known as the Casa Rosada - among them those of Chief of Staff Fernando de Andreis (a Macri relative) and Transport Minister Guillermo Dietrich.

This was the first such incident in the Casa Rosada's 131-year history.

Approved by Judge Torres in March, the investigation was triggered by a series of decrees signed by Macri beginning June 2016 that granted Colombian airline Avianca broad access to Argentina's air routes at expense of its own national airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, and its domestic subsidiary, Austral.

Avianca was given access to Argentina's domestic air market two months after the Macri family's SOCMA conglomerate sold its small charter airline, MacAir, to Avianca Holdings.

The raid, which took place Wednesday, was kept secret; it was reported this Friday by the conservative Buenos Aires news daily La Nación.

The nation's largest daily, Clarín, and its cable news outlet, TN - whose support helped elect the right-wing Macri administration 18 months ago - has made no mention of the raids.

Members of Macri's administration and his family have also come under scrutiny over a bribery scandal involving Brazil's largest builder Odebrecht, which has admitted to paying nearly $800 million in bribes across Latin America - including at least $20 million to secure a lucrative Buenos Aires rail tunnel contract in partnership with the Macri family's contractor IECSA.

IECSA's offices were themselves raided for evidence on June 5.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diarioregistrado.com%2Fpolitica%2Fescandalo-avianca--allanaron-las-oficinas-de-la-casa-rosada_a593aa7f9d669e67b19cf680e&edit-text=



The Casa Rosada

[Judi Lynn]

1. Federal Judge Sergio Torres is guided by a tremendous sense of duty to his country

and to the law. He most clearly has put his life on the line, considering those who expect to control the country and everything in it as soon as possible.

It boggles the mind considering the nearly infinite scheming and plotting involved in what they have done to pull off their latest corruption. These people are not civilized, they only put on primitive pretensions while their actions and their dirty reputations give them away.

Hope there are enough men and women of principle on hand to give authority and depth to bring real honesty, honor, intelligence back to Argentina's leadership, and get rid of the criminals trying to steal everything in sight in the moment they have the ability to do it.

This is a big one.

You have to wonder about Avianca, too, now!

Thank you, sandensea.