Latin America
Related: About this forumArgentina's Macri removes prosecutor in postal service fraud case involving his family
Argentine President Mauricio Macri ordered the removal of Juan Pedro Zoni, the federal prosecutor investigating allegations of large-scale fraud committed by his family conglomerate, SOCMA, against the nation's postal service.
SOCMA, which controlled the Argentine Postal Service between its privatization in 1997 and its renationalization in 2003, owes $268 million to the postal service - a debt Commercial Court Prosecutor Gabriela Boquín alleges to have been fraudulently amassed while diverting the proceeds to other Macri interests.
Macri attempted to rescind 98% of his family's postal service debt by decree in February 2017 - a decree he was forced to retract due to the resulting political scandal, known locally as the Curreo Argentino (a play on the Spanish word for mail, correo, and the slang term currar - to embezzle).
Boquín's complaint was referred to Zoni's office, who reportedly remained active in the investigation despite the disinterest of Federal Judge Ariel Lijo - a Macri ally who oversees the stalled case.
Zoni's removal was signed by Chief Federal Prosecutor Eduardo Casal, whom Macri appointed in December after forcing Alejandra Gils Carbó out eight months before the end of her tenure.
Gils Carbó, nominated by Macri's predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was confirmed by the Argentine Senate in 2012; Casal was named on an "interim" basis, thereby skirting Senate approval.
Their removal has been compared to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's firing of that country's chief prosecutor, Luisa Ortega Díaz, last August following her criticism of crackdowns on anti-government demonstrators.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F106482-en-linea-con-el-interes-de-los-macri&edit-text=
Argentine prosecutors Alejandra Gils Carbó and Juan Pedro Zoni, removed by President Macri amid fraud investigations involving his family.

Judi Lynn
(162,858 posts)His methods are just like Trump's. So horrible it doesn't seem possible.
The right-wing has learned to take ultimate advantage of every part of the law, bending it, breaking it, ruining people as a daily habit. It will only get worse for both countries until they are both stopped.
Do you think the people they use to carry out their will are just greedy and ambitious, or do you think they are afraid he will destroy them if they don't cooperate, or a combination?
This is a huge advantage Macri has handed himself and his greedy family. He'd better live it up. His excesses won't be able to protect him forever.
sandensea
(22,850 posts)All the more so after I read last week that Rajoy had given his mother expedited Spanish citizenship (she's the grand-daughter of Spaniards - but only on one side of her family).
Of course, I doubt she'll be happy there for long.
Macri's mother, you see, is said to be a real snob; "Macri's father (her ex) is a leftist compared to her," is how once acquaintance once put it.
Given how little right-wing Spaniards tend to think of South Americans (even white ones), she'll probably find appreciation hard to come by.
That said, the debt bubble is what worries me most - even more than their abuses of power and impunity. That's what should be investigated most of all, once these people leave office.
They're creating a real debt trap for Argentina, all too similar to the one that walloped the country in '81 and then again in 2001.
To think that when Cristina Kirchner was in office, with all her mistakes (the dollar restrictions particularly, which even she admits was an overreaction), the neocons had to bribe a judge (Greasa) to stop Argentina's bondholders from collecting (remember that?).
If this Macri debt binge keeps going unabated, the bondholders will simply be unable to collect - as early as 2021, according to some pro-Macri economists themselves (!).
That's being "pro-business" for you.
Thanks as always for your thoughts. Have a great weekend, Judi.