On Thursday, September 12, Senators Silvia Estela Sapag and María Eugenia Duré raised a question of privilege in the chamber , when the Third Ordinary Session of the Upper House was beginning. Both senators denounced Senator Francisco Paoltroni, president of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Worship , for the strong pressures to which they were subjected to agree to sign a committee opinion in favor of the Bill on the Entry of Foreign Troops and Departure of National Troops of the Argentine Republic.
It turns out that on August 20, at the plenary meeting of the Senate's Foreign Relations and Defense committees , the authorization of 15 military exercises involving Argentine and foreign troops was debated, within the framework of the "bill under review that authorizes the entry of foreign troops into the national territory and the exit of national forces outside of it, as appropriate, to participate in the exercises contemplated in the combined exercise program, to be held on September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025," as stated in the agenda sent to the senators.
Also attending as guests and participating in the meeting were Juan Battaleme, Secretary of International Affairs for Defense of the Ministry of Defense; Jorge Vives, advisor to the Secretariat of Strategy and Military Affairs of the Ministry of Defense; and Daniel Árbol, advisor to the Secretariat of International Affairs for Defense of the Ministry of Defense.
At that meeting, both Sapag and Duré repeatedly questioned the officials from the Ministry of Defense who came to give explanations. Both raised objections regarding two of the exercises mentioned: “Guinex” and “Vinciguerra” .
The first, “Guinex,” is a military training exercise led by Brazil that will take place in the Gulf of Equatorial Guinea ; the second, “Vinciguerra,” is a military exercise between our Navy and the U.S. Navy that is scheduled to take place in Tierra del Fuego.
And as Senator Duré stated, it is a bilateral exercise in which 2,000 Yankee marines will participate. who are expected to be allowed to enter Ushuaia, being "the first time they want to carry out this exercise," said the senator on the radio program Palo y Zanahoria, which is broadcast on El Destape 1070.
Without obtaining further details from the Defense officials on the military exercises , but in particular on the "Vinciguerra" that involves the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands , the two senators refused to approve said military exercises and stated that they would make a minority opinion where they would vote against the realization of the "Guinex" and the "Vinciguerra."
Intimidating calls, messages and meetings
This set off alarm bells in the ruling party, since the number of senators was not enough to make a majority opinion . For this reason, under orders from Paoltroni, they would have put strong and persistent pressure on Sapag and Duré to desist from making their opinion, trying to force them to sign the majority opinion but in dissent .
"We received intimidating calls," Duré accused in dialogue with El Destape 1070. For her part, Senator Sapag accused Paoltroni of being a "coward" and said that "he began to send his assistants to pressure Duré and me to change our position and sign the dissenting opinion," denouncing that "they came to us 37 times" referring to phone calls, "visits" from advisors and assistants to their offices, for refusing to sign the opinion of the plenary session of the Foreign Relations and Defense commissions.
Duré complained about the lack of precision in response to her questions: "They did not answer any questions. The only thing they said was that they will answer it privately when it is a public matter and we need to know what they are going to do, how much it costs," she said. And she concluded: "As a senator, I will not accept or vote for anything that goes against our sovereignty."
As a consequence of this refusal to accompany the military exercises, she said: "A series of advisors, messages and intimidating calls began to be sent to us and to our advisors ." She added: "Calls and messages to get us to sign."
On this same subject, Agenda Malvinas published on June 15 that around that time, CEMEP - the Pediatric Medical Center of Specialties in the city of Río Grande - had received a visit from members of the US Marine Corps and BIM 5. In addition, on that occasion, they signed "a cooperation agreement for the training of troops that will be intensified in the area in the coming months, in order to have a health protocol in the event of medical contingencies in the military exercises that they carry out."
Sources:
