A few days after Death of San Francisco federal judge, Pablo Montesi (58), the president of the Federal Chamber of Córdoba, Abel Sánchez Torres, visited the main city of the department of San Justo to meet with the team of this court and offer them his support and encouragement to continue working as they had been doing until now. He also had a meeting with the former prosecutor for the Fight against Drug Trafficking, Bernardo Alberione.
“Pablo set the bar very high because when he took over (after Mario Garzón left) he took it in a state of backwardness and his arrival meant quickly bringing it up to date in civil and criminal procedures,” he said in dialogue with The Voice.
He reported that there will be a period of substitute judges (Carlos Ochoa from Río Cuarto will be the one to serve for six months), an issue that, Sánchez Torres believes, could cause in the San Francisco Court “a feeling of orphanhood and distance.”
For this reason, he added that they will make the necessary arrangements to call for a competition as soon as possible and appoint a new federal judge: “The idea is that people from San Francisco apply, it is a personal desire that in the localities where there are federal courts we try to have the same members of the community in charge. It is important that the judge has a direct relationship with the community with which he interacts, it is a plus,” he emphasized.
The president of the Federal Court of Córdoba explained that he hopes that the call for competition will be made before the end of the year, which he will propose to the Council of the Judiciary. Villa María and the Federal Court No. 1 of Córdoba are experiencing the same situation, so it would be a joint call.
“Hot” border and more gendarmes
Sánchez Torres also explained that the San Francisco Federal Court has special importance when working within what is known as the “hot frontier of drug trafficking.”
He admitted to meetings with the mayors of San Francisco, Arroyito, Brinkmann and Morteros to work together and acknowledged that they are moving forward with the idea of placing a National Gendarmerie post on Provincial Route 1, in Morteros jurisdiction. What’s more, the mayor of this town has already donated a property for its operation.
“This court is of special importance due to the drug trafficking situation. That is why I am having meetings with the mayors of San Francisco, Arroyito, Brinkmann and Morteros because in the latter we want to install a permanent Gendarmerie base, which is not just a presence of uniformed officers, which is important, but also personnel who carry out intelligence tasks. The governor (Martín Llaryora) gave his support because the route is provincial. Before the end of the year it should be installed,” explained Sánchez Torres.
It should be remembered that in March of this year, a truck with two occupants was intercepted in that area. They were transporting almost 157 kilos of cocaine hidden among wood, who were travelling from Salta to Buenos Aires.
Coordination between forces
Sánchez Torres also met with the former prosecutor for the fight against drug trafficking, Bernardo Alberione. Both, when asked by this newspaper, highlighted the coordination between the federal and provincial justices: “One of the major issues we discussed with the provincialization of the fight against drug dealing was coordination. One of the few places where synergy and joint action have been achieved was San Francisco, in other places it was more difficult because there are egos within the investigations that hinder the final objective, which is the fight against drug trafficking.”
Alberione, in relation to this, praised Montesi’s work: “One of the main achievements of Pablo’s role was to work with his head rather than with force, in the coordination and compatibility of activities. We went through the stage of (Luis) Viaut with his dismissal and conviction that seriously hindered the fight against drug trafficking, but the system worked, he was dismissed and convicted,” he said.
He then stated that an uncoordinated State becomes “fertile ground for the proliferation of drug trafficking” and clarified that even with limited resources they must create a hostile environment: “If you are not accurate you fuel the proliferation of drug trafficking, but if you are timely you send a message of operational capacity that makes them think twice about passing through here.”
Sánchez Torres insists on going to the “heart” of the bands
The president of the Federal Chamber of Córdoba insisted again that it is key to attack the economic movement of a drug organization: “The core is the financial economic assets, freezing of assets and shares, and quickly seizing assets.”
However, he spoke of some reservations that must be taken into account: “They can say that this raises important constitutional issues that we will discuss later because the right to property is at stake. The issue is to quickly come out with the law on confiscation and loss of property rights for the issue of drug trafficking, so that the State can dispose of these assets, aircraft, ships, houses, planes, cars, deposits, frozen assets. That is where it hits the heart of an organization,” he concluded.
