Death of Carlos Blaquier: the criminal action against him in the case of crimes against humanity will be extinguished

Business man Carlos Pedro Tadeo Blaquier He died on Monday at the age of 95 after spending almost a month in the Zabala clinic without being able to be tried accused of being responsible for crimes against humanity committed under the last dictatorship.

The owner of the most important sugar factory in the country and of the Ledesma brand was processed in 2012 by federal justice for kidnappings and disappearances that took place in 1976, four months after the March 24 military coup. This fact has become known as “The Night of the Blackout” because a series of power cuts in the towns of Jujuy de Calilegua, El Talar and Libertador General San Martín were the scene of the kidnapping of hundreds of Ledesma factory workers, trade unionists, students and activists who are still missing to this day. According to the prosecution, in many of these cases Vehicles belonging to the company run by Blaquier were used.

“Following delays by the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, businessman Carlos Blaquier, owner of Ingenio Ledesma, died today without having been tried for crimes against humanity in Jujuy during the last dictatorship,” lamented the Nation’s Human Rights Secretary.

Through a thread on its official Twitter account, the wallet run by Horace Pietragalla ruled that “Blaquier’s death with impunity came after eight years of judicial delays which have caused irreparable harm to the Memory, Truth and Justice process and left the victims, their families and society without justice for these crimes”.

“This Secretariat considers it essential that urgent progress be made in the trial against Alberto Lemos, the administrator of the sugar factory during the dictatorship, which will allow to clarify in particular the responsibility that the company had in the illegal repression” , concluded the official message. .

In November 2012, Carlos Pedro Tadeo Blaquier and Alberto Lemos, director of the Ledesma establishment at the time the reported human rights violations were committed, were prosecuted for Unlawful deprivation of liberty in two cases for kidnappings of 29 workers and social leaders occurred between March and July 1976.

This lawsuit was partially confirmed in 2013 by the Federal Court of Appeal of Salta, a decision against which Blaquier’s defenders appealed. Chamber IV of the highest criminal court in the country, composed of judges Gustavo Hornos, Juan Carlos Gemignani and Eduardo Riggi, rendered Blaquier’s lack of merit and Lemos in March 2015. On this occasion, the maids considered that it was proven that the company provided vehicles for the kidnappings and at the same time understood that it was not proven that Blaquier and Lemos had became aware of the purposes for which these trucks were used.

In July 2021, the supreme court of justice revoked by majority the judgment of cassation, considering the pronouncement of this court as arbitrary. With the votes of Horacio Rosatti, Juan Carlos Maqueda and Elena Highton, the Court ruled that the decision to implicate Blaquier and Lemos “manifestly departed from the normative solution provided for the case, unduly hindering the progress of the trial “. The president of the highest court at the time, Carlos Rosenkrantz, voted against considering that the lack of merit should be left firm, while Ricardo Lorenzetti did not vote.

After this decision of the highest court, the plaintiffs requested the referral of the case to trial. At the end of 2021, a notice from the Forensic Corps warned that Carlos Pedro Tadeo Blaquier could not be prosecuted for mental health issues. As the expert concluded, “the cognitive decline presented by the defendant does not allow him to face an oral debate”. Considering the conclusions of this expertise, the Federal Oral Court of Jujuy separated him from the process for not being able to cope with the hearings.

In February 2022, the TOF of Jujuy ordered that new medical and psychiatric studies be carried out at the request of the prosecutor Federico Zurueta, of the Assistance Unit for cases of human rights violations during terrorism of State. The request was made following a disagreement between two doctors from the Directorate General for Investigations and Technological Support for Criminal Investigations (DATIP) who did not agree with the conclusions reached by the Medical Corps. -legal. According to these professionals, “Blaquier’s clinical diagnosis is a sham” to avoid going to court. In July last year, the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation rejected a proposal made by Blaquier’s defense against a court ruling that revoked the businessman’s exclusion from the two cases in which he was accused .

At the end of last year, the Federal Oral Court of Jujuy ordered new medical examinations to determine whether Carlos Blaquier was fit to face an oral trial. A few days ago, the businessman’s defense informed the Forensic Corps that Blaquier had new health problems, so the medical evaluations that had yet to be carried out could not be carried out.

This Monday he died at the age of 95 and about him the criminal action has ended, but there is another defendant, Alberto Lemo, administrator of the Ledesma plant at the time of the events. In the coming days, the Federal Oral Court of Jujuy must decide on the date for the opening of the trial against the only defendant for the crimes of “The Night of Blackout”.

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