Sergio Berni: the armored minister

The police repression of the security operation that should protect the surroundings of the Stadium Juan Carmelo Zerillo de la Plata during the match played Mouth and Gymnastics ended with more than a hundred injured and one dead: César Regueiro, a local fan who suffered, according to the autopsy, a “cardiorespiratory arrest not traumatic.”

And the criticism did not wait for the Buenos Aires Minister of Security, sergio berni, who was quick to define responsibilities and move from the line of fire. “I am not responsible for what happened,” he assured, and pointed to the club and the commissioner in charge of the operation.

“I have no doubt that the organization oversold and gave away tickets that far exceeded the capacity of the stadium,” he said. And he emphasized: “The main responsibility of entering the stadium is the stadium.” Although he acknowledged that the head of operations gave the order to close the doors of the stadium because not one more person entered.

But “the situation was badly resolved” and “it is a death that should have been avoided,” charged the minister, who quickly found the culprits in the provincial police. “The responsible is the head of the operation of security and the supervisor of the security operation. I have no doubt,” she remarked.

By request of Prosecutor Martin AlmironThe JJudge of Guarantees Agustín Grispo ordered the arrest of the commissioner Juan Manuel Gorbaran, head of the operation, for “malicious havoc followed by death.” But the opposition and various human rights organizations continued to demand, like the days after the incident, Berni’s resignation and a statement from the governor Axel Kicillo that never came

in the sights

“A man who tries to be brave and is so cowardly that he can’t handle what level of responsibility he has. sergio berni should resign if he has honor and dignity, the governor Axel Kicillo, if he does not run it from the portfolio, he is an accomplice and responsible. If we do not take charge and repudiate the ineffectiveness and irresponsibility with which Minister Berni handles the Buenos Aires Police, we will not leave.

We want to know what the minister knows that cannot be touched, because today everyone denies responsibilities as if the police were automated”, accused the vice president of the radical bloc in Congress, Karina Banfi. A reflection of what were so many other voices from the opposition and from human rights organizations that recalled the case of Facundo Astudillo Castro in the midst of a pandemic. However, Governor Kicillof supported the minister, and agreed with Berni that the Buenos Aires Police “acted in the worst way.”

“The police are there to protect, not to attack. Our government does not tolerate or cover up institutional violence”, he stated on C5N, subordinating any subsequent decision to what the Justice determines. The closed Juan Carmelo Zerillo stadium was reopenedand the Immediate Operations Tactical Unit (UTOI), a police force that is usually used to combat drug trafficking, will take charge of future operations in La Plata “so that everything goes well,” they explain from the government.

Among Kicillof and Berni there was a slap on the wrist behind closed doors, the claim that there will not be another incident, but the endorsement before the cameras. “There was never any talk of a replacement. Axel is satisfied with how Sergio is carrying things out and with the policies that he implemented, ”said a man close to the governor.

And that is despite the back and forth he had publicly with the former Minister of National Security Sabina Frederick (today at the head of the White Helmets), and with the current minister, Aníbal Fernández, who in the same week had his own headache due to the eviction of the Mapuche in Villa Mascardi. Added to that cocktail is his distance from Kirchnerism. Máximo Kirchner himself, in addition to being at odds with Kicillof, has just lashed out at the minister after the episode in La Plata: “You have to take responsibility, that cannot happen in a Peronist government.” But Berni resists. He will have to see until when.

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