Libertarian presidential candidate Javier Milei is facing legal trouble after his conservative rival Patricia Bullrich announced she had filed criminal and legal charges against the La Libertad Avanza leader.
Bullrich, the presidential candidate for the Juntos por el Cambio opposition coalition, said she had made a denunciation before the courts after Milei accused her on television of planting bombs at nursery schools and belonging to the Montoneros guerrilla group in the 1970s.
Following the accusation, the opposition presidential candidate has decided to file criminal and civil charges against the La Libertad Avanza leader.
She made the announcement during a press conference in San Isidro, saying: "Not only did I answer him, but I'm going to file a criminal complaint.”
Bullrich confirmed the development in a post on social media.
“You know you lied,” she tweeted, addressing Milei. “I reported you so that the truth comes out. It’s not like anything goes for a vote, [this] about something serious that affects me, my family and my grandchildren.”
She continued: “We have to compete without lying, and set an example for Argentines. That’s why the punishment should fit the crime.
Milei had claimed in a recent television interview that Bullrich “was a ‘montonera’ guerrilla fighter who threw bombs.”
“She planted bombs at nursery schools, she was part of a terrorist organisation,” declared the anti-establishment La Libertad Avanza candidate.
Bullrich was a young activist for the Juventud Peronista (“Peronist Youth”), but she denies ever having been formally part of Montoneros, of which her brother-in-law Rodolfo Galimberti was a major leader. The guerrilla organisation went underground in 1974.
On Thursday, Bullrich promised that if elected president she would order compensation be paid to the victims of a Montonero attack on the 29th Infantry Regiment in Formosa Province on October 5, 1975. Slamming "inexplicable" delays by the government to deal with the case, she described her intention as "an act of justice."
In the PASO primaries last August 13, Milei’s alliance emerged with the most votes, taking 29.8 percent, followed by Bullrich’s Juntos por el Cambio with 28 percent (her candidacy combined with that of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta) and the ruling Unión por la Patria coalition, which nominated Economy Minister Sergio Massa after he saw off a challenge from social leader Juan Grabois, took 27.2 percent.
– TIMES/NA/AFP
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