Federal judge María Eugenia Capuchetti on Thursday ordered a series of preliminary investigative measures to establish whether President Javier Milei’s government provided assistance to and helped cover up Flávio Bolsonaro’s escape from Brazil for Miami via Argentina.
The investigation is examining possible irregularities in immigration controls and the role of national government officials in facilitating the Brazilian politician’s transit through the country.
Prosecutors at the Comodoro Py federal courthouse in Buenos Aires are moving to consolidate various complaints filed against the government by opposition figures in recent days.
The news last Thursday was the magistrate accepting Paloma Ochoa’s request to demand reports from various public entities. It was also leaked that the courts are seeking to determine whether there were irregularities in the frontier controls and whether government officials facilitated Bolsonaro’s entry into the country and his subsequent departure from Iguazú Airport.
What is known until now is that the National Immigration Authority cleared the entry of Bolsonaro and his family with Brazilian documents. A special guard mounted by the presidential advisor Santiago Caputo is also suspected with vehicles of the Yacyretá binational hydro-electric dam and also members of SIDE intelligence agency.
Capuchetti asked the Foreign Ministry under Pablo Quirno to inform whether it has previously received alerts or requisites related to the judicial situation of the Brazilian senator.
Last Thursday Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli, assured in public that Bolsonaro’s eguró tránsit in this country was legal because "there was no impediment from Interpol."
The judge also asked for more details from the Immigration authorities in the form of a detailed report on control procedures. Capuchetti also demanded the security cameras of ARCA tax bureau, the Federal Police, the Border Guard and Aeropuertos Argentina, seeking to determine all Bolsonaro’s movements on Argentine soil.
The Perfil newspaper ascertained that in the last few hours Capuchetti’s file, originating with the denunciation of Partido Obrero leader Gabriel Solano, dirigente del PO, was also expanded with the charges of the socialist deputy Esteban Paulón.
US intermediary paid
Meanwhile, the owner of the airline that operates the private jet that flew Bolsonaro to Miami told the AFP news agency that the flight was arranged and paid for by an intermediary in the aviation sector from a bank account in the United States.
“I was hired by a ‘broker’ whom I have known for 10 years, who sells flights and lives in the United States,” businessman Luis Grande, owner of Baires Fly SA – the company that transported Bolsonaro – said in a telephone conversation from an apartment he owns in Florida.
According to Grande, this intermediary – whose identity he refused to reveal – transferred a payment of US$150,000 from his company’s account at a US bank to an Argentine bank.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the plane had allegedly been chartered by Jason Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump.
The White House has not yet commented on the matter.
Grande stated that he does not know the intermediary’s client and that the intermediary told him he did not know the client either prior to the transaction.
The information about the ‘broker’ – who holds dual Argentine and US nationality and lives in Florida – was first reported on Wednesday by the Perfil newspaper, citing anonymous sources.
Bolsonaro crossed the border from Brazil into Argentina by land on Tuesday night and took off shortly afterwards from the border town of Puerto Iguazú, according to the Argentine authorities.
It is still unclear how he travelled from Brasília to the border area.
Argentine media reported that Bolsonaro had entered the airport in a van filmed by TV channels, but an aviation source told AFP that by that time he had already boarded the plane after entering via a different entrance.
– TIMES/PERFIL/AFP
Comments