It's not too often you get a five-column headline in the newspaper ("Nixon Resigns", "Allies Begin D-Day Invasion" etc.) and while today's news in Argentina might not herald a world war, it did warrant an end to end headline: The mayor of Buenos Aires was impeached. By a vote of 30 to 7, a special session of the legislature suspended mayor Aníbal Ibarra for negligence in the case of the Cromagnon nightclub fire. For those who don't know, 193 people died on December 30, 2004 in a fire at the Cromagnon, where many exit doors were blocked in clear violation of city codes. Ibarra's putative responsibility arises from the incompetance or corruption of the city agencies that were charged with regulating and inspecting nightclubs for code violations. After the verdict, the parents of the victims rejoiced. Ibarra did not resign, but until the case is closed will be replaced by vice-mayor Jorge Telerman, who requested that it be finished by December 10 when newly elected congressmen replace their predecessors.
While it is a hopeful sign that there is some movement on this tragedy, one worrisome aspect is that the vote was fairly clearly split on partisan lines. Fourteen members of Mauricio Macri's center-right opposition party combined with 15 other opposition lawmakers for the 'Yes' vote and 5 pro-Ibarra legislators made of the bulk of the 'No' votes. Six members of President Kirchner's party sat out the vote. The deciding 30th vote came from the only Kirchnerist to break ranks, ex-folk musician Juan Farías Gómez, who said he was ill when he missed last week's session that was marked by clashed between the Cromagnon parents and authorities. Ibarra's response was that the vote was a form of revenge from Macri and a parody of justice. We hope that as this case moves forward that doesn't turn out to be true.
Habrá juicio político a Ibarra, que será reemplazado por Telerman [La Nación]
Ibarra acusó a Macri de buscar un rédito político en la tragedia de Cromañón [Clarín]
City impeaches its mayor [Buenos Aires Herald]
B Aires mayor suspended over fire [BBC]
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1 comments:
I have been following (to the best of my ability) the Cromañon tradegy. What interests me is if the initial public outcry that linked the actual fire accident to larger political and social failures and tensions in Argentine society (in January and Feburary), are still being refered to by the victims parents and/or others, who claim to seek justice? Especially, how has the recent summit of the Americas, Bush's presence, or the people's summit impacted the discussion of Cromañon in Argentine media and beyond?
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