The Senate Justice and Criminal Affairs Commission, headed by the libertarian legislator Juan Carlos Pagotto (La Rioja), will try to rule tomorrow on the initiative that declares “July 18 of each year as a Day of National Mourning, in tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack perpetrated on July 18, 1994 at the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Association ( AMIA) against the Argentine Republic.”
The project in question was approved by Deputies in 2023, within a package of laws that the Lower House endorsed in the middle of a session and that He was not accompanied by the then legislators Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel. The third rejection – rectified at the time, as stated in the stenographic version – was that of the Kirchnerist and banking union member, Sergio Palazzo.
“At midnight they voted on a package of eight projects that were not on the agenda, so not having been analyzed, we decided with Javier Milei not to vote for them,” Villarruel used as an argument after the session, held at the beginning of last July. .
Days later, the current head of state asked the former head of the lower house, Cecilia Moreauthat they change the vote to affirmative -in reality, this was left as an observation in the audit minutes- for that law and for the elimination of the process of proof of life for retirees and pensioners.
The project in question imposes that on July 18 “The National Flag will remain hoisted at half-mast in public buildings and places” and that “the Ministry of Education, through the Federal Education Council, in coordination with the educational authorities of the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires, will provide the necessary means so that public primary and secondary education establishments of state and private management, organize and develop commemorative activities for said date”.
Another point of the text is that the provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires are “invited to adopt similar measures.” Obtaining a quorum in the commission will be a challenge for Pagotto, near the end of a week that has little activity in the Senate and legislators who are in their provinces.
During the meeting, two initiatives promoted by the radical senator also appear Carolina Losada (Santa Fe) and that, During Cristina Kirchner’s previous administration in the Upper House, they were not taken into account or did not reach the chamber..
The first law would activate “prison of three (3) to ten (10) years for anyone who receives and whoever delivers a boy or girl, whether or not there is a price, promise of retribution or any other type of consideration.””. In the fundamentals, the Santa Fe legislator said: “Due to the lack of calls for Ordinary Sessions of the previous administration of this Honorable Senate, the joint opinion on the classification of ‘purchase’ and ‘sale’ of children agreed on 10/19/22 (S-404/21, S-1232 /22 AND PE-106/22. 02-06-2024) expired due to biennial renewal of the body. This is an extremely serious problem and still remains a great debt for our society.”.
Meanwhile, the second project states: “Anyone who promotes, facilitates, incites, induces or instigates the corruption of minors under 18 years of age for criminal purposes will be punished with imprisonment of 3 to 6 years. The penalty will be imprisonment of 6 to 10 years when the child or adolescent is under 13 years of age. Whatever the age of the minor, the penalty will be confinement or prison of 10 to 15 years, when there is deception, violence, threat, abuse of authority or any other means of intimidation or coercion, or taking advantage of a situation of vulnerability, or by payment or promise of remuneration, as well as if the author were an ascendant, brother, guardian or cohabitant or person in charge of education or guardian.”
Furthermore, the proposal – also signed by the radical Pablo Blanco and Guadalupe Tagliaferriof the PRO- makes it clear that the penalties will be aggravated “by one third to one half in the case of a public official or member of the security forces, as well as in the case that the criminal conduct carried out by the child or adolescent is one of the criminal types described in the narcotics law No. 23,737.”
