There was an opinion in the Senate and the “Anti-Mafias law” advances for its sanction: what it is about

In a brief meetingLa Libertad Avanza and its allies (represented in the Senate by the UCR and the PRO) obtained the majority opinion in three reforms that have the sponsorship of the Ministry of National Security: the regime of Comprehensive Approach against Organized Crime (or Anti-Mafia Law)the regularization of firearms along with the extension of the national program for the voluntary surrender of weapons and the regime for the dismantling of automobiles and sale of auto parts.

As reported Scopeand in the midst of a recurrence of absences of Peronism in all the debate commissions, the only positions on the Anti-mafia law that were heard in the room were those of Executive officials or provincial allies, whose legislative references signed the majority opinion. In that framework it was that Oscar Parrilli (Union for the Homeland) He was present at the meeting, as the only presence of his block, and He asked to summon two specialists.

The response of the president of the Commission on Internal Security and Drug Trafficking and Justice and Criminal Affairs, the senator Carolina Losada (UCR), came lapidary: “I understand that you were used to this commission not working, because in 2023 there was no meeting, […] But there were three meetings where different officials came and you had the possibility of calling the people you wanted. That stage is over“.

Subsequently, Parrilli asked for the possibility of incorporating a change of order in the drafting of the project of regularization of firearms and the extension of the national voluntary surrender of weapons program. Losada this time answered with a chicane: “I recommend that you make a minority opinion. You can sign it, but no senator from your block will accompany you.”. The senator Pablo Blanco (UCR) He also contributed: “From the signing of the opinion to the treatment of the premises there was time to modify it. It would be good to know the proposal, because if it exceeds the opinion that we are going to have today quietly in the premises it can be modified.”

Anti-Mafia Law and regularization of firearms: what the projects say

The regime of Comprehensive Approach against Organized Crime criminally defined as criminal organization to the association of three or more people and, although it does not determine what is meant by association, it proposes a list of crimes that are attributed to those of a mafia. He then points out that there is a criminal organization when it “has as its end the causing fear of executive authoritieslegislative or judicial”, when “the mechanisms established to enforce the law are notoriously insufficient to stop a chain of criminal acts”, or when “the real property of the National State is threatened by the actions of members of one or more organizations with similar objectives.“.

Besides, collectivizes sentences for all members of the criminal organizationl (each member must serve the maximum sentence corresponding to the most serious crime committed by any other member) and establishes ““Area Subject to Special Investigation” that allow a person to be detained for up to 15 days for investigations, their assets seized and their communications intercepted.

The regularization of firearms guarantees a 360-day window to legalize weapons that are not registered by the country’s users, through of a digital mechanism and an economic incentive (for which the Government stipulated an amount of $57 million). At the same time, the sixth extension of the National Voluntary Surrender of Firearms Programwhich is usually carried out for a period of two years but this time it is proposed to be until 2028.

Finally, the project that modifies Law 25,761 on Legal Regime for the Disassembly of Automobiles and Sale of their Auto Parts proposes increasing from 30 to 142 pieces of automobiles authorized to be recovered and sold, in the case of abandoned, lost, confiscated or kidnapped vehicles.

Juan Pablo Allan

Juan Pablo Allan, Executive Director of ANMaC.

Senate

Specialists against the Anti-Mafias law

In parallel to the officials, different specialists expressed concern for the writing of the Anti-mafia law every time they had the opportunity to visit the premises. Although this possibility was more numerous in the Deputies’ commissions, in the Senate showed up Marcelo Seghini, director of the Center for Defense and Security Studies, who requested that issues related to the “approach the drug issue from a comprehensive approach and see substance consumption as a health problem” or the “economic, financial and institutional dimension of these criminal acts: it says nothing about money laundering and the probable penetration of drug trafficking in the structures of the State”.

Seghini was not asked any questions and his contributions to the project were not considered. Similar case occurred with Kevin Nielsenvice president of National Committee for the Prevention of Torturewho participated in the first day of debate of Deputies and commented to Ámbito that “the crimes mentioned in the law are not the typical ones linked to organized crime, but rather a very wide range which includes most of the crimes for which people are imprisoned today in Argentina. So, it is a law that, due to the selectivity of the penal system, will attract the same clientele that it already attractsbut also extending responsibility to anyone who had taken part, helped or cooperated. Therein lies the danger: what is meant by cooperating? What is proposed is a criminalization ‘by drag’“.

“In short, what it does is a kind of investigative shortcut, making what is understood by collaboration more flexible, with the danger of covering the person’s entire social circle,” he said and added: “We have a system where penalties are proportional to people’s behaviors, which resembles a fair system. This completely breaks it and resembles a system where what is penalized is belonging to certain categories.” of people, where a “window opens to the total discretion of the police forces. We must understand what population segment these discretionary detentions operate on (young, poor and racialized) and under what circumstances they take place (illegal interrogations, harassment, threats and even torture).” “The duty is that they investigate you to stop you. With this law they would arrest you to investigate you”, he synthesized.

As a counterproposal, Nielsen pointed to possible reforms, agreeing in his perspective with Seghini: “There are two options, or they are fought seriously, pointing to the gears without which it cannot operate, such as the police and judicial corruption and money launderingor there is a market coup legalizing and removing the object of their business from criminals (and therefore from the bloody dispute. The second option is very far from the public debate and the first is absent from the legal reforms that want to be implemented. Everything done so far continues to point to capture the lower layers of the crime chain”.

Fernando Brovelli Report.-