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ARGENTINA: Families Still Fighting for Justice a Year After Tragic Fire

Maricel Drazer

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 30 2005 (IPS) - The tragedy that occurred in the popular Republica Cromañón discotheque in the Argentine capital a year ago Friday accentuated the distance between the citizens and their elected officials, according to experts and the families of victims of the fire that killed 194 young concert-goers.

More than 30 people are facing criminal charges in connection with the Dec. 30, 2004 disaster, and Buenos Aires Mayor Aníbal Ibarra was suspended from his post and is facing impeachment proceedings.

“We mourn for our loved ones, but Ibarra mourns his lost office,” Diego Rozengardt told IPS. His 18-year-old brother Julián was one of the victims of the fire in the overcrowded night club, considered the worst man-made disaster in the history of Argentina.

The ongoing impeachment trial of Ibarra, for maladministration, will not close the gap between voters and their political leaders, which on the contrary will continue to grow, said the relatives of victims as well as analysts who talked to IPS.

On Nov. 14, the Buenos Aires city legislature narrowly voted to suspend Ibarra, the city’s first centre-left mayor, for four months. The impeachment process, which could permanently remove him from office, will carry no criminal punishment.

The vote was held after five months of investigation by a special inquiry commission.

Several of the city legislators who either voted against impeachment or abstained argued that there were flaws in the procedure that could lead to the annulment of the political trial.

“The political class have shielded themselves with their speeches and their business-as-usual attitude. They are bureaucrats. They have not carried out any self-critique of their role. No one has said: we are not doing a good job of guaranteeing the rights of the citizens,” writer and journalist Alejandro Margulis told IPS.

The analysts also agreed that the tragic blaze has been used for political ends.

“The process undertaken in the city legislature to determine whether or not to impeach Ibarra was marked by the same political practices seen prior to the tragedy, more oriented towards the convenience of each political sector than to an efficient, serious process,” said political scientist Delia Ferreira Rubio.

The suspended mayor himself said this week that the impeachment trial was approved “only for political convenience and to protect many legislators” who today are judging him.

Ibarra has consistently alleged that his accusers are motivated by party interests – a charge that his main adversary, Deputy Mauricio Macri, denies.

Political scientist Atilio Borón said the question of the impeachment trial has been manipulated and utilised for political interests, “which has left the sensation among the public that the political leadership does not care in the least about what happens to the people, and that is very bad for democracy.”

After the catastrophe, which occurred during a concert given by the rock band Callejeros, a number of serious irregularities came to light.

The evidence indicates that the fire started when a firecracker hit the club’s ceiling. The setting off of firecrackers was a traditional feature of shows by the group playing that night, as well as other local bands.

Other contributing factors were the insufficient or non-existent safety measures adopted by the club, the fact that the emergency exit doors were locked by the owners (to prevent patrons from sneaking in without paying), and the fact that the number of people in the club was far over the official capacity.

These blatant violations of safety regulations raised strong suspicion of corruption on the part of municipal authorities, including the fire department.

In the year since the tragedy, the families of the victims have struggled to ensure that justice is served for their loved ones, but they do not make up a homogenous group with a single voice.

While they have remained in constant contact with one another, the families are organised into no less than five groups, which differ widely in terms of both their political views and the strategies and actions they have adopted to achieve legal and political justice.

Some are vocal opponents of the city government and other authorities with the same political leanings, while others have stood out for their openly aggressive attitude and conduct, as seen in the legislative chambers when the decision was passed to impeach Ibarra, or outside the residence of club owner Omar Chabán, the main defendant in the corresponding criminal trial.

“I think that the most prevalent attitude among the families is what has come to be called ‘anti-politics’, although it is perfectly understandable that they have suffered a great deal, and that puts their attitude completely beyond reproach,” said Borón.

“But I’m not really sure if this is conducive to democracy,” he added. “More than anything, I think their response is a symptom of the fact that democracy is not working particularly well.”

But in the view of Ferreira Rubio, “the families of the victims are what has kept the tragedy from simply being forgotten, without anyone being held responsible, as has happened in previous cases.”

For Rozengardt, the actions undertaken by the families “are not a matter of revenge or an institutional coup, but rather a means of strengthening democracy.”

Rozengardt, a member of a group of survivors of the tragedy and families of the victims known as “Justice for the Kids”, added that “the fact that the mayor is obliged to render accounts, and seriously, means that the people have the power in their hands.”

Alongside the impeachment proceedings, a criminal court investigation is being carried out, overseen until the end of this year by Judge Marcelo Lucini, whose handling of the case has been almost unanimously praised.

The case file, which is now close to 35,000 pages long, will be passed on to Judge Néstor Costabel as of Jan. 1.

“These delays and ‘flip-flops’ end up working against the administration of justice, and the politicians take advantage of the grey areas in Argentine law,” Margulis remarked to IPS.

“Justice has moved forward only as far as political power has allowed it to,” said Rozengardt, who criticised the latest court decision that lessened the charges against the majority of the public officials implicated in the case.

As the owner of the club, Chabán is facing the most serious charges and is currently in prison awaiting trial for manslaughter. Former justice and security secretary Juan Carlos López has also been accused of manslaughter, but is currently appealing.

The members of Callejeros and five employees of the Buenos Aires city government are also facing trial, but have not been imprisoned.

Most consider the impeachment proceedings against Ibarra as the most striking aspect of this tragic case, but Margulis stressed that this does not necessarily imply substantial changes in the country’s “political culture.”

In a similar vein, Borón commented that “Argentina is a country with little capacity for metabolising tragedies. I have the impression that some time from now, the whole matter will simply be forgotten.”