The case for the murders of newborn babies at the Neonatal Hospital in the city of Córdoba enters its final stage. The Control Judge Juan Manuel Fernández López confirmed the elevation to trial against the nurse Brenda Agüero, accused of being the material author of the deaths, and reaches the same Minister of Health of the province from that time, Diego Cardozo.
In the same resolution, ratified the measure against ten former officials, both from the health center and the ministry, accused of covering upfalsifying evidence or not reporting the case to the authorities.
The nurse Brenda Agüero was considered the alleged perpetrator of “qualified homicide.” by repeated insidious procedure” in five cases and accused of “attempted homicide by insidious procedure” in eight other cases. In total, she will be judged for her participation in 13 cases within the hospital.
The trial will not only aim to elucidate what happened inside the hospital but also to demonstrate administrative responsibilities.. In this case, prosecutor Garzón aimed at the top of the administrative ladder by taking Diego Cardozo to the bench. The former ministers will have to give explanations, as will a large part of the Neonatal leadership.
In the 1,065-page resolution, Judge Fernández López has the peculiarity that he begins in his conclusion by rejecting all the proposals of the defendants’ defenses and confirms in their entirety the accusation of the investigating prosecutor Raúl Garzón.
Neonatal Cause: mothers of murdered babies ask that prosecutor Garzón not be removed
For the control judge, the reason for all the events were the product of “failures in the internal controls of an institutional scheme, translated into accusations against officials, “It allowed a profuse homicidal reiteration (five fatal results and another eight failed attempts) which, in return, allows us today to have a plexus of indicative evidence of a forcefully univocal nature.”
This “permissive and not very expeditious action,” would have allowed, as the magistrate interprets, “the continuation of the homicidal action, while a specific suspicion was already being considered, perhaps in the desire to advance an internal investigation that, naively, the officials brought here to process they understood that, due to its eventual completeness and forcefulness, it could not only relieve them of functional and criminal responsibility, but even show them as upright and efficient professionals.”
All those responsible within the Neonatal
In addition to Agüero, almost the entire Neonatal leadership was criminally responsible.. The director of the Neonatal, Elizabeth Liliana Asíswas accused as a co-author of omission of duties as a public official, along with the former deputy director and boss of Brenda, the nursing graduate. Alicia Beatriz Ariza. In the case of the person in charge of the medical center, the accusation of “cover-up doubly qualified by the seriousness of the fact” is added.
Claudia Ringelheim, the former deputy medical director of Neonatal is accused of omission of duties as a public official and cover-up doubly qualified by the seriousness of the preceding fact and by her status as a public official. Like Marta Gómez Flores, former head of Neonatal Neonatology, to whom “ideological falsehood” is attributed.
Another of the doctors at the hospital is Adriana Moralez, which is attributed to her omission of duties as a public official and cover-up doubly qualified by the seriousness of the preceding fact and by her status as a public official. As well also María Alejandra Luján, Neonatal doctor. She is accused of omitting the duties of a public official and ideological falsehood.
The former deputy administrative director Alejandro Escudero Salama, he is accused in this case of omission of duties as a public official and cover-up, doubly qualified by the seriousness of the preceding fact and by his status as a public official. But he must go to court to give explanations for the secret meeting with prosecutor Guillermo González and the head of the judicial morgue Moisés David Dib, which is under analysis by Chamber prosecutor Julio Leiva.
Cardozo, at the head of officials with accusations
A Diego Cardozo, Minister of Health during the administration of Governor Juan Schiaretti, He is attributed omission of duties as a public official and cover-up, doubly qualified by the seriousness of the preceding fact and by his status as a public official. The sentence you can receive is up to 50 years.
Fernández López explains that The former minister had a passive role and did not respect the protocols within his portfolio to “give intervention to Justice in the face of possible criminal events that warrant investigation. Gauto intervened in each of these events, precisely because he was the highest representative of the area that brings together the different legal and technical directorates on which the obligation to make such ministerial directives operational weighs.
Alejandro Gautothe former Legal Director of the Ministry of Health is involved for omission of duties as a public official and cover-up, doubly qualified by the seriousness of the preceding fact and by his quality as a public official.
Al Former Secretary of Health, Pablo Carvajalthe prosecutor accuses him of omission of duties as a public official and cover-up, doubly qualified by the seriousness of the preceding event and by his status as a public official.
These provincial officials differ in their actions, according to Judge Fernández. Apparently, the former minister “Cardozo assures that he consulted Caravaja, on several occasions, about the criminal complaint” and on the other, the former secretary, unaware of said information, “exposing the allegedly mendacious statement made by his co-defendant.” And he reproduces part of the statements, which were unknown until now: “Dr. Cardozo says that he tells me and Dr. Gauto to file a criminal complaint, which is not true; He never tells me ‘make a complaint about the death of the Neonatal,’” declares Carvajal.
Aside from the contradictions, the central reproach to the officials is for not having involved Justice from the moment it was recorded that there was something strange in the deaths and vitamin K was suspected, in the first instance. Now, the Accused persons may appeal to the Chamber of Accusations. In case no one uses that instance, The oral and public trial could take place in the second half of this year.