Victory Front candidate Juan Cabandié can be seen in the undercover video filmed anonymously.
Another day means more footage of a May traffic stop is released involving candidate
The last days before the October midterm elections seem to be marked by a video war, in which Juan Cabandié, the ruling Victory Front (FpV) top candidate for the Lower House of Congress from Buenos Aires City, seems to be the unwitting star.
After three highly edited videos were released that incriminated Cabandié, a new video was released yesterday that presents the traffic stop in which the lawmaker was involved in Lomas de Zamora, the district that is ruled by the other FpV top Buenos Aires province candidate Martín Insaurralde.
Though the latest video shows Cabandié in a more favourable light, it was not footage directly presented by the government as evidence that the lawmaker had been victim of an alleged media operation to damage his image days ahead the October 27 legislative elections. This video was also anonymously posted on YouTube, just like the others that have been released since Saturday.
As if the situation was not confusing enough, Raúl Maza, a former spokesman of the Border Guards who has been linked to neo-Nazi movement that days ago arrived at the National School of Buenos Aires to intimidate the students who caused damages at the nearby San Ignacio de Loyola church, claimed responsibility for having suggested that the Border Guards pursue a strategy to turn the footage of Cabandié into a viral video.
“I told them not to upload the video themselves but to ask somebody else,” Maza told LaNacion.com. Maza led last year’s protests against Security Minister Nilda Garré and reported on October 4 by daily Página/12, was a part of a nationalist, neo-Nazi group.
“If somebody wants to harm the guys, people will take the streets to defend them because they did nothing wrong, they just reported the bad actions of an arrogant official,” Maza said.
Edits upon edits
In the fourth version of the video released yesterday, Cabandié could be seen talking calmly to the traffic agent Belén Mosquera and two Border Guards. But the video still leaves several open questions.
The first one is connected to the fact that even though it is the longest video released to date, it is hardly the raw footage — that video was also a highly edited account of what took place in May. The second is linked to the fact that Cabandié had said since the first video came out that he could not identify the Border Guards involved. But that assertion appears to be contradicted in the latest video when Cabandié could be heard referring to the Border Guards by name: Antúnez and Cejas.
“I’m angry because you’re making me open the boot of the car and also show you the content of my bag,” Cabandié could be seen complaining in the video.
“I’ll pay the fine, I don’t care but what really annoys me is that you are being so disrespectful, Antúnez,” Cabandié can be heard in a calm, measured voice, different from the tone he used when he said that he should be treated in a better way because he was a son of disappeared parents and had “struggled against the dictatorship.”
He also appeared to be praising the training that Border Guards received in comparison with the one that that of the Buenos Aires police, who were targeted by Cabandié as “sons of bitches.”
But the statement that seemed to clear Cabandié’s name was when he said: “I’ll pay the fine. I won’t do as the olden corrupt political leaders who would say ‘I’m a friend of Mayor Martín Insaurralde and I won’t pay.’”
Official apologies
Lomas de Zamora Mayor Martín Insaurralde, who was also stained by the scandal, yesterday said that he was in permanent contact with Cabandié, who allegedly wanted wanted to apologize to traffic cop Mosquera.
On Tuesday, Mosquera met with Insaurralde and was offered to get her job back. Meanwhile, in an illustration of how the issue has become campaign fodder, Mosquera was also offered a post by PRO and Renewal Front leaders.
“The video is a political operation. There is an intent to damage the campaign and whomever spread the video wants to obtain a profit,” Cabandié said yesterday morning.
Case goes to court
Federal Prosecutor Guillermo Ma-rijuán yesterday said that Judge Sebastián Casanello should declarehimself incompetent in the complaint filed against Cabandié for allegedly having mistreated a traffic cop.
According to Marijuán, as the situation took place in Lomas de Zamora, Casanello should not be allowed to take part in the investigation of the case.
The complaint was filed at the Comodoro Py courts by Santiago Nicolás Dupuy de Lome, who in a social network appears to be linked to City Mayor Mauricio Macri’s PRO.
— Herald staff with Télam, DyN