The president added: “We repudiate the unacceptable and incomprehensible lack of health care and the abandonment of a person suffered by Alejandro Benítez from Salta by the Plurinational State of Bolivia.”
“We deeply regret what happened and the lack of reciprocity with the Argentines,” said Sáenz, who expressed all his “solidarity and accompaniment to his family and loved ones.” “We are not going to stop until they give us an answer and justice is done,” he warned.
claim
Government sources reported that, through the Representation of International Relations, the Government of Salta presented a formal claim to the Plurinational State of Bolivia for breach by its authorities of the Treaty on Medical Assistance, in the case of abandonment and death of the retired teacher , a native of the town of General Mosconi, in the north of Salta.
The document was presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Nation, in order to request the Argentine State to take the necessary steps with Bolivia.
The claim, signed by the representative of International Relations of Salta, Julio San Millán, emphasizes that “Both the health and security authorities of the Plurinational State of Bolivia that intervened in the event have flagrantly omitted the international commitments assumed by Bolivia in terms of health.”
Likewise, the claim refers especially to articles 5, 6 and concordant articles of the “Reciprocal Assistance Agreement”, signed on July 19, 2019, by the Ministries of Health of Argentina and Bolivia, which committed to “reciprocity in matters of of medical assistance in cases of urgency and emergencies that affect citizens of one of the nations who are in the territory of the other, regardless of their migratory status”.
Given the seriousness of what happened, the Province of Salta requests the Argentine Foreign Ministry to “the corresponding criminal, civil, administrative and political actions are required for the demarcation and conviction of the officials and persons involved in the fact of the abandonment and subsequent death of the Argentine citizen Alejandro Benítez” and “the pertinent subsidiary responsibility of the Plurinational State of Bolivia for the actions of its dependent agents and officials.”
Accident
When detailing the Benítez case, the document specifies that it is a “Salta teacher very loved by the community of Mosconi”, who suffered a road accident while riding his motorcycle, along with his friends, along a Bolivian road, during his vacation.
Benítez was hit by a truck near Ivirgarzama, in Cochabamba, which caused him serious injuries and blows.
According to the claim, following the road accident, “a real nightmare began for those who accompanied Benítez, since both the trucker who collided with the motorcycle, as well as the security forces personnel who intervened and the Ivirgarzama Medical Center refused to transfer the teacher to a more complex Medical Center because they were required to pay in advance and in dollars or Bolivian pesos for the ambulance transfer costs”.
Then, the document clarifies that “the companions had only Argentine pesos and the testimonies that can be collected from the witnesses to the event, and from everything that happened later, give an account of the dramatic situation they experienced and that ends with the fatal outcome” of Benítez in that place, without receiving the necessary medical attention.