ARGENTINA: MAYOR OF BUENOS AIRES IMPEACHED, PUT ON TRIAL FOR FAILURE TO PREVENT DEATHS IN 2004 NIGHTCLUB FIRE.
| Cargo | Anibal Ibarra |
Anibal Ibarra, the mayor of Buenos Aires and key ally of President Nestor Kirchner, has been impeached and faces political trial for a lethal fire that led to the deaths of 194 youths at a nightclub on Dec. 30, 2004. Prosecutors allege that the city, under Ibarra's leadership, did not have centralized coordination and was therefore responsible for the deaths, while family members have long demanded his removal for allowing lax enforcement of fire codes. Ibarra claims that the attempt to unseat him has political rather than legal motivations, with his supporters calling the political trial "an institutional coup."
Family members demand punishment
Family members of the dead and injured have been demanding Ibarra's resignation since January 2005, days after it became evident that lax fire-code enforcement was a major factor in the deadly blaze, one of Argentina's worst disasters.
The fire occurred at a packed concert the night before New Year's Eve at a club called Republica Cromanon, during a concert promoted by businessman and club owner Omar Chaban. The band Los Callejeros was performing to a crowd of thousands of youths that hot summer night. Cromanon was crowded well in excess of the legal capacity of 1,500. The use of flares in the closed space led to a blaze in which nearly 200, many of them teenagers, were asphyxiated or burned to death and more than 700 others were injured.
Several days of pot-banging protest marches followed the blaze. The mayor was quick to reject charges by the marchers, who included family members carrying photographs of their children, that municipal corruption had allowed the clubs to remain open without adequate security protections in place. Ibarra ordered city clubs closed for two weeks of safety inspections and banned indoor concerts indefinitely. On Jan. 1, 2005, Ibarra told La Nacion newspaper that Republica Cromanon was inspected by firefighters in April 2004. In the interview, he charged that any addition of flammable materials to the club's acoustic ceiling, which witnesses said caught fire after someone fired a flare into it, came after that certification.
Investigators and survivors charged that exits were blocked or locked. Firings and investigations of municipal authorities followed, but were not adequate to protect Ibarra politically. Two Buenos Aires officials stepped down after accepting responsibility for inadequate safety measures. But some groups wanted Ibarra to resign, accusing him of...
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