Carlos Ernesto Soria was an Argentine lawyer and
Justicialist Party politician died from gunshot he was 63.. He died in the early hours of January 1, 2012, from a gunshot wound, at his farm, after the
New Year celebrations. Soria was the governor of
Rio Negro Province at the time. His widow was charged with first-degree murder on January 19, 2012.
(March 1, 1949 – January 1, 2012)
Life and times
Early life and career
Soria was born in
Bahía Blanca in 1949, and was raised in a nearby rural town, General Daniel Cerri. His father, Ernesto Soria, was an outspoken
Peronist, and was arrested shortly after the
1955 coup against President
Juan Perón. Following his release several months later, the Sorias relocated to
Bariloche. The elder Soria was again arrested amid a crackdown on Peronist protests during a state visit to Bariloche by
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in March 1959, and was imprisoned in Bahía Blanca. He was released in April 1962 and the family settled in
General Roca, Río Negro, where they opened a neighborhood store.
[2]
Carlos Soria enrolled at the
University of Buenos Aires, earning a Law degree in 1973.
Elections that March returned Peronists to power, and Soria was elected to the local
Justicialist Party (JP) chapter. He was later elected to the Provincial Council of the JP, and upon the
return of democracy in 1983, won a seat in the
Argentine Chamber of Deputies.
[2]
Tenure in Congress
Soria would be elected to Congress for four consecutive terms,
becoming Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee. He also
served in the Justice, Impeachments, and Money Laundering committees;
chaired the
joint committee investigating the
1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires and the
1994 AMIA bombing (the two most significant acts of
Islamic terrorism in Argentine history);
[3] and served in the
Council of Magistrates of the Nation.
[4]
Soria shared President
Carlos Menem's opposition to trials opened in 1996 in
Spanish courts against
Dirty War perpetrators by Judge
Baltasar Garzón,
and personally led a delegation to protest these trials; when Judge
Garzón turned the tables on the delegation by calling them to testify,
they returned, however, creating an embarrassing diplomatic incident.
[5]
He later presented a bill to restrict rights and toughen sentences for
those accused of violent crime, as well as another which would have
granted
congressional immunity to all members in perpetuity; both bills were defeated.
[5]
Soria would later be indicted for
obstruction of justice
in his capacity as Chair of the Joint Committee on the AMIA bombing,
and though he was cleared of all charges, the Río Negro PJ dropped him
from their
party list ahead of the 1999 elections.
[5] Soria was then offered a place in the
Buenos Aires Province PJ list for Congress by Governor
Eduardo Duhalde.
Shortly before the October 1999 elections, moreover, Duhalde appointed
Soria as Provincial Minister of Justice. His appointment took place on
the heels of the September 16
Ramallo massacre, a botched
Provincial Police intervention during an armed bank robbery that resulted in the deaths of two hostages.
[6]
Soria promptly released hitherto sequestered police files relating to
the case which confirmed that the robbery, as well as the deaths of all
robbers and hostages alike, had been orchestrated by Provincial Police
officers.
[7]
Remaining on the electoral list for National Deputies, Soria took his
seat in Congress in December representing the Province of Buenos Aires.
He became among the leading congressional opponents of President
Fernando de la Rúa's
austerity package, scuttling a 2000
decree which would have cut public sector salaries (this ultimately took place the following year).
[8]
President de la Rúa's resignation in December 2001, and the subsequent
Congressional designation of Duhalde as provisional president resulted
in Soria's appointment as Secretary of
State Intelligence (SIDE) in January 2002.
[3]
Tenure at State Intelligence
Taking office, as President Duhalde did, amid widespread protest, Soria's tenure at SIDE would eventually be marred by a
June 26 incident in which two
piqueteros, Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán, were shot in the back in
Avellaneda
by Provincial Police officers. SIDE had produced intelligence reports
stating that the overthrow of the national government had been openly
advocated in piqueteros' assemblies, and that these were attended by the
extremist group
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
[5]
Phone conversations between minutes before the assassinations between a
policeman implicated in the incident and the Undersecretary of
Intelligence at the time, Oscar Rodríguez, proved SIDE involvement in
the tragedy in subsequent trials.
[9]
Fallout from this incident was compounded by allegations made by Senator
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that SIDE personnel were spying on her husband, Santa Cruz Governor
Néstor Kirchner, who had recently declared his intention to run for President the following year.
[5]
These controversies, and Soria's own plans to run for Governor of the
Province of Río Negro, prompted his resignation from SIDE in July. He
was narrowly defeated in provincial elections in August 2003 by
UCR candidate
Miguel Saiz,
[10] though in elections held later in 2003, Soria narrowly won the election for mayor of the city of
General Roca (the largest in the province).
[2]
Duhalde and Soria continued to face charges in court related to the
2002 deaths. Soria declared at trial in 2005 that "democracy works with
order, and we needed to establish order";
[11] both men were cleared of all charges.
[5]
Return to Río Negro
Soria was overwhelmingly reelected as mayor of General Roca in 2007, garnering 73% of the vote.
[2] He clinched the Justicialist Party nomination for Governor of Río Negro in 2011, and ran with the support of the
Front for Victory
(FpV) faction of the party despite his long-standing alliance with the
FpV's main rival, Duhalde. Soria's principal opponent in the race, UCR
nominee César Barbeito, also professed his support of the FpV's
standard-bearer, President Cristina Kirchner. The president formally
endorsed Soria despite their past differences, however, while
maintaining her distance from both candidates.
[5] Soria was elected governor in September with 51% of the vote, besting Barbeito by nearly 14%.
[12]
Death
Soria died on January 1, 2012, during the new year celebrations with his family at his farm near
General Roca. He was shot in the face with a
.38 caliber weapon at around 5 am, and was moved immediately to a nearby hospital, where he died minutes later.
[13]
The police didn't determine initially whether the death was caused by
an accident or foul play; his wife was held for further questioning.
[13][14] He received a private funeral.
[13] His widow was charged with first-degree murder on January 19, 2012.
[15]
Vice-governor
Alberto Weretilneck
succeeded Soria as governor. Weretilneck considered calling new
elections, despite provisions in the Constitution of Río Negro Province
that would allow him to complete the remainder of Soria's term.
[13]
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