Argentina Detains Former Minister Julio De Vido in Once Tragedy Case

The Supreme Court declared the appeals from the defense —which sought an acquittal— and from the Prosecutor's Office —which requested a harsher penalty— inadmissible, leaving the 2018 ruling from the Federal Oral Court No. 4 (TOF 4) in force. That court had absolved De Vido of negligent damage but held him responsible for failing to control million-dollar subsidies to Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA), despite warnings about the deterioration of the Sarmiento system. De Vido, 75, is currently on parole at his farm in Zárate, after serving pretrial detention between 2017 and 2019 on cases like Río Turbio and the Notebooks for Bribes —where he faces another oral trial scheduled for November. Buenos Aires – November 11, 2025 – Total News Agency – The Federal Oral Court No. 4 (TOF 4), led by Judges Ricardo Basílico, Pablo Bertuzzi, and Gabriela López Iñíguez, ordered the immediate detention of former Planning Minister Julio De Vido, ordering him to appear on Thursday, November 13, at 10 a.m. at the Comodoro Py courthouses to serve his sentence. The ruling, signed by Basílico, rejected the defense's latest attempt to claim the statute of limitations, a motion previously dismissed in June 2025 by the same TOF 4 and appealed to the Supreme Court. The measure comes after the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation —with the votes of Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti— confirmed the 4-year prison sentence as an necessary accomplice to fraudulent administration to the detriment of the public administration, in the framework of the Once tragedy (02/22/2012), which left 51 dead (including a pregnant woman) and 789 injured. His defense could request house arrest due to age and health, in accordance with the Penal Code, although the TOF 4 will define the execution conditions. The second trial for Once (2015-2018) involved 28 defendants, also condemning former Transport Secretaries Ricardo Jaime (8 years) and Juan Pablo Schiavi (5 and a half years), and TBA executives such as the Cirigliano brothers (7 years each). The first trial (TOF 2, 2015) prosecuted the train's driver, Marcos Córdoba, and others for the disaster, resulting from faulty brakes and poor maintenance despite state funds. The tragedy, the worst railway accident in decades, exposed the collapse of the transportation system under the Kirchners (2003-2015), with ignored reports from the Auditor General of the Nation and the National Transportation Commission. There were no official statements from Cristina Kirchner or Milei by the time of this edition's closing, but the ruling revives political tensions in an election year marked by libertarian defeats in October. On X (ex Twitter), the news caused immediate repercussions: media outlets like Clarín and La Nación highlighted the detention, while users recalled a video of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner downplaying the disaster in 2012, and celebrated the ruling as 'justice' in a context of criticism against President Javier Milei's lack of investment in trains —coinciding with a derailment on the Sarmiento line today. In September 2025, he was sentenced to another 4 years for irregularities in the purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with a return of $5.5 million.