President Fernández met Pope Francis at the Vatican (photo: AFP POOL/ Alberto Pizzoli/Télam/lz)
President Meets with Pope Francis: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner met with Pope Francis today at the Vatican. The heads of state shared a two-hour lunch, as part of the president’s European tour. Talking to journalists at Rome’s Ciampino airport afterwards, President Fernández stated that they talked about global issues, such as “world peace and an issue that worries [Pope Francis] and keeps him awake at night, which is youth unemployment.” The president was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Héctor Timerman, spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro, Ambassador to the Vatican Juan Pablo Cafiero, and Secretary of Worship Guillermo Oliveri. Immediately after the meeting, President Fernández, who suffered sprained her left ankle last night, boarded a plane to France where she will meet President François Hollande.
Ex-Police Officer Acquitted in ‘Masacre de La Cárcova’ Trial: Former police officer Gustavo Rey was given the “benefit of the doubt” and absolved of the murders of two teenagers in 2011. Another former police officer, Gustavo Vega, was found guilty of seriously injuring a third man on the same incident. The full verdict with the justification for the decisions and Vega’s sentence will be read out by the San Martín court on 26th March. The policemen were being tried for shooting three teenagers: Franco Almirón and Mauricio Ramos, aged 16 and 17, were killed after being shot by the policemen, who believed were involved in the looting of a train than had derailed in La Carcova, José León Suárez, in February 2011. Their friend Joaquín Romero, 22, was seriously injured. According to autopsy reports, the victims died after being shot from a short distance by calibre 12/70 shotguns belonging to the police. Paula Litvachky, a lawyer with the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) stated that “these deaths can be attributed to the Buenos Aires province police, even if we don’t know the name of the murderer yet.” The legal teams representing the families of the victims said they will appeal the ruling.
San Luis Policeman Kills Two in Shooting Spree: An off-duty police officer from the town of Naschel, San Luis, killed two people and injured 18 as he opened fire inside a nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning. For reasons that are as yet unknown, 40-year-old Walter Talquenca opened fire with his officially-issued gun on Sunday at 4.30am Natacha Disco, killing the town’s police superintendent and a truck driver from Buenos Aires who was passing by San Luis. Afterwards he tried to run away but was caught opposite the police station by fellow policemen who shot him in the legs. Talquenca had a blood alcohol content of 1.67mg, whilst the maximum allowed for driving a car is of 0.5mg. Seven of the 18 wounded are still in hospital, two of them in intensive care. The San Luis government has declared three days of mourning.