43 killed in road accident in Argentina gendarmes were to prevent riots

Escena tras el accidente. / Afp

• Police said the visibility conditions were good at the time of the accident, so he did not rule out "mechanical failure"

  The 43 gendarmes killed Monday in a car accident in northern Argentina were part of a contingent of 150 officers who were traveling in three buses to prevent possible unrest in the province of Jujuy. President Mauricio Macri declared a national mourning for 24 hours in what he called "a disgrace" that left eight wounded of varying severity.

  The new Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said after visiting the crash site that the policemen were traveling to Jujuy "to reinforce security decisions is to take Gerardo Morales, who must be respected," he said of the flamboyant governor of the game radical.

  Francisco Marinaro, director of Civil Defense in the province of Salta, where the accident occurred, said the bus "would burst a tire," after which "fell 15 meters down to the river bed."

  Macri sent his "heartfelt condolences" to the families of the gendarmes and said that "the Argentine people must be with those families," the end of an act with farmers in Pergamino.

  The accident occurred at 2.00 am in the town of Balboa, in an area of ​​mountains and forests, 1,200 kilometers north of Argentina's capital, when the bus with 60 gendarmes (border police) on board fell under vacuum to give several tumbles and it was destroyed in the bed of a stream.

  "Most of the victims were young boys from different parts of the country," said Gustavo Solis, mayor of the nearby town of Rosario de la Frontera. The mayor said that "the route is fully impaired. Those who know the area we try not to walk at night. " "For reasons that are still unknown, the bus lost control when entering the bridge, on its way down to the bed of the stream Balboa", the National Gendarmerie in a statement. Police said the visibility conditions were good at the time of the accident, so he did not rule out "mechanical failure".

• 
  

•  

•