A federal court unanimously ruled that the Human Capital Ministry should distribute the 5,000 tons of food sitting in warehouses, rejecting an appeal filed by the ministry in June. Two prior rulings have already ordered the ministry to hand over the food following a complaint filed by social leader Juan Grabois.

Tuesday’s ruling was signed unanimously by judges Angela Ledesma, Guillermo Yacobucci, and Alejandro Slokar from the Court 2 of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation.

Grabois filed a complaint against Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello in February for not delivering food to soup kitchens. Increasingly more people depend on food kitchens for their meals as Argentina is undergoing a recession with increasing inequality and unemployment.

In May, after a story by the El Destape news website revealed that 5,000 tonnes of food were sitting in government warehouses — some of it close to its expiration date— Grabois requested an ocular inspection of the storehouses.

Government spokespersons initially denied this numerous times, claiming the foodstuffs were being stockpiled and that only “low-quality yerba mate” was in the warehouses. A judge ordered the ministry to hand over the food, but the Human Capital Ministry’s legal team filed an appeal against the ruling. On June 5, they lost the appeal, immediately filing another in the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation (which they lost on Tuesday).

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The ministry simultaneously announced that the Army would distribute the food together with the CONIN foundation, an institution founded by pediatrician Abel Albino, who in 2018 famously said that condoms do not protect against HIV as “the virus can go through porcelain.”

However, since CONIN lacks the nationwide structure to distribute the food, some soup kitchens are still waiting on deliveries. Argentine media reported that some of the food that CONIN was supposed to be handing over was seen being sold in both digital and brick-and-mortar stores.

According to Tuesday’s ruling, the ministry’s legal representative Leila Gianni “has failed to rebut the arguments of the contested ruling in a concrete and complete manner,” and stressed that said decision has a “double judicial approval.”

After Tuesday’s ruling, Grabois piped up against Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello and what he called an “infamous starvation program.” 

“Seven judges of different backgrounds and thoughts agree that the government must distribute the food. The warehouses are still full. The pots are half empty,” Grabois posted on X. “Hundreds of thousands of children eat one meal a day.”
The Herald asked a ministry spokesperson whether they would take the case to the Supreme Court, but received no immediate answer.