Argentine Court Convicts One Former Naval Chief, Acquits Three Others in 2017 Submarine Disaster

An Argentine court convicted Claudio Villamide on July 8 for aggravated negligence and breach of duties in the 2017 loss of the ARA San Juan submarine. The federal court in Santa Cruz province handed the former submarine force commander a three-year suspended sentence and barred him from public office for six years. Three other former naval chiefs were acquitted in the same trial.

Villamide had served as commander of the submarine force at the time of the incident. The ARA San Juan went missing on November 15, 2017, one week after departing Ushuaia for its home port at Mar del Plata naval base. The vessel reported seawater entering the ventilation system, which caused a battery short-circuit and fire before it sank and imploded in the South Atlantic.

More than a dozen countries joined a weeks-long search. British marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity located the wreck one year later at a depth of approximately 3,000 feet, 310 miles off the Santa Cruz coast, with its hull dented and deformed. The Argentine government later stated it could not recover the vessel.

The disaster remains the Argentine navy's deadliest peacetime loss. Prosecutors argued the submarine was in poor repair and its loss was foreseeable. Valeria Carreras, an attorney for most victims' families, said the families will appeal the acquittals and demand harsher sentences.

She called the ruling a huge step toward accountability and expressed satisfaction with the guilty finding against Villamide. "These were 44 preventable deaths, and it sends a message to the Armed Forces and the State to protect those who serve the nation," Carreras said. Victoria Morales, whose son Esteban Garcia died in the implosion, said those responsible had been left unpunished.