Families challenge verdict in Argentine submarine disaster

BUENOS AIRES, July 13 (UPI) -- Families of the 44 sailors who died in the sinking of Argentina's ARA San Juan submarine said they will appeal the verdict that found former Navy Capt. Claudio Villamide guilty nearly nine years after the November 2017 tragedy.

The plaintiffs also said they will seek to have the trial annulled, arguing that investigators never exhausted the scientific evidence needed to reconstruct what happened during the submarine's mission in the South Atlantic.

"We completely disagree with the ruling," Luis Tagliapietra, an attorney representing 12 families and the father of Alejandro Tagliapietra, one of the sailors who died, told UPI. He said the verdict was the result of an incomplete investigation.

"Not because these people bear no responsibility, but because of how the entire process unfolded," he said.

The first conviction in the submarine disaster has renewed tensions between the victims' families and the justice system after a court in the southern Argentine province of Santa Cruz found Villamide guilty of dereliction of duty. He received a three-year suspended prison sentence and will not serve time behind bars.

Key questions remain

The victims' relatives rejected the failure to hold others accountable for the tragedy, particularly those who authorized the submarine to sail. They also said the ruling failed to answer key questions about what caused the vessel to sink.

Tagliapietra recalled that during the first months after the submarine disappeared, the priority was locating the wreckage.

"We didn't pay much attention to the legal issue because it seemed secondary to us," he said.

Only after the ARA San Juan was located in late 2018 did the families begin demanding that the justice system analyze material recovered from the seafloor to determine what caused the sinking.

According to Tagliapietra, the investigation never progressed as expected. He said he requested creation of a team of specialists to study images and technical data collected from the wreckage to help determine potential responsibility, but the request went unanswered.

The families filed a complaint against the judge, sought impeachment proceedings and requested additional evidence, but none of their efforts succeeded.

Order never fully carried out

In 2020, a federal appeals court overseeing the lower court handling the case ordered an expanded investigation, the expert examinations requested by the families and further inquiries into other former officials. Those measures, however, were never fully carried out.

"Instead of doing what the appeals court ordered, the judge said the investigation was already over and that the case had to go to trial," Tagliapietra said.

Since then, the families have tried to halt the proceedings because they believed investigators still needed to reconstruct how and why the submarine sank.

Their criticism also extends to the conduct of the trial. Tagliapietra said the plaintiffs were unable to fully question witnesses or present their case.

"Worst of all, when it came time for closing arguments, they did not allow us to formally bring an accusation or request sentences," he said.

Tagliapietra said the conviction announced Friday was therefore predictable and that the families had even expected all the defendants to be acquitted.

"The only conviction is meant to make the scandal smaller, nothing more," he said.

Seek to annul trial

The families said they will seek to have the trial annulled and demand that the justice system complete the expert examinations that were never carried out. Their goal is to reconstruct as precisely as possible what happened to the submarine and determine the responsibility of everyone involved, beyond the four defendants who went to trial.

Tagliapietra described the situation as a case of "corruption." Since 2019, he has denounced what he considers a flawed investigation and argued that judicial decisions in the case cannot be explained solely by mistakes but instead reflect irregularities involving authorities.

"One can understand that a judge makes a mistake because we all make mistakes, but they systematically denied measures that were the ABCs of any serious investigation," he said.

Tagliapietra acknowledged that it may never be possible to determine with absolute certainty what caused the sinking. He insisted, however, that the justice system had an obligation to exhaust all available scientific resources in pursuit of the truth and failed to do so.

Claudio Rodríguez, a brother of Petty Officer Hernán Rodríguez, another one of the victims, expressed similar frustration. He said the sentence fell far short of reflecting the magnitude of the tragedy, and he rejected the court's conclusion that the sinking was an accident.

"They find only one person guilty and give him a three-year suspended sentence. Today, he works for private companies. To us, it's a mockery. The other three were acquitted because the ruling says the submarine was in perfect condition, that the captain followed protocol and that everything was an accident," Rodríguez told UPI.

"If everything was fine, why did it sink? And why did they refuse to recognize the evidence that existed on the issue?"

Hopes for greater oversight

Rodríguez said he hopes the case will lead to greater oversight within the Argentine Navy and help prevent a similar tragedy.

"We have evidence and we want a more orderly and serious process. The trial was held in the south of the country, where many relatives and journalists could not travel. The verdict was announced in the middle of the World Cup. Everything seemed designed to make it go unnoticed," he said.

"We don't know why they want this issue to disappear, but we will keep pushing until there is a serious trial, as our relatives and the 44 crew members deserve," he said.

Tagliapietra also recalled the difficulties involved in searching for the submarine.

The ARA San Juan sank near the beginning of the continental slope, an area where the seafloor drops sharply and has irregular terrain, complicating the search for months.

Tagliapietra said the submarine was eventually found after marine robotics company Ocean Infinity was hired to conduct the search using autonomous underwater vehicles capable of scanning and mapping the seafloor at close range.

Even with that technology, the search took more than two months before the wreckage was located.

Pursuit of justice

Beyond the legal proceedings, Tagliapietra acknowledged that his pursuit of justice is also a way of coping with the death of his son Alejandro, one of the 44 crew members.

"It's very difficult because it's a daily ordeal. Other families have been able to move on with their lives over time. For me, 8 1/2 years later, the grief is still constant. I'm receiving psychological support. There are days when I'm fine and others when I'm worse. It was a private promise I made to my son," he said.

Alejandro Tagliapietra was 27 when the submarine disappeared. He was one of the youngest crew members and was on his third voyage as a student at the Navy's submarine school. He was still in training and was aboard to gain experience.

"I remember the joy he had. He was an incredibly cheerful kid. He was happy doing what he did. He was also an athlete. He played rugby, sailed and was passionate about everything he took on," Tagliapietra said.

"The only consolation I have is that he gave his life doing what he loved. He had so much to give, so much to do. He had such a future,"

Recovering the wreckage of the ARA San Juan is considered virtually impossible because of extreme technical limitations, the vessel's structural destruction and the enormous cost involved.

According to local media reports, operating the vessel that found the submarine cost $50,000 a day. A salvage operation would require highly specialized heavy-lift vessels that the Argentine government does not have.

Leasing and transporting such advanced engineering platforms from the Northern Hemisphere would require tens of millions of dollars in initial costs before recovery work could even begin.

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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 3:30 PM.