Efforts underway to repatriate Maza's body: Envoy

Spain's Ambassador to Argentina, Javier Sandomingo, has confirmed that efforts are underway to repatriate Spanish Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza's body to Madrid early this week on a regular commercial flight.

"At present, we don't have all the procedures finalized, but we think that that is what's possible and foreseeable," Efe news quoted the diplomat as saying on Sunday.

The idea is for the transfer of the body to be accomplished via a direct flight on a regular airline, departing on Monday at 1:30 p.m. local Argentine time, he added.

In remarks to reporters at his official residence, the ambassador ruled out that the body could be repatriated on Sunday despite the fact that the Argentine government had earlier said that it was working to do that.

"There is a series of earlier efforts ... but, as always, the death must be entered into the corresponding registers. That began yesterday, but the decision about the manner of transport of the remains is obviously up to the family," Sandomingo said.

The family of Maza, who died on Saturday in Buenos Aires from an acute kidney infection, was awaiting the arrival in the Argentine capital of his son to make a definitive decision about repatriating the body.

On Sunday morning, Maza's son went to the Buenos Aires hospital where his father had received medical care in recent days, but he left shortly thereafter in the company of several other people close to the matter.

Sandomingo said that Maza's remains are already at the funeral home that will handle them, given that no autopsy will be performed.

"When someone dies from natural causes, and in a hospital, it's not necessary," the diplomat said.

"There is no need for a government plane. Here there are five or six flights every day. If there were a flight every three days, it would be another thing, but (we have) normal flights with sufficient frequency ... and it's normal to use those flights."

In Madrid, officials at the Diplomatic Information Office confirmed that Maza's remains will arrive in Spain on Tuesday morning.

The 66-year-old AG died suddenly, apparently as a result of an acute kidney infection, at the Basterrica Hospital in Buenos Aires, where he had been admitted upon feeling ill while following an intense official agenda this past week.

--IANS

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