Assassins
Por Argentina Indymedia - Thursday, Jun. 27, 2002 at 9:20 AM

A statement from Argentina Indymedia about today's events.

Three months ago, Dario proudly showed us a mountain of earth with a flag on it. Fifty families had helped to take this mountain. Last week, he told us that it was ready for people to settle there. Dario was 21 years old and today he was assassinated by the police. The complicity of the corporate media, the sweeping declarations from civil employees are juxtaposed against the haunting figure of this young fighter. His assassins will always have the stigma of taking a great companion from us. Dario died like he lived; when a bullet took his life from him, he was aiding a friend who was wounded on the floor. This is how we will remember him for each one of our days.

Dario Santillan of the MTD Lanus and Maximiliano Costeki of the MTD Pte. Peron, both of the CTD Anibal Veron, are the first victims of the new regime in Argentina.

Today, the government showed its true face. In the morning, it militarized all the areas where protests were anticipated. They mobilized the infantry, federal and provincial police, naval forces, heavy tanks and helicopters. This is the true political and social regime of Duhalde from now on.

At La Noria Bridge, police armed for war confronted the demonstrators. There they blocked them off and did not let them join the mobilization. At Alsina Bridge, those crossing the bridge were stopped and they forced demonstrators to return towards the capital. On the Panamericana Highway, they cut the passage of unemployed people. The same happened in Liniers, where protesters were not allowed to advance towards the Ministry of Social Action.

At Pueyrredon Bridge, where they took the lives of the young piqueteros, a wild repression was lived out. It was the biggest picket, for which 5000 people mobilized themselves. When the demonstrators arrived, the police mounted a strategy of dividing the column into two and soon an indiscriminate repression began that attacked men, women and children.

Protests were dispersed at the center of Avellanda and dramatic scenes were lived. In Lanus Station, one of the companions was assassinated, his body left in the middle of the platform with several others wounded by lead bullets. The unemployed organizations have counted 6 hurt from bullets, but they do not disregard that there are more. The images are heart-breaking, almost of a civil war; men and women defended themselves as they could, against weapons, bullets and gasses. The wounded at Fiorito Hospital was 90, of which 17 remained interned there. There were 189 stopped in the Avellanda police station. Most of them were stopped in a witch hunt, caught like the inquisition of the middle ages. After one hour of the repression, it was still difficult to breathe in the area.

In the middle, one group of people was broken up and another was detained. It is a flat lie that only piqueteros with guns were detained. Until the group declared that it was charged by the civilian police. Any attempt to criminalize the unemployed people must be rejected and be exposed as an attempt to legitimize the new regime.

The media speaks cynically of "tragic piqueteros," the government says it was not a mobilization, but one of provocation. The police say that "the bullets did not come from us" after "progressive" journalists, like Tognetti, insinuated that the piqueteros were armed. We know that it is a lie. We have bullets that we gathered off the floor ourselves. We saw when they killed our friends. We have film and photograph testimonies. We accuse the government of Argentina and its police, before the whole world, of murder.

After the repression, while several people were concentrated at the hospital and the police station, something took place that captured the true character of this day. A few meters from the hospital, at 1200 Bransen Street, the police burst in without any warning and no search warrant at the office of the United Left, where 50 people were meeting. They entered firing rubber and lead bullets and tear gas. A companion was kidnapped, while others escaped through the ceiling. When one person came out, he showed the bullet he had to our cameras, a bullet which was only a few centimeters away from hitting him. It was a lead bullet. The house next door was also attacked, and an intervention by a group of people who gathered there managed to prevent a tragedy. We all saw what they did. They acted like when there was the dictatorship: sacking, striking, murdering, kidnapping. The entire world is going to know it; the entire world is going to find out that a new regime in Argentina has been born out of the extreme hunger and repression.

The response has been immediate. Despite the mass media's campaign, mobilizations began at the Federal Capital, and at least in Cordoba, Rosario, Lujan, Neuquen y La Plata. By Thursday morning, the CTA summoned the unemployed and all the organizations of unemployed people mobilized themselves to the Congress at Plaza de Mayo by 4pm. The mobilization that was repressed today was called to reclaim food and the payment of slow or denied subsidies, to demand respect of unemployed organizations' autonomy and the freedom of Raul Castells. The mobilization also demanded that "they all go away."

As of today, in each of our own mobilizations, each area, each assembly, in a shared gesture, the names and faces of Dario and Maximiliano will be with us. Our friends Dario Santillan, Maximiliano Costeki are present, now and always.

Editorial Group of Argentina Indymedia

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