Assassins

by Argentina Indymedia • Thursday June 27, 2002 at 04:21 AM
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/33437.php

A statement from Argentina Indymedia about today's events. (26/6/2002)

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

Summary of Available Photos & Audio -

An up-to-date list of the current photos, audio and testimonials we have.
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/33442.php

Repression and Death: A Timeline of the Day's Events
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/33451.php

Protest, Repression and Murder
by Guillermo Cieza, an article about those whose lives were lost at the
hands of the police while demanding food and jobs.
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/33446.php

Argentina | www.agp.org