ARGENTINA: Activists United Against Violence

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 29 2004 (IPS) - Organisations of the unemployed, human rights groups, and trade unions in Argentina have called a march for Friday to protest the recent murder of a social activist and alleged attempts to create a climate of violence and destabilisation in the country.

After reading out a document titled ‘We Want Truth and Justice’ on Monday, social activists stated that despite their ”profound political differences,” their organisations decided to come together to repudiate ”any form of aggression against or repression of protests.”

They termed the Jun. 25 killing of activist Martín Cisneros a ”political murder”, and announced a strike that will start at noon on Friday, and a march ”for life, and to stop the attempts to create a climate of violence and destabilisation” in Argentina.

”We will continue working, to deepen the changes promoted by the government (of Néstor Kirchner) and to build a broad front of organisations that represent the new majority,” activist Luis D’Elía, with the Federation for Land and Housing (FTV), said at a press conference Monday.

Human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini, with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Association, warned that ”every time they kill one of us, they will produce the contrary of what they are seeking – they are going to find us more united.”

”They will find us unified in the face of injury, murder or arrest of any social activist,” said the document condemning the murder of Cisneros, who was shot last Friday outside of his home in the La Boca neighbourhood, on the south side of the capital.

Cisneros was one of the organisers of the ‘Los Pibes’ (The Kids) community soup kitchen run by the FTV in La Boca. Soup kitchens cropped up all over Argentina after the late 2001 economic and political meltdown.

According to statements by neighbours and fellow social activists, he was shot by a drug dealer contracted as a hired killer by the federal police.

The killing coincided with the second anniversary of the murders of Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán, two leaders of the Aníbal Verón Movement of Unemployed Workers, who were shot by the police during a 2002 street protest.

Cisneros’ murder occurred a week after the slaying of Diego Lucena, the son of a leader of an organisation of ‘piqueteros’ (the name identifying the members of the unemployed movement, whose traditional form of protesting is to set up ‘piquetes’ or roadblocks). His death is also blamed on the police.

Lucena’s family and friends reacted by setting fire to a police car last Thursday in the Isidro Casanova neighbourhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

After Cisneros’ murder, furious local residents and activists led by D’Elía occupied the local police station late Sunday night, and stayed until the authorities ordered the arrest of the main suspect, Juan Duarte, who has links to the police.

Cisneros’ killing brought together leaders and activists of the fragmented piqueteros movement, which emerged in the 1990s when unemployment began to climb.

The FTV and other piquetero groups held a congress on Jun. 21 for social organisations interested in backing the left-leaning Kirchner administration, and to oppose what they describe as attempts at destabilising his administration.

They blame those supposed attempts mainly on the faction of the ruling Justicialista (Peronist) Party led by former President Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003), Kirchner’s political ally in last year’s elections.

Although they belong to the same party, Kirchner, who took office in May 2003, heads a faction that is basically independent of the party structure, while Duhalde, who presides over the permanent secretariat of the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) trade bloc, maintains tight control over the populous Buenos Aires province, which he governed twice.

After the Jun. 21 congress organised by the FTV, Barrios de Pie (Neighbourhoods Standing Up) and other groups, the differences within the unemployed movement had become even more marked.

The Classist and Combative Current, National Piquetero Bloc and other organisations intensified their street protests and criticised the piquetero groups who are forging ties with the government.

But the discrepancies have faded away since Cisneros was slain.

After taking part all together in his funeral Sunday, the leaders of the piquetero groups joined lawmakers, trade unionists and human rights activists in calling for Friday’s march against violence.

D’Elía accused sectors associated with Duhalde of trying ”to create a climate of violence,” and said that intention has the backing of some of the media, which loudly criticise the piquetero protests and urge the government to crack down on them harshly.

”I hope that if Duhalde wants to continue participating in politics, he will do so through the democratic route, and not like he did in December 2001, when he chose the route of looting and destabilisation of the government” of then-president Fernando de la Rúa, said D’Elía.

The activist was referring to rumours that hold Duhalde’s followers responsible for the wave of looting carried out in the midst of the mass protests and demonstrations that forced de la Rúa (1999-2001) to resign, in which 30 people were killed.

The Argentine Workers Central (CTA) labour federation, which is mainly made up of trade unions of public employees, announced that Friday’s protest would be accompanied by a work stoppage starting at noon.

In an interview with IPS, parliamentary Deputy Claudio Lozano, an economist with the CTA, said the organisations believe ”that any murder of a social activist forms part of a strategy aimed at generating a climate of repression and ‘strong-arm tactics’, to get a complex social situation under control.”

Although the government said it would not call out the security forces to crack down on social protests, ”there is an operation to change that idea,” he said.

A range of interests are taking part in that coordinated effort in favour of a tougher approach to street demonstrations, said Lozano, including business and economic groups, political factions, the media, and even some government officials.

”We have a devastated Argentina, where 50 percent of the population lives in poverty, and of course there is going to be social tension,” said the legislator.

But ”The main problem is not the form of protesting, although it bothers many people: it’s the hunger” in this country of 37 million, said Lozano.

Against that backdrop, Cisneros’ murder was an attempt to ”weaken the popular expression of discontent, and push the government to repress those who are left outside the system, so they won’t keep being a nuisance,” he argued.