Outrage as police shoot protesters in Argentina

Sheer bloody murder

TWO YOUNG protesters were shot dead in the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, on Wednesday of last week. Dario Santillan and
Maximiliano Kosteki were part of a demonstration of unemployed workers protesting at the effects of the huge economic crisis gripping the
country.

Armed police savagely attacked the protest, and one shot Maximiliano. Fellow protesters dragged him into a nearby rail station. "Please help
me-I'm burning. The cops shot me," said Maximiliano as he lay dying. Fellow protester Dario tried to help and comfort him. Suddenly a group
of armed police led by chief inspector Alfredo Franchiotti burst into the station.

"Don't shoot me," cried Dario as he tried to get away. Franchiotti aimed his gun and shot Dario in the back, killing him. Dozens more
protesters suffered bullet wounds as police went on the rampage. It was the most savage attack on protesters since the police and army killed
27 people in the uprising last December.

The murders last week may have been carried out by individual policemen. But they were acting in the spirit of a coordinated attempt to crack
down on protest against the savage austerity measures of Argentinian president Eduardo Duhalde's government. In the days leading up to the
murders the government and media talked of the need for police to follow a "hard hand" approach to protest. The murders came as key
government minister Ruckhauf boasted that he had been right when 27 years ago he gave the police and army the go-ahead to attack left
wing organisations.

That assault began Argentina's "dirty war", in which the police and army assassinated thousands of people, and paved the way for a military
coup in 1976. Sections of the current government wanted to use the events of last week to prepare for a wider crackdown. Immediately after
the killings the government and media put out stories of how the shootings were the result of a clash between rival protesters. The main right
wing daily newspaper, La Nacion, talked of protesters pillaging, looting and burning shops.

The aim was to justify a clampdown on all opposition. These plans were blown out of the water thanks to the testimony and courage of
individual press and TV photographers and camera crews.

Their pictures show the truth. Outrage at the revelations poured into the streets. The next day some 15,000 people marched in the capital, and
teachers and some civil servants struck. In an attempt to head off wider protest President Duhalde was forced to publicly condemn the police
for mounting "a ferocious hunting party" against the unemployed protesters.

The chief of police and his deputy in Buenos Aires were forced to resign. Two policemen directly involved in the killings have been arrested.
They are not the only ones with blood on their hands. The unemployed organisation to which Dario and Maximiliano belonged said, "The
government prepared the repression. It is politically and intellectually responsible for the deaths."



Two sought justice and a better life

"DARIO SANTILLAN and Maximiliano Kosteki were young, unemployed and sought a better life. They never knew each other, but they died
together. Both were involved in the Anibal Veron unemployed "piqueteros" movement which demanded benefits for the unemployed.

Dario, who was 21, had been active since secondary school. One of his teachers described him as "a teenager not typical of the postmodern
generation. "He read during breaks, argued with his fellow students, and collected food and clothing for people who had suffered from the
floods. He felt distant injustices as if they were directed against himself."

Alberto is the father of Dario and his three brothers. He is ill, as was his ex-wife, who died a year and a half ago. The family live in the tower
blocks of Don Orione. These modest flats for workers have turned into cement towns, where people have gas heating which they cannot afford
to use.

When he finished school Dario joined the unemployed created by "labour flexibility". He commitment and his condition led him to join the
piqueteros movement. Maximiliano was 23 on the very day they killed him. He was an art student who joined the piqueteros movement on 1
May. He converted his pottery oven so that it could be used to bake bread for the movement to sell, and used his artistic talent to draw
sketches of those struggling.

His mother brought up five children virtually singlehandedly, just about managing until she lost her job as an office manager with the
privatisation of the railways. "He was a quiet boy who did not like violence. His aim was to be a great artist, and in reality he was," says his
sister Mara."

From the daily left of centre paper PAGINA 12
( www.socialistworker.co.uk/1807/sw180716.htm )

Links:
Picture Archiv of social Protests: www.anticapitalism.tk
Left Turn: www.left-turn.org