{"id":9422,"date":"2018-01-13T22:56:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-13T22:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=9422"},"modified":"2018-01-13T22:56:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-13T22:56:42","slug":"important-demonstration-for-the-freedom-and-end-of-persecution-to-political-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/important-demonstration-for-the-freedom-and-end-of-persecution-to-political-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"Important demonstration for the freedom and end of persecution to political activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Jan 11, there was a major demonstration against the repressive escalade by Macri\u2019s government. Since D14 and D18, there are 7 more political prisoners, among them Cesar Arakaki and Dimas Ponce, both militants of the Workers\u2019 Party [PO], accused of injuring a police officer.<\/em>
\nBy PSTU-Argentina.<\/strong>
\n 
\nOur comrade Sebasti\u00e1n Romero has an order of arrest on him by the Federal Judge Sergio Torres since December 19. Two exemption requests presented by his lawyers were denied. Yesterday, a new request was presented, so far not responded.
\n\"\"Despite the holiday period, thousands marched from the Congress to Plaza de Mayo to demand the freedom and end of persecution to political activists, and for common jail to Etchecolatz and all genocides benefited with house arrest. There were actions in Mendoza and Rosario too, among other cities.
\nAn important part of Sebati\u00e1n\u2019s friends and family marched in Buenos Aires, leading the demonstration together with Human Rights bodies.
\n\"\"
\nWe reproduce here the unitary statement of the Encuentro Memoria, Verdad y Justicia <\/em>[Memory, Truth, and Justice], read yesterday at the closure:
\n 
\n\u201cWe are here to denounce the repressive escalade by Macri\u2019s government and his partners, which implies serious violations of human rights, democratic freedoms, and constitutional rights. They are trying to establish a virtual state of exception to impose a harsh attack on workers and the people.
\nThis is why we mobilize today to this historic Square, that will always belong to the people even if the government closes it with bars. We repudiate the repressive escalade, and we demand common, effective jail for the genocides and immediate freedom and closing of all cases against popular activists currently detained or persecuted!
\nThe latest evidence\u00a0of impunity are the house arrest for Etchecolatz and other genocides sentenced and the promotion of the gendarme Echaz\u00fa, one of the responsible ones by the repressive action that killed Santiago Maldonado.
\nHouse arrest for Etchecolatz and other genocides is nothing but a disguised amnesty. It caused protests all over the country. In Mar del Plata, there was a major demonstration on Saturday 6, and a crowded escrache<\/em> [exposure] to his place. In Santiago del Estero, on Tuesday, there was another escrache<\/em>, to the genocide Antonio Musa Azar. And yesterday, in Mar de Aj\u00f3, there was another demonstration of repudiation to the house arrest for the genocide Norberto Bianco. \u201cIt will be like with the Nazis: wherever you go, we will go after you!\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>
\nThe repressive offensive made a leap since the forced disappearance followed by the death of Santiago Maldonado and the murder of Rafael Nahuel, both by the security forces under orders of Minister Patricia Bullrich Luro Pueyrred\u00f3n.
\nThe demonstrations for Santiago faced arbitrary persecution and detentions of demonstrators, with the opening of criminal cases.
\nOn D12, the government repressed the demonstration against the WTO. On D13, it repressed the social movements demonstrating in the center of the city, causing countless detained and injured, among them national deputies. On the Days of D14 and D18 against the Social Security Reform, the repression against hundreds of thousands of people included toxic gases, and there was a brutal persecution and hunting when people were already leaving the streets. The use of rubber bullets and stones by the security forces, targetting women\u2019s breasts and men\u2019s faces, left hundreds of wounded, some of them really serious, and 3 demonstrators lost an eye.
\nFollowing the national government, in several provinces, the governors also repress and persecute those who struggle. Among other cases, they repressed the Wich\u00ed community, in Formosa, with lead bullets; they repressed the state workers in Santa Cruz, and the workers of Ingenio La Esperanza, in Jujuy. On this last case, the immediate response and solidarity achieved the liberation of all detainees.
\nA serious background is the \u201creport\u201d of the Ministry of Security and the governors of Neuqu\u00e9n, R\u00edo Negro, and Chubut to repress indigenous peoples, especially the Mapuches. They are trying to create an \u201cinternal enemy\u201d, inventing a terrorist group that does not exist, to criminalize the indigenous communities, labor unions, social movements, political organizations, and even the Kurdish Women movement. End persecutions and lies! Freedom without extradition of Facundo Jones Huala!
\nThis authoritarian offensive against the rights and freedoms of our people, with no precedents in the last 35 years, also aims to criminalize the action of deputies like Unidad Ciudadana<\/em>\u2019s and Frente de Izquierda y los Trabajadores<\/em>\u2019 [FIT] which are not only being repressed but also legally persecuted by the government. We express our repudiation to this action, too.
\nThe frame completes with an advance against pluralism and freedom of expression, as a consequence of the uniformity and concentration of communication media in a few hands, acting like spokesmen of the government. The massive media bosses, who define the editorial policy, are implementing adjustment policies in their own companies. We repeat: we stand in solidarity with the press workers and alternative media, repressed on D14 and D18 by a government that is willing to do anything to hide the truth.
\nPrison for Cesar Arakaki on December 19 and for Dimas Fernando Ponce two days ago; persecution and demonization of Sebasti\u00e1n Romero by participating of the popular protest on D18; the arbitrary detention of Rossano, Parodi, Giusto, Giancarelli, and Valotta in the hunting unleashed by Gendarmerie on D14, makes all of them Macri and his accomplice Justice\u2019s new political prisoners, which violate the right to demonstrate to impose their adjustment.
\nWe also denounce that they reject the requests to excarcerate all detainees over and over again with the excuse that it could interfere with the investigation. This is just one more proof of the willing to “discipline” our people and discourage the thousands of young people that demonstrated on D14 and D18.
\nThe accusations that Cesar Arakaki and Dimas Fernando Ponce were authors of a police officer\u2019s injuries, and that Sebasti\u00e1n Romero was a key piece of an alleged rebellion plan \u2013 very serious crime \u2013 are not supported by any proof, and the entire case is an attempt to transform a popular demonstration into a criminal offense.
\nThe apparition of an alleged house-made explosive in the Police Headquarters, with a note blaming the PO, is another attempt to intimidate the ones that confront the adjustment.
\nWe repudiate the General Attorney Germ\u00e1n Moldes, who is trying to harshen the law for the imprisoned demonstrators not to be excarcerated. And we denounce that judge Serio Torres, serving Macri\u2019s government, imprisons and demonizes the demonstrators as \u201cviolent\u201d to hide the repression coming from the State Security Forces.
\n\u201cViolence\u201d is to respond with stick and gases to social demands. Violence is to force us to coexist with genocides once again. Violence is to sack the retirees\u2019 pockets and those who receive Family Plans. Violence is the labor reform that aims to eliminate historic social rights. Layoffs and wage cuts are violence. Violence is to increase the debt and pass laws mandated by the IMF. It is violence to threat with fines or cut of legal personality to labor unions, political, and social organizations, as an attempt to attack the basic democratic right to protest.
\nDespite all the police repression and official persecution, and despite the union bureaucracy, the resistance of the working class grows all over the country.
\nIn Azul, the Military Factory workers\u2019 camp continues, against the closing of Fanazul. In La Plata, the resistance against layoffs in the UEP [Executing Province Headquarter \u2013 Unidad Ejecutora Provincial<\/em>] continues, and today there was a regional strike called by ATE.
\nPress workers are also resisting layoffs in the media. The same thing happens in the Ministry of Defense, were layoffs are affecting even the Human Rights area.
\nDespite the militarization, the Ministry of Defense is also resisting layoffs.
\nMunicipal workers in Quilmes, Lan\u00fas, and 3 de Febrero marched massively yesterday against layoffs.
\nIn Berisso, municipal workers were able to stop the voting of an \u201ceconomic emergency\u201d plan to adjust, and the Mayor had to sign a no-layoffs commitment.
\nThere are countless struggles by factory in the private sector, like the metal workers of Rapiestant (La Matanza) and Stockl (South of Great Buenos Aires), and Envases del Plata (Mor\u00f3n) and the Oleaginosa Bol\u00edvar to reincorporate all fired workers. In Cresta Roja, workers are still in struggle for delayed wages by the company. In Santa Cruz, oil workers are in struggle against the 800-layoff plan in YPF and other companies. The same thing is happening in Molinos R\u00edo de La Plata, in Esteban Echeverr\u00eda and Barracas\u2019 plants.
\nComrades,
\nThe government is scared of all these struggles, and this is the cause of the repressive escalade. Massive demonstrations like the one against the pension reform; the popular cacerolazos<\/em>; the demonstrations against impunity for the genocides… Macri is afraid of the working people and youth on the streets. And thus, we celebrate that the government was forced to postpone his slave-like labor reform in the parliament, and we will continue to fight for it not to pass.
\nIn this frame of struggle, unity, and resistance, we continue to demand:<\/p>\n