In the wake of the brutal confrontation that occurred at Hospital Borda on 26th April between protesters and the Metropolitan Police, controversy has once again surfaced surrounding the city of Buenos Aires’ police force.
The incident at the psychiatric hospital left approximately 50 people injured and eight were arrested after batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets were used in response to protesters opposing the advancement of the construction of a civic centre on site.
The Hospital Borda incident follows a series of violent encounters between the public and the Metropolitan Police. Protests at Parque Centenario earlier this year saw over 20 arrested and a similar violent police response utilised, while the brutal police evictions at Parque Indoamericano in 2010 left two residents dead.
The Metropolitan Police are relatively new, and I don’t know too much about their history or how they run as a force, but until now I think they were a relatively accepted presence and authority. But what happened at Borda changed things, and shone a light on who they really are, and the excessive force they don’t hesitate to use. But I’m not an expert; this is just the opinion of an ordinary citizen.
Mariana Espeche, 25, Secretary, Capital Federal
I think that without a doubt the Metropolitan Police abused their power that day at Borda. I have a friend there who was very insecure about what was happening. I don’t think the behaviour of the police was justified at all. As for a solution, the construction of the civic centre is complicated and raises other social and political questions, but we must remember that the violent confrontation of the Metropolitan Police is not an isolated case. Their abuse of power has not only occurred at Borda.
Matias Conte, 18, Student, Monte Grande
I don’t honestly know if they generally act this way, but in the Borda case, the Metropolitan Police undoubtedly acted with excessive force and abused their authority. What happened at Borda has really brought to the forefront the argument of police intervention and brutality, which I think is a discussion that really needs to be had. This is something that needs to be raised, and perhaps it’s in police training when the incorporation of these ideas occurs, the idea that excessive force is not only sometimes necessary but encouraged. In my opinion, generally speaking, police intervention and brutality is not necessary, and it especially wasn’t in the Borda case.
Matias Amesto, 25, Student, Retiro
I think that what happened at Borda is very much a demonstration of the politics and views that Mayor Macri has about social protests and demonstrations. He is very much a repressor of certain social groups and sections of society. Before the Metropolitan Police arrived, it was not an excessive or out of control situation, the arrival of the police, and their violence and use of rubber bullets etc., escalated the situation to what it was. I also think that due to certain media coverage, Macri and his actions are protected, and he therefore doesn’t have to deal with the consequences.
Ilumine Fernandez, 21, Student, Villa Lugano.
They have a lot of power, yes, as does the city government and the policies of Macri. I think they have a lot of power, but then they abuse their power with a streak of violence. I’m not sure if there was a different Mayor if they could regulate the power the police force has, or whether the Metropolitan is built upon a physical and violent manner of dealing with situations. Although in the country there is a wider problem with unnecessary intervention and an abuse of authority, such as with the gendarmes. It is not just the Metropolitan Police who act excessively.
The repressive behaviour of police has once again been condemned following violent clashes between protestors and the city’s Metropolitan police force at Borda hospital on 26th April. In the most recent chapter of ‘unnecessary’ police brutality, over 50 people were injured when rubber bullets and tear gas were fired in an attempt to suppress those campaigning against the demolition of a rehabilitation workshop, Protected Workshop number 19. The events reminded many of those that unfolded at Parque Indoamericano in December 2010, which left three people dead, resulting in the public condemnation of Mauricio Macri and his ministers.
The Metropolitan Police force may be young, having only been created in 2008, but since it began operations in 2010 a number of incidents have married its reputation and many believe it has much to answer for given its aggressive handling of evictions and protests.
Borda Bedlam
Patricio Tejedor, a journalist working for La Tribu radio station, was injured during the protests and was shocked by the attitude and uncompromising actions of the Metropolitan police. “The protesters were standing in a line facing the police who were positioned opposite. They seemed hostile from the onset, before anything had even happened. I was filming the events with my crew and then suddenly and without warning the police started firing into the crowd. They just kept on firing relentlessly. As a journalist I thought I would be safe but I was hit by five rubber bullets no more than ten metres away,” he says. Tejedor required medical treatment after taking the projectiles in the side of his body. “I was dragged away and treated by an ambulance on the scene,” he adds.
Video of the repression in El Borda hospital, filmed by the La Tribu journalists.
Dr. Luis Herbst, Secretary of the Argentine Psychiatrists’ Association, works at Borda hospital and witnessed the action first hand shortly after arriving on that Friday morning. He was shocked by the aggressive nature of the police, especially as they gave no apparent warning before opening fire. Columns of smoke rising into the sky, from burning car tires, was the first thing Dr. Herbst noticed.
“Something was different that morning,” he says. “I saw the smoke and a police motorcycle blocking the entrance of the hospital. I heard the drums of the protesters, they came face to face with the Metropolitan police and I heard a series of loud bangs. Surprisingly there was no warning before the police started firing rubber bullets into the crowds of protesters made up of doctors, nurses, and patient’s families. Many were wounded, including journalists.” Many of Dr. Herbst’s colleagues and friends were injured but the thing that struck him most was the relentless barrage of bullets that rained down on the protesters. “It all happened so quickly. The police continued firing, it was terrible,” he adds.
Metropolitan Police officers claim to have acted in self-defence after being attacked by protestors at Borda, and Buenos Aires City Deputy Mayor, Maria Eugenia Vidal, ratified this at a press conference shortly after the conflict, defending the eviction. Vidal said that the police acted in the interests of the patients, protecting them after the crowds resisted police orders. Security Minister Guillermo Montengero also backed the operation saying that officers “follow an action protocol to stop crime.” However, he did say the events were to be “audited” and the officer’s performance “evaluated”.
Parque Indoamericano: The First Scandal
The repression at Borda Hospital last month is but one example of the police’s excessive use of force. This year alone, the evictions of protesters at Parque Centenario and Sala Alberdi have raised complaints about the violence with which the Metropolitan police has acted. However, the worst example of recent excesses in the use of force in the city can be found in the Parque Indoamericano incidents in late 2010. In that case, the Federal police was also involved.
Incidents at Parque Indoamericano in 2010 (photo by Kate Sedgwick)
In December 2010, Federal and Metropolitan police attempted to forcibly evacuate 200 settlers from Parque Indoamericano, a large green area in the south of the city, as the result of a court ruling. By the end of the day two people had been killed and dozens more injured. After the police pulled out, local armed mobs began attacking the camp, killing one more. The Federal police insisted only rubber bullets were used and denied any wrongdoing; the Metropolitan force took the same standpoint. Following an investigation, Judge Eliseo Otero cleared the 44 police officers involved, 11 of which were members of the Federal police, of all charges. Judge Maria Cristina Nazar, who ordered the eviction of the settlers, was also cleared. However, a tribunal annulled their dismissal and the investigation remains ongoing following the removal of Otero.
The national government has admitted that during the initial stages of the eviction Federal police acted without political direction, which suggests that they were initially able to act as they pleased, which may or may not have involved the shooting of lead bullets. Then-Cabinet Chief, Aníbal Fernández, said, “The conflict began with the Metropolitan police entering a certain area, and when it turned violent the Federal police interceded without any political instruction.” He also said that the bullets found in the two victims were from a shotgun and could have been fired from “a police, civilian, or home-made” weapon.
It must be noted that not every eviction involving the Metropolitan police can be distinguished by a hailstorm of rubber and lead. Take the eviction that happened in Bajo Flores in May 2011 as an example. Up to 120 squatters were calmly ushered from housing complexes after two hours with the help of social workers and negotiators. There was an element of trouble when a small group of protesters set five houses on fire but the flames were quickly put out. Only one arrest was made. The use of social workers and negotiators seems apt and a more measured approach – protocol followed correctly.
Vague Protocol
The evidence seen thus far would suggest police protocol involves the use of rubber ammunition, tear gas, and extreme force. Certainly those who have come under fire from the Metropolitan police in recent months will testify to the use of severe violence. Even lead bullets, reportedly fired by police, have injured members of the public, including a journalist and photographer who were wounded while reporting on the protest at San Martín Cultural Centre on 13th March.
“I was hit by a lead bullet that perforated my thigh, by a Metropolitan police officer who shot me at the intersection of Corrientes and Paraná,” said the journalist who was reporting for the Alternative Media Network. Initially the authorities denied using lead bullets, although Montenegro later admitted that two people were hit a few blocks away from where the original conflict occurred. The investigation is ongoing.
Montenegro, Vidal, and Chief of Cabinet Horacio Rodríguez Larreta give a press conference after the Borda incidents (photo courtesy of Buenos Aires City Government)
When Montenegro was interviewed live on Radio 10 shortly after events at Borda it became clear that the definition of an ‘action protocol’ was not particularly clear. Despite stating that “protocol was perfectly fulfilled” during the protests, Montenegro was only able to refer to a general protocol document used by police, nothing that was specific to protests and demonstrations.
He continually referred to the protocol relevant to cases of hazardous materials, explosion, fire, and building collapse yet nothing aimed at protest situations. “It is a general protocol but there is no criteria for action in the event of demonstrations,” Diego Fleitas, a consultant specialising in security issues, told Chequeado.com. Fleitas also said that as the general protocol was only a formal document, it was vital that it be supported by the supervision of political and judicial authorities while being carried out.
The Public Safety Act of Buenos Aires (law 2,894), however, outlines a number of measures which should be employed by police on duty. Article 27 states that physical force must only be used as a last resort, and that police personnel “must prioritise preventive and dissuasive tasks and procedures”. The article also explains that police must respect five principles at all times, which include approaching situations in a controlled and measured way. The use of firearms is discussed in article 28 of the same act, which reads, “(firearms) are only legitimate in the case of self-defence or situations of emergency and serious danger.”
City legislator Rafael Gentili, speaking after the Borda incidents, denounced that the actions of the Metropolitan police at the psychiatric hospital not only violated law 2,894, but did not meet the standards set out in the ‘National Protocol on the Use of Security Forces during Public Manifestations’, a protocol that most provinces subscribe to, except for the City of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Córdoba. Such guidelines mention that police must keep a minimum distance of 50m if firing weapons and keep a reasonable distance from the protestors at all times, must point their guns to the ground -not at people-, must identify themselves, must engage in dialogue and negotiations with the protestors, and cannot arrest journalists, among other prescriptions. Gentili stated that none of these rules were followed, and that the Metropolitan police was “out of control and [acted] outside of the national protocols for security forces.”
Surrounded by Scandal
Controversy has followed the Metropolitan police since its creation in 2008, something that was made possible after then-President Néstor Kirchner and Mayor Aníbal Ibarra agreed to modify article 7 of the ‘Ley Cafiero’, a law that limited the autonomy the City of Buenos Aires was granted under the 1994 constitution in issues such as safety, justice, and transport.
Macri and Montenegro during the official presentation of the Metropolitan police in 2010 (photo courtesy of Buenos Aires City Government)
The force’s track record is fairly poor and many people have not been surprised by the scandal unleashed by their actions at Borda, especially given the other incidents of repression -mentioned earlier- in which they have been involved.
There have been suggestions that the aggressive nature of the police during protests may be related to the fact that a number of ex-Federal police officers have joined the Metropolitan police in recent years, bringing along with them the bad habits that in many cases caused their dismissal from the federal force.
Furthermore, legislator Julio Raffo of Proyecto Sur compiled a report in which he traces the origin of many Metropolitan police officers back to the military, something which is prohibited by law 2,894. He said, “5% (186 members) of the Metropolitan are, or were, part of the military. Of these, 76% (142 members) come from the Navy.” A decree, pushed through by Macri’s government, meant that ex-armed forces personnel were able to join if they occupied managerial positions. However, according to Raffo, 72% of these officers are in “operational positions”, ie., in the lowest ranks. The Metropolitan police has therefore been accused of roping in former soldiers whose military background and training may be incompatible with the principles outlined in the law. “Most of these men trained for war and for exterminating the enemy are now officers in contact with the neighbours in the street. In other words, Macri signed a decree that violates the Public Safety Law and doesn’t even respect his own decree,” said Raffo.
However, much of the police’s behaviour has to do with the directions they follow, rather than with individual conduct. In this sense, the leadership of the Metropolitan police has also been questioned. The first head of the Metropolitan force appointed by Macri was Jorge ‘Fino’ Palacios, who in 2001 was prosecuted for playing a role in the violent repression and murder of protesters, although later acquitted, and who is currently being prosecuted for his alleged involvement in a cover-up operation and for abuse of authority in the AMIA case.
Perhaps the greatest stain on his record though, was his involvement in the wire-tapping scandal that rocked the Metropolitan force. In 2009 Sergio Burstein, family member of an AMIA victim, stated in court that that the police were spying on him. Burstein was one of the leaders of the Jewish community who had campaigned against the promotion of ‘Fino’ Palacios to Chief of Police due to the accusations against him in the AMIA case.
Macri, Montenegro, and Giménez during the latter’s appointment as chief of police (photo courtesy of Mauricio Macri)
The resulting investigation concluded with Palacios, Deputy Police Chief Osvaldo Chamorro, and Ciro James, a Federal police lawyer working for the city’s Ministry of Education, prosecuted not only for allegedly spying on Burstein, but also on different members of the opposition (Macri himself is prosecuted for the latter). The government has vehemently denied the existence of a spy network, and Macri perceived the scandal as an attempt to discredit both the new police force as well as his 2011 bid for the Casa Rosada.
After Palacios was forced to resign, a civilian, Eugenio Burzaco, took charge of the Metropolitan police. However, Burzaco was removed in 2011 and again a former Federal police officer was named chief of the force. Horacio Giménez was forced to retire from the Federal police in 2011, after a purge of the force’s senior officers carried out by national Security Minister Nilda Garré following the Parque Indoamericano incidents.
These well-documented scandals together with the apparent lack of a specific protest and demonstration protocol do little to increase the popularity of the Metropolitan police force. The fact that the force, and its political leaders, refuses to recognise the need for a more measured approach may indicate that the brutal repression of demonstrations that have occurred in recent years looks set to continue.
What do porteños think of their police force and their recent intervention at Borda? Click here to find out.
Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police dismantled more than 20 sales stands in the Retiro bus terminal today, claiming it was due to the vendors’ illegal marketing of goods.
Beginning at 5am, agents seized toys, clothing, and electronic equipment from the location on Ramos Mejía street. The police said it was because “the vendors could not verify the origins of their merchandise.”
Dozens of outraged shopkeepers, many from Villa 31, responded by placing roadblocks down Av. Antártida Argentina, demanding the city let them keep their jobs. The shopkeepers denied police claims that they were selling counterfeit clothing.
An unidentified shopkeeper told La Nación: “We were not given any warrant, they took everything, emptied everything … What’s more, they took clothing that had no marked brand and said it was falsified.”
Metropolitan Police claimed the operation was ordered by misdemeanor court Judge William Morosi, but shopkeepers said it was unwarranted because they were not shown any notice at the time of eviction.
During the protest, a car was burned opposite the Belgrano Norte train station. Its owner was unhurt and firefighters put out the fire. Protestors claim they had nothing to do with the blaze.
Police sources say the confiscated merchandise “was taken to a legal deposit”, and that nobody was arrested during the conflict.
A group of neighbours that oppose the construction of fences around Parque Centenario gathered Monday night to protest. Police combated the situation with gas and rubber bullets. Twenty-one people were arrested.
One person present at the protest said he suffered “brutal repression that does not belong in times of democracy” at the hands of the city police force. “The only thing we wanted was to maintain the free access to a public park,” he said.
The police made the arrests on charges of “damages,” “resisting authorities,” and “injuries.”
It is unclear at what time the protests turned violent but according to witnesses it began when a group of people started throwing stones, bottles and sticks at the metropolitan police.
These incidents caused injuries to at least two police officers. Meanwhile neighbours reported assaults by police when a group of youths tried to destroy the metal and wood fence that the city government had began constructing around the park.
“They punched us, they hit us, they pulled our hair. They even wanted to push a girl,” claimed one neighbour who also reported that the people arrested were kicked by police.
The staff of the Buenos Aires Environment and Public Space Office started fencing the park at dawn to make improvements to the property and to combat insecurity in the area, according to the office.
Protesters complained about not being consulted regarding the fence construction and not having received a notice by the city government. They argue that the measure “threatens the work of 700 people and their families.”
This morning, the President of the Buenos Aires Legislative Justice Commission, Martin Ocampo, defended the actions of the metropolitan police.
Federal Police in downtown Buenos Aires (Photo: David Wilbanks)
On the 4th April, Minister of Security Nilda Garré announced the next-day withdrawal of 1,400 PFA’s officers from their custodial positions in the city’s 183 public buildings. The decision marked the abrupt end of a cooperation agreement between the Federal Police Force (PFA) and the city of Buenos Aires’ government (GCBA), in place since 2004.
Garré explained the decision was taken as part of a new security plan, which calls for a substantial increase in PFA officers patrolling the streets. The minister argued the measure responds to the need of “channelling as many police personnel as we can to prevention tasks in the fight against crime.”
She said the responsibility for guarding the capital’s public buildings should lie with the Metropolitan Police force, inaugurated in 2010.
However, GCBA rejected the ministry’s decision shortly after it was announced, sparking a war of words between city and national authorities. The city’s chief of staff Horacio Rodríguez Larreta referred to article 7 of law 24.588: “It says that the national government will continue to provide security and protection to the capital city’s people and goods.” And he added, “by failing to meet with this obligation, minister Garré is committing a crime.”
The city’s mayor, Mauricio Macri, regarded the measure as an authoritarian act. “The national government has chosen to ignore people, to ignore the ordinary citizen, with wild ideas,” attacked the city’s mayor, “it is a bad way of doing politics (…), it is disrespectful.”
In an interview with radio station Radio 10, Macri explained that the Metropolitan Police has 2,000 officers compared to the PFA’s 30,000. He pointed out that the officers in the Metropolitan Police Force are prohibited from working extra hours by the organisation’s organic statute, and that it takes a year to train and incorporate 500 officers, which means that the city cannot replace the PFA in the near future.
The hospital crisis
With the GCBA insisting that it cannot replace the PFA, concern mounted over the 33 hospitals and 11 educational institutions that would be affected. On the morning of 5th April, four armed men entered the facilities of Hospital Piñero—one of the public buildings with the highest security threat—located in the neighbourhood of Flores. They attacked a woman who was accompanying her relative in the emergency ward.
Mayor Macri welcomes new police officers to the Metropolitan Police Force (Photo: Silvina Arrastía-gv/GCBA)
The incident, which occurred a day after Garré’s announcement, coupled with the escalating violent episodes in public hospitals, triggered a series of indefinite strikes. Jorge Gilardi, president for the Municipal Doctors City Association (AMM), said that “without police protection, we will not work.”
The city’s 33 hospitals only keep the emergency wards open while 42 health centres remain closed. Health centres, or Health and Communitarian Action Centres (CESAC), are primary care units depending on public hospitals. These are mostly located in southern neighbourhoods such as Barracas, Parque Patricios, Flores, Villa Soldati and Villa Lugano, all of which are inhabited by risk population. These neighbourhoods have grave security issues, partly because of their proximity to shantytowns, social polarization and lack of effective inclusion measures.
The AMM manifested its “deep concern for the safety of our associates and of the public health system’s users. (…) Authorities must guarantee a safe environment for us and for the patients.”
Sources from medical unions assured that, since late 2010, criminality and aggressions to doctors, nurses and public health system’s workers has worsened. Medical associations registered 28 complaints between November and December 2010 alone, which means approximately a report every three days. In defending the strike, doctors explained that, after Garré’s decision, this rate ascended to two per day.
Political agendas
The minister of security argued that there is a political purpose to the GCBA’s reaction. She accused authorities of victimizing themselves. “When one gets to power, one must know the responsibilities it implies,” said Garré. “[The city government] has the Metropolitan Police, with more than 2,000, trained, highly-experienced men. These people should be perfectly able to assume custodial positions.”
Garré also explained that when she had talked to city Security Minister Guillermo Montenegro on 11th February, he did not make any “catastrophic statements” [about the current state of things]. “We talked about cooperation and I also made a formal complaint on the wages they owe to the [PFA] officers,” she said.
Under the terms of the 2004 agreement between the PFA and the GCBA, police officers work extra hours –the ‘adicional‘- to guard the city of Buenos Aires’ government house, public buildings, parks and public officers’ domiciles. Policemen earn a basic $3,500 wage plus up to another $3,000 for the extra hours on custodial duty.
According to the national ministry of security, the GCBA owes the PFA $30m—the equivalent of 7 months’ work-although the city’s authorities claim a two month debt is “usual”. Either way, the cooperation agreement between the PFA and the GCBA states in its 10th clause that a ten-day delay in payment would enable the PFA to withdraw agents from their custodial positions.
Nonetheless, in an interview with radio station Radio Continental, Garré argued that the city’s administration owed the PFA too much money, but that it was not the reason why police officers had been reassigned.
According to Garré, the additional work required PFA personnel to “work long hours” to the detriment of their effectiveness in their primary jobs. Under the new plan, affected officers will be “compensated” with “service charges” on the streets in order to maintain their income, said Garré.
Adrift
In the midst of the conflict, the police reassignment was eventually delayed until 6th May, after it was confirmed that the cooperation agreement’s clause 7 states that termination must be notified in writing at least a month in advance. However, all of the federal police officers have already abandoned their positions, except for the police’s fire-fighters at the city’s Ecological Reserve.
GCBA has already brought criminal charges against minister Garré and PFA head Enrique Capdevila. They are accused of dereliction of duty of public officer, a crime under the Argentine Penal Code. Article 248 states that public officers who go against the national constitution, provincial constitutions or laws, will face one month to two years’ imprisonment and will be removed from their charge. Also, the same article imposes a fine of $750 to $12,500 to those who refuse or delay any act of their office.
The case will be investigated by judge Norberto Oyarbide, who is accused by GCBA of being partial to the national government. Last year, Oyarbide indicted Macri for conspiracy in connection with the illegal wiretapping case. The city’s mayor was allegedly involved in a clandestine, metropolitan intelligence system –which is forbidden by law.
In the meantime, little has been done to repair the damage caused by the conflict. Macri announced more private security officers will be assigned to custodial positions in hospitals. But neither this measure, nor Garré’s decision to have the PFA’s Tactical Motor Service marking a perimeter in villas (shantytowns), have eased the fears of hospital workers or the city’s inhabitants.
And the prospects of a collaborative work between the PFA and the Metropolitan Police are not promising. Last December, when a group of settlers occupied the Parque Indoamericano in Villa Soldati, the conflict between the national government and the GCBA prevented both police forces from coordinating a safe eviction of the premises. Later, with the deaths of more than three settlers and after repeated judicial orders, it was the Gendarmerie and Prefecture that assisted in resolving the conflict. Again, Macri insisted that the city’s police force lacks the manpower or experience to handle critical situations.
Hence, the dilemma: if the Metropolitan Police Force cannot take care of custodial positions by law and if the PFA will no longer protect public buildings, who will? It seems that, in the city of Buenos Aires, two police forces are not enough.
To find out what locals thought about the issue, click here
During the last four days 140 families are still occupying the Avellaneda park, Flores district, Buenos Aires. In here the families took over 200 apartments of a housing complex (belonging to City Housing Institute) or even build their own houses. Argentine’s Security Department presented a measure which contains to extend the time of the eviction of the families in Avellaneda park.
The housing complex belongs to the Authority of Matanza-Riachuelo basin, and includes 204 apartments distributed on 10 three-story buildings. The complex was initially built to relocate poor families that are currently living on the banks of the Matanza-Riachuelo river as part of a plan to cleanse the river’s basin.
The measure by Minister of Defence, Nilda Garre is an attempt to pour cold water into the nowadays situation. In this manner she wants to prevent the situation of December last year, concerning the footage of the American Indian Park and Alvarado Club where the city’s government had come to ask immediate eviction without prior negotiations.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Julio Alak, stripped the government’s strategy: “We are facing a collective encroachment and competition belongs to the Metropolitan Court and misdemeanours.” Alak emphasised that the solution must be a social one.
The Court upheld his decision and Federal Police officers are still surrounding the compound of the Buenos Aires Flores district, waiting to enter.
Mayor of Buenos Aires Mauricio Macri was back to the controversy with the federal government, saying in a press conference: “This method (to make buildings) is the same as December in the American Indian Park. This is a method that must be stopped, otherwise the message is that using violence and breaking the law has its rewards and that can not be. ”
This morning, chief of the cabinet, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta launched a review for elevation to the national Government officials. He recalled that the Metropolitan police is only presented in a few neighbourhoods in the city and therefore the responsibility for security nowadays security in Buenos Aires should be the Federal Police.
However, the Security Department stressed that the idea is to vacate the premises by discussion and not repression. “Someone can not take anything in return, for occupying a public space. Tomorrow they can occupy the whole city, ” Larreta concluded.
Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri has opened the first Metropolitan Police station in the porteño neighbourhood of Saavedra with the aim of cracking down on crime. It is said that 400 police officers will be working at the new station, from which, they shall have control over 20 vehicles in order to fight crime in the city’s most affected areas.
As previously announced, Macri’s Metropolitan Police force is said to be focusing on specific parts of Buenos Aires with plans to establish new police stations in the neighbourhoods of Pueyrredón, Villa Urquiza and Coghlan in the near future.
Present at the opening of the new police station in Saavedra, Macri expressed his hopes that the police station will remain empty due to more concentrated police presence in the neighbourhood, which has helped to lower crime rates. The Buenos Aires mayor also went onto say that he would like to see the initiative of new stations spread to areas in Southern Buenos Aires where conflicts over land occupation have taken place recently.
Police Chief, Eugenio Burzaco stated that, “the police station will work 24-hours a day to deal with different crimes.”
These developments follow the decision for the creation of a Metropolitan Police for that has been patrolling the streets of Buenos Aires since February 2010. Within the next decade, the force is expected to expand to 10,000 officers.
In its short time of service, the force has also come under criticisms which have included Macri’s choice to equip officers with electric taser guns, its administrative methods and political clashes with the federal police.
Judge Roberto Gallardo declared a “state of emergency” in the early hours of this morning and has called for a perimeter fence to be installed by the national government to avoid further violence in the Parque Indoamericano.
Television footage released this morning showed an armed man entering the park in Villa Soldati, where tension continues to mount over the occupation of land which has already left three dead
The magistrate’s decision, which is supposed to “pacify” the area also encompasses Villa 20 and Lugano and in the “Los Piletones” zone, where the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo help build houses.
According to judicial sources Gallardo intervened after representations from ex Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and Father Pepe among others.
“Basically the operation will involve the construction of a perimeter fence to avoid clashes and to protect the neighbours,” said the representative of the Court of Appeals, Gustavo Moreno, in an interview with TN.
He also said that the people have access to water, toilets and that a population census would be carried out afterwards.
The occupation started at the weekend and violence broke out on Tuesday night when a clash with federal and metropolitan agents ended with the death of Bernardo Salguiro and Rossmary Chura Puña.
On Wednesday 250 families had arrived at the site, by dawn yesterday there were 1,500. What started as a protest organised by neighbours living in complexes around the park ended in scenes of violence.
Elizabeth Ovidio, the widow of Juan Castañeta Quispe – who became the third victim to die last night – said that her husband died in the entrance to the hospital, after his friends took him there in a taxi because no ambulances were allowed into the park. “I found him naked, in the morgue, with a bullet in his chest,” she said.
“The people from the metropolitan police killed him,” she said to reporters while carrying a baby and her husband’s t-shirt in her arms. According to Señora Ovidio her husband was shot while carrying a flag. “I’d already gone but he came back because we need somewhere to live,” said the mother of three.
“They treat us worse than animals,” she said while neighbours continued levying insults at the families in the park.
Buenos Aires city mayor Mauricio Macri is sending two members of the Metropolitan Police to El Salvador to participate in a counterterrorism seminar at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), which human rights groups have called a “new School of the Americas”.
The seminar, called the Law Enforcement Management Development Program, will take place from 14th-23rd June, and cover topics such as money laundering and border control.
But the Law of Public Security 2894, which created the Metropolitan Police, does not grant jurisdiction over such duties.
The city Observatory on Human Rights (ODH) said in a press release that the mayor is “once again violating the law” and that the city government, “instead of reinforcing public policies to resolve the problems of insecurity, is mistakenly focusing on activities that don’t necessarily correspond with the current objectives of the Metropolitan Police.”
A member of the Metropolitan Police close to Eugenio Burzaco, the force’s current chief, said in comments to Página 12 that “it’s not just about drug trafficking and counterterrorism. Besides, Buenos Aires has had two [terrorist] attacks. It’s good that the police are trained.”
Macri’s attempts to police the city have been mired in controversy since early in his term. Jorge ‘Fino’ Palacios, Macri’s initial choice to head the Metropolitan Police, has been indicted for espionage and illicit association stemming from his role in an illegal wire-tapping case, for which Macri himself is now under investigation. Human rights groups have denounced the actions of the Public Space Control Unit (UCEP), Macri’s ‘task force’, which included brutal forced evictions. And Macri’s decision to outfit the Metropolitan Police with electric taser guns has been met with widespread public concern.
Similarly, the ILEA has raised alarm with human rights groups since its semi-secret inception in 2005. The US Department of Homeland Security denied a 2007 Freedom of Information Act request for the school’s course materials and names of graduates, saying releasing such materials, “could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.”
The ILEA’s refusal to release course materials and students’ names makes it impossible to track the human rights records of its graduates, according to the website of Washington, D.C.-based human rights organisation School of the Americas Watch.
The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, was originally established in Panama by the US Army in 1946, and has been based in Fort Benning, Georgia since 1984. The SOA/WHINSEC has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers, including Argentine dictators Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola. Many of the school’s graduates have gone on to become participants in human rights violations and state terrorism in their respective countries.
?Buenos Aires city mayor Mauricio Macri ratified legislation allowing the new Metropolitan Police to carry taser guns. After pointing out that citizens insecurities are rising, Macri also said that the “cutting-edge technology used for dissuasion” will be carried in specific neighbourhoods, mainly the 12th District.
Metropolitan Police Chief Eugenio Burzaco said the new taser-armed police force will be hitting the streets of the capital in less than a week. And the controversial X26 taser gun? “It’s not lethal,” Burzaco said.
Despite public apprehension, Burzaco says the tasers will be utilized in specific cases by certain personnel and any officers with a criminal record will be removed from the task force.
The Argentina Independent set out to see how the citizens of Buenos Aires feel about the use of tasers by the Metropolitan Police.
Daniel Alzugaray, 48, Artisan, Buenos Aires
I think they are just torture devices! A person has to be so close to use one, it seems wrong because chances are if you have any kind of weapon, you’re going to use it. This is something they used during the dictatorship and today it’s just another form of torture. It’s like giving a monkey a knife – they have no regard for anything! It’s a barbaric concept here as well as in the US where they use those things. Using these is partly for effect, sure, but I still don’t agree with it.
Luciano Trinidad, 22, shop assistant, Buenos Aires
I think it’s ok. It’s a weapon that doesn’t kill. It stops what’s happening without someone having to die. It’s not as bad as a bullet so I think it might be a good change for police to have a taser. They use tasers in the US, right? It seems to work other places so I don’t see what’s so bad about it. I’m originally from Brazil, so I don’t know if the Argentines feel the same, but to me it seems like a better way of stopping a criminal than shooting them.
Vilma Teruncellito, 52, Feria de Cabildo Artisan, Buenos Aires
Horrible. It’s just another type of aggression. The people here remember the bad things that happened in Argentina. In the 70s tasers were just used as a way to hurt someone without killing them and who is to say that’s not how it is now? And after all, they are Macri’s police! I think it’s very bad. If the police want to demonstrate control this way, it means they still have the opportunity to hurt someone. How ugly.
Olga Navarro, 70, retired, Catamarca
I heard about this on the radio, but that they would actually do this? I am not in agreement with this at all. After the subversive groups of the 70s were punished, we felt that ‘Nunca Mas’ was going to work in this society. We think that type of thing won’t happen again, but is that really the case? They communicate with the public through the media, and nothing ever sounds serious that way. I think using tasers will be bad and remind people why they don’t like the police.
I think it’s good. It’s logical, I mean, it’s better than a bullet, right? If there is a robber it’s better to catch them and bring them to justice than to kill them. For me it’s a good thing. I have a cousin who is a policeman and he’s had to shoot at people who were committing crimes before. I believe it’s better and puts him in less danger. If the other person has a gun they will want to use it because he has one, too. Maybe a taser is better.
In a week that sees the return of ArteBA, we recall a bizarre incident from the art fair's 2010 opening, when Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri broke a large artwork.
Pedro Hahn, 66, Retired, La Boca
Mariana Espeche, 25, Secretary, Capital Federal 
Matias Conte, 18, Student, Monte Grande 
Matias Amesto, 25, Student, Retiro
Ilumine Fernandez, 21, Student, Villa Lugano.
