With the urgency to release prisoners and preserve the right to protest | Relatives and human rights organizations called for a rally in the Plaza de Mayo

Relatives of prisoners protesting against the Base Law He called for a rally in the Plaza de Mayo this Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.demanding the release of all those detained. They demand that the justice system adopt such a process Respect democratic and constitutional guarantees. “They are not criminals, as they are making out. “They are citizens of conscience who went to protest.”a summary of the mother of Margarita Nicolas Mayorgawhile making the call at a press conference at the door of Serpaz. Political leaders of the left and Peronism came to this place, trying to connect sectors to the call in these hours. It is also being activated by the unions to which many of the detainees belong – such as teachers -, the university environment, since there are also five students among the prisoners, and social movements.

For family members, The immediate goal is to get releases; Since this week is short due to the holidays and next week will be even shorter, they feel there is a risk that the process will drag on. Judge Maria Romilda Cervini de Cubría on Friday refused the release of 16 of the 33 initial detainees, based on the accusation presented by prosecutor Carlos Stornelli. Stornelli insisted and asked the appeals court to re-arrest the protesters who had been released. All this happened under the accusation that he stood against the “constitutional order.”

The accusation lacks evidence; on the contrary, this is what is seen in the videos of the arrests These were accidental arrests.And most worryingly, they were in line with what President Xavier Miley’s office proposed on March 24, when He accused those protesting in front of Congress against the Basis Law of being “terrorists”. Last Wednesday, such qualifications seemed somewhat illusory; today 16 people have been deprived of their liberty and are incarcerated in federal prisons based on this criminal speech at the opposition protests.

At the press conference family members explained who the prisoners are and how they were detained. They told how they themselves went through five days of terror – waiting at the doors of police stations, picketing at Comodoro Paya courts, visiting prisons (“difficult visits”) and they talked about their children, parents, brothers and colleagues, a way of trying to prevent them from being objective. Claiming to be “prisoners of the base law” can be a dangerously abstract way of talking about the very serious situation that has arisen.

“They are not terrorists”

Nicolás Mayorga’s mother, Margarita, said he studies at the University of San Martín and works at Telefe. He is the companion of two other UNSAM detainees, Camila Oliva and Sasha Lardet. “Nicolás is in a group of neighbors in the San Martín neighborhood, he goes to help out at a popular soup kitchen with Camila; he has solidarity parties, he also collects clothes or food.”

“They went to demonstrate peacefully against the Bases Law. At one point, when the repression began, they separated from their group. They were detained near the UADE (that is, at the height of 9 de Julio Avenue, far from Congress). They did not resist authority as they were accused, they did not throw stones, they revealed their identities. They are not students, as claimed, they were not there, nor were they participating in those actions,” he stressed. For Margarita, the judicial case has only one purpose: to spread fear so that “people cannot express themselves, so that they do not go out on the streets.”

Grisel Liardet is Sasha’s sister. Since Friday, she has responded to all the media’s calls and spread on the networks what happened. Her sister was also with Camila Oliva at 9 de Julio Avenue when her friend fell and she stopped to help her. At the same time, three motorcycles climbed onto the sidewalk and stopped them, where they were arrested. “I ask Judge Servini de Cubría to start studying the case. Everything is unfair: there is no evidence that finds Sasha and Camila doing anything. They are all accused of serious crimes, with high penalties… It’s totally unfair”.

Camila’s mother, Silvia, said the six women imprisoned in Ezeiza prison were told they would be moved to common pavilions and could be separated, a prospect that terrifies them. “Caimi and the boys are a sign of what is going to happen if we don’t stop them,” she warned.

Ramona Tolaba’s daughter was also at Serpaz’s door. She said her 56-year-old mother works as a housecleaner and went alone to the march against the base law. “She was talking to a retired man on Avenida de Mayo when they arrested her.” Like other relatives, Ramona’s daughter asked that if anyone has videos of the arrests, they be sent to her. The judicial process is so irregular that it seems as if the burden of proof has been reversed: detainees are forced to prove their innocence.

Although everything indicates that the charges are not going to stick, the problem is how much she will have to endure; she has already been jailed for six days. María de la Paz Cerruti’s father spoke about the consequences: “It sounds unbelievable, but when you are in this situation you realize that they can fire you from your job, a job of almost twenty years, when she was not a crazy person or anything, she was only exercising her normal rights,” he said.

Another relative warned: “The idea of ​​a coup (set up by the press office of President Xavier Miley) was transferred to the judicial system” in a very serious precedent. “There is evidence that our relatives are not terrorists and this reassures us in some way, but what we are experiencing is terrible, because the Constitution and the rights of everyone are being ignored. What happens for these reasons is going to set a precedent in terms of human rights. That’s why if there are people who have videos of unjust and arbitrary detentions, we ask them to bring them to the families or to human rights organizations, because they are the only evidence we have to counter this discourse in which people are being criminalized. Even those who were released are being charged.”

The charges brought by prosecutor Stornelli are no minor ones: public threats, incitement to mass violence, crimes against public powers and constitutional order, assault and resistance to authority and disturbance of order in the sessions of legislative bodies.

Political and union support

Present at the meeting in Serpaz were political figures from the left and Peronism. The former Minister of Infrastructure, Gabriel Katopodis, national deputies Paula Penaca and Mónica Macha, his colleagues from the city of Victoria Montenegro for Peronism, Berenice Iñez and Andrés Labalunda. On the left were, among others, Miriam Bregman, national deputies Nicolás del Caño and Cristian Castillo, Buenos Aires legislator Celso Fierro, piquetero leader Eduardo Belliboni and Gabriel Solano.

Besides, Human rights organizations (Grandmothers, Mothers, Relatives, Children, APDH, CELs, among others) and the CTA were called to go to the square.

On the street, which was closed to traffic due to the large number of people gathering during the press conference, groups of activists and university students also gathered to organize a way to spread the call to gather in the Plaza de Mayo.

For example, in Villa 21.24 in Barracas, the secondary school teacher where Juan Spinetto teaches, collects leaflets for his classmate. “Juan is a lawyer and a teacher in several middle schools. He went to the march with his union, Ademís. When the police repressed his whole group, they lost concentration and they arrested him when he was in San Telmo, five blocks away from reaching his house. They arrested him without any reason,” said Melina, a colleague of his. Ademís and UTE are two of the unions supporting the demand for the release of detainees.

Also students from various universities (Florencio Varela, Unsam, Hurlingham) called for a rally in the Plaza de Mayo.

The protest in front of the Casa Rosada will begin at 4:30 p.m. The claim will continue on Wednesday with the delivery of a petition to Judge Servini de Cubría for the freedom of the prisoners. Mothers, Grandmothers (all national human rights organizations) and international organizations and celebrities also joined the petition; by the end of this edition it had collected more than 40 thousand signatures.