the journalist in me is calling

since wednesday, without pause, the front page of every single newspaper has featured one story. since wednesday, conversations about that one story have not stopped. and somehow, despite the fact that every. single. person. in buenos aires has heard about what happened on wednesday afternoon, for the life of me i cannot find even ONE article about the tragedy in any of the american publications i read online, no matter how many pages i click through. huffington post?? nope. new york times?? nope. cnn?? nope. global post?? nope. 

so, coming at you from my cozy apartment in buenos aires, here's that story.....

last wednesday afternoon, a clash between political activists from the worker party and unionists from one of the largest railroad companies in the province ended in the tragic death of twenty-three year old mariano ferreyra, a history student and long-time militante (political activist) of social and labor causes.

along with the support of leftist activists like mariano, various ex-employees of Ferrocarril Roca, who were laid off several months ago (after already being grossly underpaid to begin with), organized a protest of  Ferrocarril Roca in the hopes of reclaiming their old positions in the company. originally, they had planned to cut off the train service at one of the railroad stations, but were confronted by union workers from the company, who blocked their way and threw stones to prevent any further advances, and eventually fled the scene. they continued onward through the barracas neighborhood, looking for another place to carry out their protest, when they were ambushed in the street by a group of men (initially identified in the newspapers as union workers) who opened fire, killing mariano and severely wounding a 56 year old female activist.

i first found out about the deadly confrontation in the middle of class wednesday night, a couple hours after everything had happened. several students came into my literature lecture to speak about the tragedy and urge students to come out the next night to remember mariano. thursday evening, nearly 80,000 individuals participated in a huge commemoration and protest march down avenida corrientes, where i walk practically every day of the week, towards la plaza de mayo, where the argentine equivalent of the white house is located. along with the commemoration of mariano's  life, protestors gathered for a myriad of other valid reasons: to demand action in the search for the truth regarding his death and an end to corruption in the worker unions, particularly violence between unionists and other activists. 

after morning class, i grabbed a newspaper and found a café next to the march's starting point so i could watch the various groups gathering. our study abroad coordinators had strongly discouraged us from going anywhere near the march, in fear that violence might break out (which made little sense to me, all the groups involved were on the same page). but whatever. i meandered through the streets anyway. i then had my tutoring session in the FLACSO offices that line the same street where the march was located. for two hours, drumbeats and chants formed the background noise for dense anthropology theory. that was new. 

i then walked home for the night alongside the thousands of marchers, from unemployed workers, to students, to entire families with young children and all. the whole grand shebang. for me, the most interesting thing was learning about the role of union groups here in buenos aires. the one chant i remember clearly was "se va a acabar la burocracia sindical, se va a acabar la burocracia sindical!!" (basically, "union bureaucracy will come to an end"). at home, im used to thinking about labor unions as the underdogs fighting for better lives for themselves and their family, for more justice in the workplace and more voice in their daily realities. and yet here in argentina, the unions are now being represented, whether truthfully or subjectively, as the culprit, as the political bodies abusing power. the unions are already given so much power and support by the kirchner government that even they turn a little corrupt every now and then. it's the type of problem that i would never even imagine to happen under the watch of a union. same applies to the main phrase of the week which i've been hearing over and over: terror sindical (union terror).  once again, fascinating and different and stumping. 

but anyway. from my perspective, the whole march scene was pretty moving: in a mere 24 hours, a whopping 80,000 individuals (maybe more, maybe less, but that was the statistic i heard on television) took time out of their day to remember a lost comrade (man, don't i sound like an UBA communist!!) and seek justice, in a unified demonstration of solidarity and collective strength. i was impressed. here in buenos aires, protests and political activism are national pastimes, and marches like this happen all the time, to the point where i hardly even notice them anymore. but this particular one was something special, and i admired the thousands of argentines who participated and cared so much. they were absolutely incensed by what had happened. in america, i would guess that most people (most) probably wouldn't even bat an eye. 

the group of masked students and activists who eventually attacked la casa rosada with their wooden poles 

various political groups lining up on avenida corrientes for the march to plaza de mayo

underpaid railroad workers marching in protest and commemoration 

in the aftermath of the mariano's assassination, buenos aires was buzzing with accusations thrown from every imaginable angle. for a solid four hours, i watched various newscasts from my computer trying to piece the whole drama together and understand the situation. the whole drama involves much much more than just the tragic death of a young man, but rather involves a ton of different actors and forces. it's complicated and hard to explain in a mere blog post. but anyway, the police were accused, union members were accused, barrabravas were accused (organized groups of soccer fans that turn violent), the presidency was accused, political supporters of the ex-presidency were accused, and the leader of the railroad union was accused of corruption and a mysterious union mafia that seeks to silence challengers. everyone placed the blame on someone different, to the point where i was totally and completely confused. 

this weekend however, they finally pinpointed a suspect. a barrabrava of a local soccer team, the man has been accused of firing the shot that killed mariano and faces trials in the upcoming week. how does soccer have anything to do with anything here?? yeah, i asked myself the same thing. basically, from what i'm reading and hearing, the barras are organized groups of hard-core hinchas (fans) that are sometimes recruited to carry out violent acts. in this case, one of the head union leaders and administrators for the roca railroad company has been charged with contracting the barrabrava group that reportedly ambushed mariano's group of labor activists and ex-exployees. pretty nuts, i know. the whole barrabrava phenomenon is also totally new to me, but apparently barrabravas are a common issue throughout latin america. 

facebook is pretty ridiculous. i was actually able to find the profile page of the man who is being accused with mariano's death. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1773647064&ref=ts#!/profile.php?id=1773647064&v=wall his recent status updates claim his innocence, but who knows. hopefully the upcoming trials will shed light on his guilt or innocence, and let this case rest once and for all.

for anyone that speaks spanish, here's a good argentine newspaper. http://www.clarin.com/ right now, they have an entire tab dedicated to news about the mariano case and the ongoing union conflict. maybe not in the rest of the world, but here in buenos aires it's a pretty big deal. as it well should be. sarah henningsen, over and out!!