Argentina: Police Brutality Leads to Death of Facundo Molares

On Thursday, the police of the city of Buenos Aires harshly attacked militants from the leftist organizations Vote to Fight and Popular Rebellion, which called to protest against the primary elections in the city's Obeslisk.

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Among the protesters was Facundo Molares, a 47-year-old photojournalist who was part of the now extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

During the protest against "the electoral farce", the police detained Molares and pinned him to the ground using maneuvers similar to those that led to the death of George Floyd.

While Molares was being subdued on the floor, he went into cardiac arrest and died. Videos posted on social networks conveyed what was happening in real time. As can be seen in them, bystanders repeatedly warned the police that Molares was suffocating.

"Let him go, let him go. He's turning purple, he's going to die, he's having a cardiac arrest. Let him go. Let him go," are some of the phrases a woman was desperately yelling at the police officers who were arresting Molares.

The tweet reads, "Just as it happened with George Floyd in the US, Larreta's police assassinated Facundo Molares in Buenos Aires."

“Resuscitation maneuvers were performed... The causes of death are related to cardiac arrest due to risk factors. The body was transferred to the judicial morgue for the corresponding autopsy," the Emergency Medical Care System (SAME) informed.

Once the Molares death became known, protests intensified in Buenos Aires, a city controlled by Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, a far-right politician. At the end of the day, the police repression left at least 6 citizens arrested.

A few hours after the events, the Buenos Aires authorities justified the strong repression by arguing that the protesters were trying to set fire to a ballot box.

Rodriguez Larreta, who will present himself as a presidential candidate in the primary elections to be held on Sunday, posted a message on social networks to "fully support the actions of the Police," which he praised for "acting professionally to contain acts of violence."

While the nightly protests in Buenos Aires continued, the main Argentine union centers spoke out against what happened.

"It is time for society as a whole to reflect not only on the responsibilities and causes of these events, but it is necessary to think towards what type of Argentina we want to go," said the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), which repudiated the death of Facundo Molares.