Police violence escalates in Argentina during quarantine

The Government of Argentina has had to call the leaders of the country's main cities to order after scenes of police violence that have transcended the borders.

One of the cases has been emblematic for its enormous impact. It was the crime committed against Luis Espinoza, a 31-year-old rural laborer who was shot in the back by the Tucumán police, an episode that reached the international press at the same time that the whole world was following the minute-by-minute protests in the United States over the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police.

Spanish newspaper El País went so far as to refer to the event as "a savage police crime shakes Argentina". The homicide, which occurred on May 15, did not receive an official response from President Alberto Fernández, who was forced to speak out after the brutal attack by Chaco police on a Qom family, which was recorded on video, was added to Espinoza's crime. Four young people from that community reported that they were later tortured and abused in a police station.

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In addition to the criminal acts of the police in Tucumán and Chaco, several civilians left their homes and were later found dead in police stations in the Province of San Luis.

"The images of institutional violence that we have seen in recent hours in Chaco are unacceptable," Alberto Fernández tweeted on Tuesday night."I am pleased that the provincial government has suspended the officers, but we must work more deeply on a problem that is a debt of democracy," he said.

"I am pleased that the provincial government has suspended the troops, but we must work more deeply on a problem that is a debt of democracy," he said.

Security Minister Sabina Frederic said that her office "condemns institutional violence" and that "every time the federal forces have committed this crime, we have removed those responsible and begun the corresponding investigations". Unlike the president, Frederic referred to Espinoza's crime and said he sanctioned the Federal Police personnel who took photographs of those who were protesting the murder of the Tucumán citizen.

According to sources within the president's office, the minister sent letters to the governments of Chaco, Tucumán and San Luis to express her concern about the actions of the provincial police forces and instructed them to remove the police personnel involved in these acts.

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The national government admitted LPO that these events, being three provinces governed by the president's party, are politically relevant but they cannot do much more if the governors do not take a clear position. They recalled that in the security council meeting that took place when the quarantine started, they had warned the security ministers of the provinces to avoid these episodes.

The silence of the federal government was so loud that the PRO party pushed them to the side with a statement in which they expressed their "condemnation of these serious acts of institutional violence.

The center-right party's press release upset the government coalition, which responded on social media with photos of former President Macri with Luis Chocobar, the policeman accused of being trigger-happy that Patricia Bullrich, former security minister in the previous government and current head of the PRO, made into a "protocol " for the police.