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Police approach Parque Indoamericano in December 2010. (Photo: Kate-Sedgwick)
The trial of Diosnel Pérez and Leonardo Nardulli over their role in the planning and organisation of the December 2010 occupation of Parque Indoamericano opened today.
The pair are the only ones facing trial in the case, as others who faced charges over the occupation, and the eviction of the occupiers, which resulted in the deaths of two people, have been acquitted.
In December 2010, a group of 5,000 people had occupied the terrain in the south of Buenos Aires to protest the lack of city government action in providing social housing solutions for many residents of the city’s shantytowns. The occupation lasted for ten days, with occupiers facing hostility from local residents, whilst the city and national governments showed reluctance to find a solution, both claiming the problem to be out of their jurisdiction, before a joint operation eventually cleared the park.
In response to the trial, human rights groups CELS said: “The decision to bring Pérez and Nardulli to trial sets a grave precedent in the criminalisation of social leaders and proves the discriminatory and violent treatment with which the City Government has treated conflicts such as the Indoamericano one.”
“In the four years since the occupation, the social housing deficit which led to the occupation has worsened. Whilst social leaders are persecuted and criminalised, there is impunity over deaths that occurred during the eviction of the park.”
Bernardo Salgueiro and Rossemary Chura Puña were killed and five others were injured during a police operation to clear the park. In July, 41 police officers were acquitted for their roles in the deaths. In it’s ruling, the court confirmed that the deaths were caused by police action during the eviction of the park, but did not hold the federal and metropolitan police officers responsible. It concluded the perpetrators to be unidentified police officers who had acted on their own.
The post Trial over Parque Indoamericano Occupation Opens appeared first on The Argentina Independent.
