Good afternoon everybody. Sorry I am late. I salute first of all the convicted workers and Claudia, wife of one of them; to Maria Isabel; the comrade of Zimbabwe.
I’ve just heard and I could not believe the question of slavery. All my solidarity goes to you and to fight in every place we can.
Clearly the struggles are not local or of a certain area, but global. I congratulate this organization which is all over the world fighting for the comrades who are imprisoned for fighting, for fighting for a decent life. It is unconceivable that at this state of humanity with the developments we can see… developments that should be for the entire human kind, however they are for those who own capital , which is not destroyed at all. As the comrade from Zimbabwe said 90% of the workers are unemployed. That is why I say the solution is not regional; it is not of Latin America, America… but the world.
Today we were invited by the comrades of the commission for the freedom of the oil workers of Las Heras to this university.
We presented an Amicus Curiae in 2014 when we were invited by members of SUTEBA (teachers’ union, TN) when we made a public talk with the presence of the oil workers Cortez if I am not mistaken. They came here to put in the political agenda the abuse they suffered in 2006. And honestly those who live in Argentina have several problems, but one of the main ones is the “shortermism”, the lack of memory and the fact a new covers the next one. And when this was an even that shocked the militant sectors, not a long time after a new event came and left the previous in oblivion. That is why for a while we inaugurated an agenda against impunity in Argentina and it was inaugurated by Nora Cortiñas writing something that she says every day “What happened? Where is he? What have they done the last days of his life to Gustavo, her son?” He is detained and disappeared since 1977.
Later was signed by many others, among them Fernando Jones Huala (Facundo’s brother); also Vanesa Orieta, Sergio Maldonado while he was looking for Santiago; Alberto Santillan as well. I should have brought so you could sign it, but we will have other chances since I have made commitment to travel Las Heras.
Organizations should be characterized is not taking a political event to the advantage of the organization, but to be side by side with those who suffer and until their situation is not solved, we cannot leave them.
Politically it is correct next to him/her at the right time. But we have to be there when the light goes off. And this is what I said in February when I was for the third time in Pulof with the Mapuche youth. And they were upset, even when it was my third visit, with the ones who travelled once, took a picture, and then they never returned. Why? Because they were bought or busy with another case, which it is also politically correct to be with.
Do you what is the matter? For those of us who participate in Human Right organisims, as well as left parties, the characteristic should the opposite as the capitalist parties; it has to be related to humanity, respect. I said this because I said it before when different parties invited us to be part of a group of people presenting the Amicus Curiae. For those who don’t know Amicus Curiae is a Greek word which means friend of the judge. We are not friends with the judge, but it gives us the chance of presenting a series of proves to show the absolute innocence of the case they are treating. In this case the absolute innocence of whole city of Las Heras when they wanted to find someone responsible. I want to clarify this: the death of any person has the same value. And for the relatives it is worth the quest for justice. Now, what they judging and convicting for life is that oil workers in Las Heras don’t dare any more to stand against bosses, against TNCs or national oil companies, like YPF now. That is what is being judged! They are judging because workers were fighting the way they have mentioned and these were thing we have just heard on how they prepared themselves before, during and after. And what they are living know with the abuse of the police officers.
I represent an organization called the Permanent assembly for the Human Rights of La Matanza. We are an independent organization and we attend those who look for us and suffer depravations on their rights.
But I think system understood the failure of the left and progressive currents. It is the use. And I denounce this. We cannot use the pain of the people and if we join a movement claiming for justice we have to be with them before, during and after surely we will meet again and stay friends. Otherwise it is hypocrisy and using a drama to seem politically correct. I repeat this because we cannot live this again.
I am going to tell you an anecdote. More than anecdote it is a tragedy. 3 years ago came to APDH Alberto Santillan and Diego Santillan. I thought they came to say hi. Actually they came to tell us that since the year the material authors were convicted, they did not have lawyers to convict the intellectual authors. And I ask you, could you imagine that one of the most popular case, namely the Massacre of Pueyrredon Bridge, doesn’t have lawyers? When every June 26th in the anniversary many organizations that have lawyers… but Alberto and Dario did not have lawyers. We couldn’t believe it. And when they told us we say… “look this is too big for us. This case to APDH-La Matanza is too big.” It is a fight against the one who rules –even today at his 70 years old- the darkest areas of Buenos Aires Police, namely Eduardo Duhalde. He is the biggest responsible of the massacre of Pueyrredon Bridge. So immediately we look for other organisms and there we are trying to get to the trial any member of the administration.
This is our style Claudia and comrades. If we didn’t do anything earlier is because we didn’t know. We heard that the Supreme Court approbed our Amicus Curiae, for a comrade from Buenos Aires when we saw them in Plaza de Mayo. We have given an address of Rio Gallegos of a political party and they did not tell us that they have accepted the Amicus Curiae.
This gives us the chance of presenting documents and the denunciations of what they have suffered after the conviction. And this gives some light to the judges so they can see how wrong these were done.
So my commitment is to continue here; to travel to Rio Gallegos to widen the Amicus Curiae and to travel to Las Heras to hug them and hope that this situation finally has a happy solution and we will not move until you get your acquittal.