Patricia Bullrich has said that the severe injuries suffered by a photographer during a violent midweek protest is a “consequence of those who generate violence,” absolving the security officer who hurt him of any blame.
"It is a consequence of those who generate violence and who are going to receive as an answer the repression of the state."
Argentina’s security minister made a series of questionable claims at a press conference Thursday as she faced questions over the aggressive policing approach to the previous day’s rally.
Wednesday's skirmishes resulted in more than 100 arrests and at least 45 people being injured, including freelance photo-journalist Pablo Grillo, who was hit in the head with a projectile while taking photos. He fell to the ground, his head bleeding.
Grillo, 35, was taken to hospital to undergo surgery that his father said Thursday had "saved his life." Fabián Grillo, who blames the security forces and government for his son's injury, said another procedure would be performed to assess pressure on the young man's brain.
Bullrich went on television Wednesday night immediately after the protest, describing Grillo as a “Kirchnerite militant” in a baffling attempt to justify the act, implying that he was fair game due to his political leanings.
At a press conference at the ministry's headquarters, she argued that “the gas canister is a non-lethal weapon” and the aim is to “generate dispersion.”
“When there is such a strong attack – because there is a policeman wounded by a bullet – when the reality is this, the security forces have to protect democracy and public order and
have to use the elements that the state gives them,”’ Bullrich said of the tear gas capsule that wounded Grillo.
The minister said there would be no investigation into the incident and “no measures” taken. “In the operation there is no individual act of a policeman,” she declared.
“He [Grillo] was at that moment behind a place with a fire. We are very sorry for his condition, but whoever used the non-lethal weapon used it in the right way. It bounced off a barricade that the violent militants had set up and that is why it changed direction and hit the militant photographer. These are the consequences of those who generate violence, which will be met with repression by the state’, stressed the national official.
The Security Ministry has not said who fired the projectile that injured Grillo, though online sleuths are attempting to identify him.
Footage online casts serious doubts over Bullrich’s claims that things were done by the book, with video showing that the photographer was struck in the head directly by the tear gas projectile. Its trajectory does not seem to have been altered during its flight.
Brushing aside calls for her resignation, Bullrich vowed Thursday to stay the course.
Elderly woman 'attacker'
Bullrich was also asked about another episode that occurred during the protest, which involved an elderly woman who fell to the ground and was seriously injured after being pushed by a policeman.
Bullrich described the woman as a “retired woman who was a bully” and explained that the policeman “defended himself from the attack” by the retiree, which was caught on camera in sickening footage and shared online.
“The woman repeatedly hit the policeman, she hit him five or six times. She turned around to try to get the person off of her and the woman fell to the ground. The action and the attack
is done by the woman. The policeman was defending himself,” argued Bullrich, who also accused “Peronist mayors,” Kirchnerites, the left, gangs and hooligans of seeking violence.
Many demonstrators at Wednesday’s rally in support of pensioners stated they believe that there were “infiltrators” and plants among the crowd who were there to initiate trouble.
One such example of an operation is a fake image that circulated online supposedly showing rules drawn up by the Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad for protesters, detailing how to cause problems.
The left-wing party condemned the sharing of the image online, pointed out errors in the text that indicated it could not have come from them (such as the use of non-inclusive language) and wholeheartedly denied it was real.
That denial came after a photo of the alleged notice was shared by several La Libertad Avanza politicians and supporters online, including Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni and journalist Cristina Pérez, who is married to Defence Minister Luis Petri.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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