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LAST MINUTE, NEW BATTLE IN BUENOS AIRES (english)
by Indy Argentina 3:51am Sat Dec 29 '01


Hurried report while we continue to breath tear gas.
-What time is it?
-Its 2:15Am

Yes, we look at each other and we understood that we
had to remember
that time for the rest of our lives. We were standing
in the gates of
the Government House, an ornate pink palace also known
as the Casa
Rosada,
symbol of Argentinean power. Never in the past had a
mobilization
gotten there.
And in that way.
Where to start if not there? How to sort all the mixed
emotions, so
many images, so many events?
We ask for apologies for this report, written with the
acid taste of
the gases still on our noses. We hope to be able to
sort all that we
lived this day.

While it was still eleven in the evening, we were
walking on San Juan
Ave and Boede, we could hear some pots been beat
against the
balconies. Behind we had left a building with people
looking down
making noise. The cars went by honking their horns and
their in front,
a couple of blocks, you could see families that
blocked just a piece
of the avenue.
We continued walking, until a friendly car takes us to
the congress,
place were people were atoconvocating.
Autoconvocated, lets say it clearly, it means that
nobody had called
for the manifestation. A groups of neighbors had
organized a
“cacerolazo” (the beating of house pots) in Almagro,
and maybe in some
other neighborhoods, but no one had called to march
towards the
congress.
Now we were there, and we were thousands. Again the
pots, the steps
filled with people, complete families protesting and
making noise.
What did they want?. That Grosso leave the government,
the resignation
of the supreme court , that they give back the
deposits. But also more
that this. The motto was “that everyone left, that no
one remained” is
still everyone’s favorite; it was the one most
cheered, again today,
with the new government. Its not about one or another
dark figure in
the halls of power; its about a ‘click’, of something
that broke very
deep inside and is not going to be cured with one or
two resignations,
or with an election.

The rumor begun to spread and later became a cheer;
“the people are
going to the Plaza de Mayo and nobody is going to take
us out” An
spontaneous column of thousands, that gets lost in
Mayo Ave. goes
decisively forward. In front an Argentinean flag, and
in every step we
take we seem to be more.
We race in front to see it get there, and again we
prove that we were
more, thousands and thousands entering the Plaza de
Mayo.
And people continue to get there, and the mothers get
there (mother of
the disappear during the last military dictatorship
1976-82), and the
“motoqueros” get there (people on motorcycles), who
are giving an
ovation in memory of the last protest were they played
a heroic role
and some lost their lives, the fallen had their
tribute, the best one
they could have.

First a photographer spoke.
Then, a grandfather said he wanted to enter by force
to talk with the
president.
Later, the youth. Five minutes later, at 2:15 AM
exactly, it was all
of us.
The barriers gave in immediately, and the police had
to move to the
side, there we were; at the gates of the Casa Rosada,
that from now on
has nothing sacred about it.
We entered the gates, in the hall before going inside,
singing what
everyone wanted; for everyone to leave, that no one
remained. We saw
faces with emotion, surprised faces, curious people
that looked from
behind and that went forward just to touch it, feel it
theirs.
People were angry; the news that Grosso had resigned
went by like a
lightning, but it only help to raise the spirit; many
wanted to repeat
the same of last week; that everyone left, that no one
remained.

From Moyano, to the radicals, going thru Menem and
Rodriguez Saa
everyone was a protagonist of the songs “without
peronist, without
radicals were going to live better”, was also one
tuned song.

And now? The question was answered, once again, by the
police. They
did it in such a fashion that it later serve them to
present it as an
act of personal defense: the sent two cops “to
dissuade” the whole
multitude. Obviously, the crowed didn’t receive them
too well, and
from not been “dissuaded”, the tear gas and rubber
bullets begun.
The two policemen, fat and big, were the sacrifice of
the “law
enforces” to start the repression.

With the first gases the mass of people begun to run,
thru Diagonal
Norte and thru Ave. de Mayo. An important group
remained in Plaza de
Mayo, and another one of thousands in Ave de Mayo. The
great majority
of the people went towards the Congress.
(We stop here to emphasis the following: the
mobilization divided in
three parts, maybe four parts , and still it remained
been big)
The Plaza de Mayo crowd holds, by Ave. de Mayo
barricades are put up.
Some let their anger out on the banks, sings, bus
stops. From the
balcony of a rich hotel, men in tuxedos look down the
scene and make
gestures. A youth starts screaming to them “Bourgeois
sons of
bitches!” and the gestures multiply. A small anecdote:
a bottle of
cider is thrown with good aim, and hits one in the
mouth opportunely.
In the Plaza de Mayo the situation is becoming more
tense. The
majority of the people are going towards the Congress,
and everyone
decides to go there.
In the Congress a show of bonfires on the steps. We
don’t remember to
ask for the time . The more decisive enter, and begin
to pull things
out to feed the bonfire, until the entrance of the
congress becomes
one. They say that inside, deep inside, there’s also
people taking
staff out. They take out a bust, and someone screams
not to throw it.
People struggle over it until one manifestant takes it
and
ceremonially throws it in the fire.
The infantry, minutes before, had been overflowed.
Then once again the
gases begun, just as the bust went down. Now there
more, and it
appears that the water tank is coming. People
retrieve, while a strong
group of people resists. They leave, thru Callao, a
bit running, but
immediately walking; it brings plessure to the cops
when they make you
run, they fell bigger, it disorganizes us. The scream
not to run is
generalized.
Now everyone retrieves and some scream to the
tribunals, to the
tribunals!. They want to go for the Supreme Court
Justice, the same
placed two years back in an agreement between the
peronist and the
radicals.
No one runs now; we make bonfires, little barricades.
Other show no mercy towards the banks.

The police advances toward us again. The air becomes
unbreathable, and
in one second they appear from every direction. We
turn, we have no
other way. We go thru dark streets and in every
corner, in every
single one of them trucks appear, gases and civilian
cars appear with
rubber bullets. it’s an ambush.
We get out how we can. There’s no possibility of
refuge and its hard
to organize resistance. All of us, every single one,
throws anything
they can to obstruct the police way. We turn and once
again the
ambush. A small group of us remain, trapped in one
block. Cars make
way for us and take us out.
Thru the streets were in people are still running. The
police
operation goes six or seven blocks around, that at
this time they seem
without end.

We get out, finally. The sun begins to come out and
the phones begin
to ring to see how everyone is doing. Until now the
news reports three
detained, but a half an hour from the end everything
is hard to tell.
It seems like history doesn’t give you a breath. Lets
not give it one.