Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Argentina: Left Front Congressman Nicolas del Caño Receives Death Threats

“Hello disgusting lefty. I’m leaving you this [drawing of military dictator Rafael] Videla so that you think better what you do.”

On Monday, Argentine congressman Nicolás del Caño received death threats on his mobile phone. Del Caño is a former presidential candidate and a national representative for the Frente de Izquierda (Workers’ Left Front)

Juan C

September 25, 2018
Facebook Twitter Share

Photo: eldiariodebuenosaires.com

“Hello disgusting lefty. I’m leaving you this [drawing of military dictator Rafael] Videla so that you think better what you do.”

On Monday, Argentine congressman Nicolás del Caño received death threats on his mobile phone. Del Caño is a former presidential candidate and a national representative for the Frente de Izquierda (Workers’ Left Front)

One of the messages featured a drawing of Jorge Rafael Videla, the former dictator of Argentina, with this message: “Hello stinky lefty. I’m leaving you this Videla so that you think better what you do. I’ll meet you in the [Ford] Falcon.”

Videla was the army commander who headed the military coup in 1976 and presided over the military junta that ruled Argentina thereafter. He was responsible for kidnapping and killing 30,000 people, most of them radical unionists and left-wing activists. The reference to the Ford Falcon is known to every Argentine: the military used green Falcons to abduct activists and take them to clandestine detention centers, were they were kept for up to several years, brutally tortured and usually killed. Their bodies were dropped in the Rio de La Plata during the “vuelos de la muerte” (death flights).

The threats against Del Caño are not the first of their kind. In September 2006, detention center survivor Jorge Julio López was kidnapped and disappeared hours before testifying in court against the crimes of the military dictatorship.

This episode served as an eloquent reminder that state terror and the intelligence services behind it were still alive and well under formal democracy.

More recently, amid a wave of strikes and protests by teachers and students against cutbacks on education, a teacher was kidnapped and had her skin carved with a threat: “No more pots.” The threat referred to the meals some unions and social organizations prepare to feed kids and the unemployed.

The death threats to Del Caño come at a moment of sharp social polarization as masses of Argentines have rejected the austerity measures implemented by the administration of President Mauricio Macri. On the eve of the fourth general strike against Macri, Del Caño received the messages from different phone numbers across the country, signaling a coordinated operation.

Myriam Bregman, member of the Buenos Aires City legislature for the Workers’ Left Front received similar messages in the past couple days. She had already received death threats in September 2017, but no action was taken by the government to prosecute those responsible. Eight months after the demand of an investigation was filed, it was determined that the call had come from the phone of a lawyer who defended police officers involved in a drug trafficking scheme in Córdoba. He has not been charged with a crime.

Hundreds of human rights personalities, members of Congress and social activists expressed solidarity with Del Caño and repudiated the death threats. As of Tuesday, the hashtag #RepudioAmenazasADelCano (I repudiate the threats against Del Caño) was trending on Twitter.

Facebook Twitter Share

Latin America

Alfredo Cisneros, Mexican land defender from Michoacán, stands in a forest. He is the fifth land defender to be murdered in the country in 2023.

Alfredo Cisneros: Fifth Mexican Environmentalist Assassinated in 2023

Alfredo Cisneros Madrigal, indigenous leader and forest defender in Michoacán, Mexico was murdered on February 23. He is the fifth environmental defender to be murdered in the country so far this year.

Axomalli Villanueva

March 13, 2023

Lula Visits Biden to Repair Relations with U.S. Imperialism

Brazilian President Lula's U.S. visit shows that he's focused on maintaining the interests of Brazilian capital while aligning with U.S. imperialism and being careful not to alienate Beijing.

Caio Reis

February 16, 2023

SOUTHCOM Chief Aims to Increase Imperialist Plunder of Latin America’s Resources

U.S. Southern Command Chief Laura Richardson has expressed interest in lithium and other natural resources in South America. It shows the country’s commitment to corporate profits at the expense of workers, Indigenous people, and the environment.

Luigi Morris

January 26, 2023

The Peruvian Uprising: Massive Protests Demand the Fall of the Coup Regime and a Constituent Assembly

Peru has erupted in a massive uprising demanding that President Dina Boluarte resign, that the current Congress be shut down, and that a new constitution be established. The protests are the culmination of years of political oppression of the country’s indigenous communities, drastic poverty rates and precarity for Peru’s workers and poor, and a political regime that continues the legacy of Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship.

MOST RECENT

Protesters gather during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17, 2023, the day after the French government pushed a pensions reform using the article 49.3 of the constitution. - French President's government on March 17, 2023 faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house. Across France, fresh protests erupted in the latest show of popular opposition to the bill since mid-January.

Battle of the Pensions: Toward a Pre-Revolutionary Moment in France

President Macron's use of article 49.3 to push through an unpopular pension reform bill has opened up an enormous political crisis that has changed the character of the mobilizations against the French government. We are entering a "pre-revolutionary moment" that can change the balance of power between the classes in France.

Juan Chingo

March 21, 2023

20 Years Since the U.S. Invasion of Iraq: A Reflection from a Socialist in the Heart of Imperialism

A Left Voice member and anti-war activist reflects on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and how he learned to hate U.S. imperialism.

Sam Carliner

March 20, 2023

It is Possible to Win: The Pension Reform Crisis in France

A French socialist reflects on the way forward after Macron invites Article 49.3 to pass pension reform.

Paul Morao

March 20, 2023

“We are your economy”: Trans Youth Walkout and Speak Out

The following is a speech by a young trans person as part of an action called for by NYC Youth for Trans Rights.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 20, 2023