Yesterday, Facundo Molares, a journalist and political prisoner of the Bolivian coup regime, was murdered by police officers who were repressing a political demonstration in the center of Buenos Aires. The images show how police officers tried to revive him after causing him to go into cardiac arrest.
Como con George Floyd en EEUU, así asesinaba la policía de Larreta en CABA a Facundo Molares. pic.twitter.com/F2mMOuPzWM
— La Izquierda Diario (@izquierdadiario) August 10, 2023
Molares was together with dozens of people holding an assembly that took place in the Obelisk, in the center of Buenos Aires. The protesters were gathered in a small square when the police began to repress them. There are still at least six people in custody.
The repression took place against an assembly of the organizations MTR Votamos Luchar and Rebelión Popular. It was carried out in the Obelisk, as part of the actions called by those organizations. According to testimonials that La Izquierda Diario collected after the repression, the protesters were finishing the assembly when they were attacked by the police.
El accionar brutal de la policía de Larreta terminó con la vida de Facundo Molares. Nuestro mayor repudio a este nuevo crimen de estado fogoneado por los que alientan la represión y la criminalización de la protesta. Castigo a los responsables. Libertad inmediata a lxs detenidos.
— Myriam Bregman (@myriambregman) August 10, 2023
La policía de la ciudad reprimió una asamblea en la plazoleta del Obelisco y asesinó al compañero Facundo Molares de Rebelión Popular. Todo nuestro repudio. Justicia por Facundo. pic.twitter.com/0GZtZTqbcf
— Nicolas del Caño (@NicolasdelCano) August 10, 2023
Molares was assassinated by the police force of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the current chief of government of the city of Buenos Aires and candidate for president for the right-wing coalition Together for Change, in the presidential primary elections that will take place this Sunday, August 13, in Argentina.
Images, which have been circulating widely across social media, show the moment Molares was murdered, after having suffered cardiac arrest. Police brutality in Argentina and around the world is fueled daily by law and order speeches, calling for more repression against anyone who protests or is simply working class and poor.
The images of Molares’s murder are shocking. A knee is put on his body, a journalist then asks the police to stop the attack because Molares was turning purple. There is no denying that Facundo Molares died as a result of police repression.
Ahora en el obelisco acompañando a los compañeros del MTR que están denunciando la violenta represión de la policía contra ellos y que dejó a Facundo Molares en una situación crítica. Exigimos ya la liberación de los detenidos y que digan dónde y en qué situación está Facundo pic.twitter.com/3vm8kqEYbb
— Pato del Corro (@Patriciodc) August 10, 2023
It’s impossible not to draw a parallel between Molares’s murder and the racist police murder of George Floyd who was suffocated in Minneapolis byDerek Chauvin, while dozens of people filmed him and asked him to stop. Floyd’s brutal murder triggered the international mass movement Black Lives Matter against racism and police brutality.
Police brutality runs rampant under capitalism which uses police to repress workers and the popular sectors that disrupt bourgeois “order.” While the Buenos Aires city government is trying to pin Facundo’s death on “heart problems” as a result of various “risk factors,” like they did with George Floyd, it is clear, as Molares’s comrades insist, that he was intentionally targeted by the police, and that Molares died under the knee of a police officer.
Ahora Urgente reprimieron en la movilización en el obelisco, hay un militante muerto a manos de la policía pic.twitter.com/zMjQvjWSzV
— Zainab Rosales Giménez (@OrgZainab) August 10, 2023
In response to Molares’s murder, today on Friday August 11, social and political organizations across Argentina, including the Party of Socialist Workers (PTS), are calling for a day of national mobilization to repudiate this brutal murder and to demand justice.
Justice for Facundo Morales!
