Solidarity tribute to Fernando Báez Sosa and the claim in one sentence: 'Justice is perpetual for all'

Natalia Iocco

01/17/2021 20:05

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 01/17/2021 20:06

It is hot and Rivadavia Park, in the middle of Caballito, moves like any other Sunday in this "new normal".

There are used books and collectible toys.

Also those who exercise, picnics in the open air and the deployment of deckchairs and bathing suits for sunbathing at noon.

It seems like one more Sunday, but no.

In the center of the park, right next to the monument to Simón Bolivar, Graciela Sosa is standing.

As soon as he takes a few steps, without much force, he gets up because someone brings him a candle and a little picture.

She looks down and hides behind her chinstrap to thank, as if making a delicate bow.

"Thank you for remembering my son," he

answers softly.

He does not finish sitting up that someone else leans out and asks for a photo.

He says "force" and they pose with the sign that asks "Justice for Fernando."

A neighbor made her own posters and - she tells him - she has been distributing them in the neighborhood for a year.

A group of mothers of other boys who attended the Marianist School, like Fernando, bring him a pin that has more or less the same message.

The same photo of Fernando Báez Sosa (18) showing his teeth, taking out the pear and narrowing his eyes with such a smile.

"How cute," Graciela says and immediately hooks it onto the white T-shirt that also bears the name of her murdered son.

Graciela, Fernando's mother, thanked each person who approached her to greet her.

Photo Maxi Failla

It is this day and no other that they chose for a collection that within a few hours already filled three trucks with non-perishable food and school supplies.

It is today because a year ago that pain, anger and impotence went through them all.

On the eve of the first anniversary for the crime of Fernando, beaten to death outside the Le Brique bowling alley in Villa Gesell, friends and family organized a solidarity collection that will be distributed among dining rooms and picnic areas of the migrant organization "December 18 ", also among institutions attended by the Colegio Marianista, the same one that Fernando had attended. 

"I feel like a kid among them, one more. It is very emotional for me to meet Fernando's friends, who have not seen them for a year. The truth is that at the same time it is sad because I do not see my son among that group of boys, who always went to the house. 12 months ago we felt very alone, praying, asking God, that where Fernando is, he will give us the necessary strength to move forward. This collection we make is to turn our pain into good will, to help others. And it is giving me enormous satisfaction ",

Silvino Báez, Fernando's father

, tells

Clarín

.

He walks all the time, carries and brings boxes to complete the truck to and from school, where they will store and sort the donations before distributing them.

He talks to the people who stop him at every step, he responds with a calm voice and his eyes full of tears.

They repeat that "strength" and that "Justice for Fernando" over and over again.

They want to give you their support, that these parents know that these strangers are there for them.

Around there are other parents or close friends who surround them when the anguish is already great and move them away to protect them when social distance becomes complicated.

They remind them to eat or drink water and they spray them with alcohol after giving so many hands, receiving so many squeezes.

Food and school supplies, everything was selected and then made donations to the chosen organizations.

Photo Maxi Failla

"I feel a relief in my heart because this is what my son liked,

we are doing what he did. I feel very accompanied, people come to support us, they give us strength," Graciela manages to say before they ask him again a picture. 

Milagros is a friend of Fernando and the day she learned the news she was traveling with her family.

Nonstop packages and sanitize each donation on a board supported by trestles.

"When the year started it was a big move and everyone was talking about what happened with Fer. Then it was put aside, or at least it was not so much on everyone's lips because of the quarantine issue and all that. It was difficult because no one He really wanted to get out of his house when all this happened. The quarantine gave us the opportunity to process it, each one in his own time, although without being able to get together but always connected to each other, "he says.

They interrupt her to ask for some boxes that she finds right away, as if she had the mechanism to organize the collection oiled.

But he immediately resumed and added: "I had a week of classes at the faculty but I was going to attend and thought 'what am I doing here?' It was very difficult for everyone. They had been planning this tribute from that moment, but due to the pandemic It could not be specified. Whatever we were going to do, I am glad that we did it and that people feel that they have to come. I thought they had forgotten, as if it had come to nothing. But no, it is very powerful to see how they approach to collaborate, they highlight their solidarity, they could see who he was. "

Fernando's parents wore a white T-shirt with Fernando's smiling face and the request for "Justice."

Photo Maxi Failla

There are neighbors who found out from other neighbors, others who heard about the activity on television, and parents of other students from the school who came to help.

But there are also others who, moved by the history of the family, came from different places.

"What they did to this family is so terrible, so violent. I came because I have a 20-year-old son and it could have happened to me, I could be that mother. It could have been any of us. The boys go out and They have friends. There must be an exemplary sentence for those murderers, "Norma gets angry, who came from Rafael Castillo and asked for a poster with Fernando's face to take a picture.

"I am going to upload it to WhatsApp, we would all have to do the same. To demand justice and the highest sentence for those responsible," he claims.

They are accused of the crime of Fernando, Máximo Thomsen (20), Ciro Pertossi (20), Luciano Pertossi (19), Lucas Pertossi (21), Enzo Comelli (20), Matías Benicelli (21), Blas Cinalli (19) and Ayrton Viollaz (21).

The justice dismissed Juan Pedro Guarino (19) and Alejo Milanesi (19) on understanding that they did not participate in the attack, although the lawyers for Fernando's family appealed the decision.

Solidarity collection in tribute to Fernando Báez Sosa, one year after his murder.

The donations were taken to the Colegio Marianista.

"Justice is perpetual for all"

, is the motto of some T-shirts that collaborators of the collection wear.

This Monday, the claim will move to Villa Gesell, where Fernando will be remembered in front of the Le Brique bowling alley, where a sanctuary was set up with photos of him and many messages from the people.

Then there will be a mass.

Silvino takes a minute and thinks about the trial for which there is no date yet.

He says that this will be another "challenge for Fernando."

"We will try to be strong. The anger that I have I hope it calms down by that time, I do not know how I will react but I will try to be my best to see the murderers in the face. I have no other word to define them. They had no mercy. for my son and now we hope that justice has no mercy: they deserve the worst of punishments, "he closes. 

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The girl who did CPR on Fernando Báez Sosa: "I matured suddenly but I wonder if I did enough"