Shots of rubber bullets by the Argentine police would have caused eye injuries 6:53
(CNN Spanish) ––
In the province of Salta, in northwestern Argentina, the Office of the Criminal Prosecutor for Human Rights investigated the cases of eight people who reported having suffered eye injuries and even having lost one of their eyes after being shot by bullets. rubber or paint by local police, said prosecutor Verónica Simesen de Bielke, in charge of the files, in an interview with CNN.
Seven of the reported events occurred during the mandatory social isolation due to the pandemic in 2020, the magistrate assured.
Nighttime restrictions begin in Argentina 2:15
The volunteer soldier Néstor Ramón Ávalos is one of the cases. He was injured on the night of July 29, 2020, when he was going from his father's house to a nearby store, in the Norte Grande neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city of Salta. The young man, who was 25 years old at the time of the incident, affirms that that night he was shot in the face that caused him to lose his left eye. Which truncated his aspiration to rise in the Argentine Army, he added. The prosecutor confirmed Ávalos' complaint before the consultation.
Avalos said in an interview with CNN that he was waiting to be treated at a store in his neighborhood when he saw two young men running by.
A police car that was pursuing them stopped a few meters from where he was.
«They slow down, and jump a bit to the curb to turn behind me to go to follow the two young men who had run to the left side.
When they slow down, I look at the vehicle and the shot goes out from the passenger's back door.
First I feel the impact in my left eye and then I feel the sound, "Avalos said, recalling that night.
The Salta Human Rights prosecutor confirmed that Ávalos received a rubber bullet or anti-bullet.
And he affirmed that the policemen had no justification to be that night in that place.
Nor to have shot Avalos.
They closed the door and left.
They abandoned me, they left me alone, "said the soldier.
His case is one of the eight files of people who lost an eye due to the impact of rubber bullets or paint bullets between December 2019 and July 2020 in Salta, the prosecutor reported.
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Neighbors and relatives transferred Ávalos to a first hospital, from where they transferred him to another medical institution.
After spending the night waiting for an ophthalmologist, the soldier was treated the next morning.
«The doctor gives me the news.
He checks everything on me and said: 'Your eye cannot be repaired, it cannot be fixed.
You lost your eye, '"he recalled in the interview.
It is difficult for him to talk about that night and assures that the fact will not only affect the possibility of advancing in his military career, but that it changed him forever.
Currently, Ávalos performs administrative functions at the Salta military hospital, he explained to CNN.
Salta's Security Minister, Juan Manuel Pulleiro, the highest political authority of the provincial police, acknowledged in dialogue with CNN that the police are not properly trained in the use of force.
"Yes, I understand that shooting instruction and procedures must be reinforced," said the official.
Salta's attorney general, Abel Cornejo, believes that these cases reflect a crisis in the provincial police.
"It is an urgent reform that needs force in its entire training and education system."
Amnesty International reported in a 2020 report having documented more than 30 complaints of excessive use of force during the pandemic, in the context of isolation, in other provinces of Argentina, as reported by CNN.
“Both paint and rubber bullets have to be fired at a certain distance.
If they are not, they produce these events where there are clearly injuries to people's bodies, ”said Simesen de Bielke.
The context of isolation
The events that Simesen de Bielke is investigating occurred during the mandatory isolation due to the pandemic, decreed in March 2020 in Argentina, as confirmed by the prosecutor.
The official added that the people who received the impacts were at their homes or on public roads.
"The pattern is quite common, because the injuries usually occur in the area of the face, the eyes, and all these people have lost their sight as a result of these procedures," he added.
In the case of Ávalos, the prosecutor accused five policemen of qualified harassment and serious injuries.
The magistrate told CNN that the investigation determined that the police officers accused by the prosecution had participated in other similar events.
"When we verified this situation, we came across the sad coincidence that it was a group that had already been here since January carrying out this practice in that area," he said.
The Salta Security Minister, Pulleiro, acknowledged these eight complaints from people who have lost their eyes or vision after allegedly being shot by rubber bullets and paint from police in the province.
He affirmed that the case of Ávalos is one of those being investigated in the Internal Affairs of the force.
«What happens to us in that scene?
Normally there is a mobile with three or four troops and where there are two antagonistic groups of between 20 and 30 people in each of these groups, who normally see the presence of the patrol car and instead of leaving the place, on the contrary, they usually get together and they attack and start throwing stones and even the policemen are overcome, ”said Pulleiro.
The minister maintained that "all the cases (of people who lost an eye or the vision by the shots) are nocturnal".
«These are events that occurred due to disorders in the public thoroughfare.
Normally, they are also mostly clashes between antagonistic groups, "he said.
However, the prosecutor assured that the shots she is investigating did not take place in the context of clashes between groups of civilians.
"In most cases people were at home or in the vicinity," said Simesen de Bielke.
The prosecutor also established that the police had no justification to shoot or repress.
The Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Security of Salta also disagree on one of the points of the investigation: that the same group of police officers participated in these repeated episodes of institutional violence.
Pulleiro maintained that he is not aware that "it is the same police station and less the same personnel" who have participated in the aggression reported by Ávalos and other of the investigated facts that the prosecutor is investigating.
Simesen de Bielke assures that both in the case of Ávalos and in other files that he has investigated, the participation of some of the accused officers is repeated.
Opposing versions
The two entities also disagree on key information for the investigations and possible sanctions for those involved.
According to the prosecutor, there are about 30 officers accused in the eight cases of people who have lost an eye or vision.
The minister, however, reported that the internal affairs of the police are investigating the performance of eleven officers in these cases.
The official also replied that none of them have been suspended.
"There are no clear explanations of why the use of that force," remarked the prosecutor. It also reported on another case that was reported in September, when a 58-year-old woman was also shot in the face and lost her right eye. In this file it was determined that “the police broke directly into the home. They were perhaps committing a violation because they had the music at high volume, and when they were leaving (the policemen) they also fired various shots and ended up hitting a woman in the face, "said the prosecutor.
Pulleiro does not acknowledge that the police officers have entered the home due to a loud music complaint and gives another version that has not yet been corroborated by Internal Affairs.
“The reasons for which the police entered that address are being investigated.
Apparently what happened in that case was that they were chasing criminals who had escaped and who entered that place, "he reported.
Two other cases reported by the Prosecutor's Office are those of Adrián Mercado, 31, who also lost his left eye in May and that of Luciano Cruz, 19, whose right eye exploded after being hit by a bullet from eraser.
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