A former guerrilla of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) died Thursday in the heart of the city of Buenos Aires after being reduced by police while participating in a demonstration. Facundo Molares Schoefeld, an Argentine ex-combatant whose extradition had been requested by Colombia, suffered a cardiac arrest after a struggle with agents trying to disperse the mobilization, according to the Emergency Medical Care System of the capital, the SAME. "For more than half an hour he was resuscitated until he was found dead. The causes of death are related to cardiac arrest due to risk factors. The body was transferred to the judicial morgue for the corresponding autopsy," the statement read. The protest at the Obelisk has been ignited after the death.
Molares fought with the FARC for 15 years and laid down his arms in the middle of the peace process. Then he reappeared in Bolivia and flew to Buenos Aires on a plane sent by the Government of Alberto Fernández in 2020. The man, between 47 years old, was demonstrating at the Obelisk in a protest called by leftist political groups and social organizations "against the electoral farce" three days before the primary elections are held in the country to define the presidential candidates of the October generals.
"We were finishing the act and deconcentrating. Police come in to evict us. There they arrest a comrade. When they arrest a comrade we are going to take him out and they all come to repress us. In that situation they arrest four more comrades and Facundo Molares who is decompensated," one of the demonstrators told the Telam news agency. In images collected by the people present, the man is seen face down on the floor with a red face and minutes later the police try to revive him. The four detainees were taken to the police station while Morales was taken to the hospital "without vital signs," according to witnesses.
Authorities in the city of Buenos Aires, governed by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta of the center-right Together for Change alliance, which is running in his party's primaries as a presidential candidate on Sunday, told national media that the man was reduced while trying to "set fire to an urn." Molares' death comes a day after the violent death of an 11-year-old girl in a city in Buenos Aires province paralyzed the election campaign in Argentina.
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