Common factor: poverty and marginalization. That is to say, shortcomings and needs that are resolved within the framework of the law of the jungle, where the last thing the State does is to be close.
The five shooting deaths in González Catán is a consequence of the worst face of exclusion. A mafia that controls an extensive area of a lot of green with "natural lagoons" (which are actually coarse) and desperate people who pay their "delegates" a good amount of money (in dollars) to buy lots that no one knows who they are.
On Monday evening, prosecutor Adrián Arribas was taking a statement from one of those trick delegates who, according to the neighbors (many of them Bolivians), would have received the money to buy the plots.
The photo from last Monday, when two neighbors of Gonzalez Catan went fishing in La Tosquera, near where five people were killed on Sunday.
So far, no arrests have been made. Prosecutors are trying to identify the people who fired the shots. There would be three of them, of Paraguayan nationality. On Monday night, the operations began.
What the justice system suspects is that the people who put in the money felt cheated and began to intimidate the delegates. That's when three mafia "thugs" pulled out guns and started shooting.
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A tour of the dangerous La Matanza compound a day after the shooting.
The neighbors point to a woman named Roxana as one of the "delegates" who, together with her husband, would be in charge of illegally selling the lots. "Everyone here knows her. She was one of those who led the 1001 takeover (along the route) that later grew to become the 17 de Septiembre neighborhood. Those who fired came with her and her husband," they say
"There were at least 30 detonations. Total madness. Especially since people didn't get scared and kept throwing rocks at the butts. That is why there were so many dead (five) and as many wounded," a judicial source told Clarín.
Tosqueras, which are wells up to 15 meters deep that have been filled with rainwater, often attract fishermen in this area. But only the most intrepid.
"My brother and I went fishing in the Tosqueras de Catán, about ten blocks from where we live. Here we all know that this area has an owner: a mafia that if it sees us will shoot us out. Truth be told, they warn you first to leave. If they hook you back, they shoot you," says S.R., a member of the Paraguayan community, the most important in this region of González Catán, about 40 kilometers from the Obelisk.
A mafia would control the entire area of the Gonzalez Catan tosqueras, which only allows people known to enter. The others, "they shoot them out."
The property in question is huge. In the Municipality of La Matanza they calculate that it occupies an area of 70 blocks. The whole area is privately owned, but it has been abandoned for decades. The landowners never showed up because almost nothing can be built on those lands. We made several complaints for attempted takeovers," they said from the Commune.
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A tour of the dangerous La Matanza compound a day after the shooting.
"Since they know my brother, they let us fish. But if I go alone, I'll be shot and killed. It's a complicated area where everyone knows they sell drugs," adds S.R.
As reported by Clarín on Monday, the versions are still unclear about what really happened on Sunday. The hypothesis being investigated by the prosecutor's office indicates that there was a seizure of this property and that, due to a conflict between the people who profited from the sale and the organization of these lots, the shooting was unleashed.
It was around 15:30 p.m. when a group of people gathered for an assembly of delegates. These people, according to the testimony of the victims' relatives, charged money to those who bought lots on the property.