Media stars and — even much worse — security minister encourage trigger-happy behaviour
By
Sebastián Lacunza
Editor-in-Chief
The details are still not clear. According to Dr. Lino Villar Cataldo, last Friday August 26, after he had finished attending to patients at his surgery in Lomar Hermosa, San Martín district, a criminal attacked him just when he was about to leave in his Toyota Corolla car, dragging him out by his hair. Again according to the 61-year-old surgeon, the thief almost ran him over but had problems starting the car. This gave him the opportunity to grab a gun he owned and kill Ricardo Krabler (aged 24) with fours shots (from a short distance, the forensic experts specified). Since then Villar Cataldo has been charged with aggravated homicide using a firearm while his lawyer claims that it is a case of “legitimate self-defence.” The prosecutor has her doubts about the doctor’s story but did not object to his being exempted from imprisonment on health grounds.
Another chapter in the endless story of Greater Buenos Aires violence; another chance to get to know the worst side of Argentine public life.
The commentaries made by journalists and media panellists advocating aberrant reprisals against presumed criminals can seem irresponsible, demagogic or even disgusting. In any event they represent the state of the media in Argentina, especially television, which feels the urge to encourage the most primitive side of society.
Yet it turned out to be Security Minister Patricia Bullrich who most went over the top, defining the doctor who shot the thief as a victim. “The only victim was the doctor,” concluded the minister without even being too clear about the facts. As far as could be seen on television, not even Villar Cataldo seemed proud of his “legitimate self-defence.”
Bullrich is an all-terrain politician who moves her loyalty from one leader to the other always with the same conviction (something that allowed her to say “Mauricio Macri is twisted” (2003) only to represent years later the hawks in the current administration). Her commentary should be repudiated at various levels. Firstly, because she despises the life of a dead person. Her duty as a government official applies just as much to Dr. Villar Cataldo, a Paraguayan immigrant, as to Krabler, who is no longer alive. Both have the same rights and deserve a fair trial. Secondly, because of her striking influence on court decisions. Within hours of Bullrich’s outbursts, Villar Cataldo was out of jail. The coincidences of Argentine judicial proceedings.
Every time that politicians yield to the temptation for demagogic law-and-order pep talk, Argentina’s sinister police forces interpret it as a blank cheque for abuse. The first victims of the police bullets are impoverished youth from the low-income neighbourhoods of the major cities. They perish in alleged shootouts or cases of simple trigger-happy behaviour motivated by prejudices regarding the colour of their skin or the style of their clothing or because they refuse to join gangs enjoying police complicity. According to the Coordinadora contra la Represión Policial e Institucional, 51 percent of the victims of “trigger-happy” behaviour are males between 15 and 25 years old, and 90 percent are poor.
The demagogic approach to crime generally crosses party lines. The previous government was schizophrenic on this front with some timid attempts at police reform alongside placing the likes of Colonel Sergio Berni, a confessed xenophobe, in charge of implementing security policies. The dissident Peronist opposition politician Sergio Massa was the candidate who stood out most in last year’s electoral campaign for his promises to be tough on crime to the extent of proposing Army intervention in low-income neighbourhoods. With a shameless eye on the opinion polls, Massa broke with a democratic consensus since the Raúl Alfonsín presidency, which vetoed any military presence in domestic affairs after the state terrorism experience. Something which a self-styled progressive like Margarita Stolbizer should be asked about because she is allowing herself to be seduced by the idea of an electoral alliance with Massa in 2017 — that is, if she does not end up with Mauricio Macri.
In these pages we have praised last year’s Macri campaign, which showed more respect for the law than Massa, but now he seems to have joined the race to see who can be toughest on crime. The Macri campaign vindicates carapintada Army mutineers like Aldo Rico and Juan José Gómez Centurión, who tried to overthrow democracy, and it also takes an indulgent attitude towards gun abuse. He has also launched a “war on drugs” with grim precedents in other Latin American countries. It is hard to avoid scorn for guarantees when poverty and unemployment are growing.
The case of Villar Cataldo and Krabler is not black and white nor are hasty conclusions warranted. It is probable that the Paraguayan surgeon, who came here as boy with his father and worked his way up from a shantytown, is indeed a “victim” as well as a “victimizer” at the same time. What is clear is that irresponsible officials in charge of security are paving the way for more innocent deaths.
@sebalacunza