NEW BATTLE IN BUENOS AIRES (english)
by indy argentina 4:42am Sat Dec 29 '01 (Modified on 10:08am Sun Dec
30 '01)


Hurried report while we continue to breath tear gas.
-What time is it?
-Its 2:15Am

Yes, we look at each other and we understood that we had to remember
that time for the rest of our lives. We were standing in the gates of
the Government House, an ornate pink palace also known as the Casa
Rosada, symbol of Argentinean power. Never in the past had a
mobilization gotten there.

And in that way.

Where to start if not there? How to sort all the mixed emotions, so
many images, so many events?

We ask for apologies for this report, written with the acid taste of
the gases still on our noses. We hope to be able to sort all that we
lived this day.

While it was still eleven in the evening, we were walking on San Juan
Ave and Boede, we could hear some pots been beat against the
balconies. Behind we had left a building with people looking down
making noise. The cars went by honking their horns and their in
front, a couple of blocks, you could see families that blocked just a
piece of the avenue.

We continued walking, until a friendly car takes us to the congress,
place were people were atoconvocating.
Autoconvocated, lets say it clearly, it means that nobody had called
for the manifestation. A groups of neighbors had organized
a "cacerolazo" (the beating of house pots) in Almagro, and maybe in
some other neighborhoods, but no one had called to march towards the
congress.

Now we were there, and we were thousands. Again the pots, the steps
filled with people, complete families protesting and making noise.
What did they want?. That Grosso leave the government, the
resignation of the supreme court , that they give back the deposits.
But also more that this. The motto was "that everyone left, that no
one remained" is still everyone's favorite; it was the one most
cheered, again today, with the new government. Its not about one or
another dark figure in the halls of power; its about a `click', of
something that broke very deep inside and is not going to be cured
with one or two resignations, or with an election.

The rumor begun to spread and later became a cheer; "the people are
going to the Plaza de Mayo and nobody is going to take us out" An
spontaneous column of thousands, that gets lost in Mayo Ave. goes
decisively forward. In front an Argentinean flag, and in every step
we take we seem to be more.

We race in front to see it get there, and again we prove that we were
more, thousands and thousands entering the Plaza de Mayo.
And people continue to get there, and the mothers get there (mother
of the disappear during the last military dictatorship 1976-82), and
the "motoqueros" get there (people on motorcycles), who are giving an
ovation in memory of the last protest were they played a heroic role
and some lost their lives, the fallen had their tribute, the best one
they could have.

First a photographer spoke.

Then, a grandfather said he wanted to enter by force to talk with the
president.

Later, the youth. Five minutes later, at 2:15 AM exactly, it was all
of us.

The barriers gave in immediately, and the police had to move to the
side, there we were; at the gates of the Casa Rosada, that from now
on has nothing sacred about it.

We entered the gates, in the hall before going inside, singing what
everyone wanted; for everyone to leave, that no one remained. We saw
faces with emotion, surprised faces, curious people that looked from
behind and that went forward just to touch it, feel it theirs.
People were angry; the news that Grosso had resigned went by like a
lightning, but it only help to raise the spirit; many wanted to
repeat the same of last week; that everyone left, that no one
remained.

From Moyano, to the radicals, going thru Menem and Rodriguez Saa
everyone was a protagonist of the songs "without peronist, without
radicals were going to live better", was also one tuned song.

And now? The question was answered, once again, by the police. They
did it in such a fashion that it later serve them to present it as an
act of personal defense: the sent two cops "to dissuade" the whole
multitude. Obviously, the crowed didn't receive them too well, and
from not been "dissuaded", the tear gas and rubber bullets begun.
The two policemen, fat and big, were the sacrifice of the "law
enforces" to start the repression.

With the first gases the mass of people begun to run, thru Diagonal
Norte and thru Ave. de Mayo. An important group remained in Plaza de
Mayo, and another one of thousands in Ave de Mayo. The great majority
of the people went towards the Congress.

(We stop here to emphasis the following: the mobilization divided in
three parts, maybe four parts , and still it remained been big)
The Plaza de Mayo crowd holds, by Ave. de Mayo barricades are put up.
Some let their anger out on the banks, sings, bus stops. From the
balcony of a rich hotel, men in tuxedos look down the scene and make
gestures. A youth starts screaming to them "Bourgeois sons of
bitches!" and the gestures multiply. A small anecdote: a bottle of
cider is thrown with good aim, and hits one in the mouth opportunely.
In the Plaza de Mayo the situation is becoming more tense. The
majority of the people are going towards the Congress, and everyone
decides to go there.

In the Congress a show of bonfires on the steps. We don't remember to
ask for the time . The more decisive enter, and begin to pull things
out to feed the bonfire, until the entrance of the congress becomes
one. They say that inside, deep inside, there's also people taking
staff out. They take out a bust, and someone screams not to throw it.
People struggle over it until one manifestant takes it and
ceremonially throws it in the fire.

The infantry, minutes before, had been overflowed. Then once again
the gases begun, just as the bust went down. Now there more, and it
appears that the water tank is coming. People retrieve, while a
strong group of people resists. They leave, thru Callao, a bit
running, but immediately walking; it brings plessure to the cops when
they make you run, they fell bigger, it disorganizes us. The scream
not to run is generalized.

Now everyone retrieves and some scream to the tribunals, to the
tribunals!. They want to go for the Supreme Court Justice, the same
placed two years back in an agreement between the peronist and the
radicals.

No one runs now; we make bonfires, little barricades.
Other show no mercy towards the banks.

The police advances toward us again. The air becomes unbreathable,
and in one second they appear from every direction. We turn, we have
no other way. We go thru dark streets and in every corner, in every
single one of them trucks appear, gases and civilian cars appear with
rubber bullets. it's an ambush.

We get out how we can. There's no possibility of refuge and its hard
to organize resistance. All of us, every single one, throws anything
they can to obstruct the police way. We turn and once again the
ambush. A small group of us remain, trapped in one block. Cars make
way for us and take us out.

Thru the streets were in people are still running. The police
operation goes six or seven blocks around, that at this time they
seem without end.

We get out, finally. The sun begins to come out and the phones begin
to ring to see how everyone is doing. Until now the news reports
three detained, but a half an hour from the end everything is hard to
tell.
It seems like history doesn't give you a breath. Lets not give it
one.