“I find strength in everyone who went to the plaza”

Sabrina Bölke He is a militant and member of the group H.I.J.O.S. of the regional city of Buenos Aires. In turn, she worked at the Memory and Human Rights Space (ex-ESMA) investigating LGBT+ disappearances during the last dictatorship. Last week it was publicly announced sexual assault and abuse that he suffered in his apartment on March 5, complaint that was responded to by broad solidarity that was later expressed in the massive mobilization of March 24.

“I am one of the many daughters of colleagues who lived through those terrible moments of the last civil-military dictatorship, and who were lucky enough to be able to tell this story,” says Sabrina in an interview she gave today in El Destape. She says that that day when she was returning from work, two people surprised her when they entered her house, two people who were behind her door waiting for her, “they grabbed me from behind, they grabbed me by the neck, they held me down.” she maintained.

At first he thought it was a robbery, but then the attackers made their intention clear: “They told me never to speak again., that they knew where I worked, that I didn’t have to talk about my work, about human rights.” She says that in the next hour they tortured her, pointed a gun at her and sexually abused her. When they left her, they threatened her that if she reported it they would return to kill her. A clear act of intimidation, in the midst of the call for the mobilization of March 24 and the fierce adjustment plan applied by the government, which seeks to silence complaints against human rights violations.

In an interview on Radio con Vos, the human rights reference and national representative, Myriam Bregmanemphasized the importance of these complaints and the need to accompany them in the streets, referring to the campaign that was carried out after the disappearance of Julio López: “We managed to ensure that tragic events such as Julio’s disappearance practically did not happen again. and that when they were repeated, even from the same government, they had to act in a different way, and we managed to ensure that the trials did not stop, because impunity only generates more impunity. So letting events like these go by without acting quickly is the worst thing we can do.”

A key conclusion in light of the march that was seen on March 24 with massive postcards in the City of Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba and Mar del Plata, among other cities, showing that there is an enormous social force to respond to the attacks to democratic freedoms and the war plan that Milei launched against the working majority.

In a statement published on Monday afternoon, the group HIJOS states that from the beginning there was ex officio police action. “Regarding the case, there were changes of jurisdiction due to a declaration of incompetence between the ordinary national justice system and the federal justice system. A situation that still exists, since federal judge Ercolini for the second time declared himself incompetent, sending the case again to Judge Yadarola,” they maintain.

From the National Network of H.IJ.OS we share the following statement regarding the situation of the complaint for the attack of which our colleague was a victim. 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZX3MjtglSH

— H.I.J.O.S. Rosario (@HIJOSRosario) March 25, 2024

A situation that only causes a delay in the start of the investigation and the case is quickly clarified, putting the victim at greater risk.. For this reason, from the first moment, different organizations and human rights leaders maintain that the State must provide an immediate response. Even more so, finding the acronym in the way VLLC (Viva La Libertad Carajo) written on the wall of Sabrina’s room, a signature phrase of the Government. Below, the attackers wrote the word “gnocchi”, the word that summarizes the stigmatization against state workers who have been suffering massive layoffs in different agencies. Meanwhile, he says that his salary does not even cover the basic basket.

The attackers broke furniture and valuables, “they didn’t steal anything, but they did break things, a lot,” said the HIJOS activist who during the interview pointed out the Government for the breeding ground, hatred, violence that has been there for some time now, and they enable this type of things. Days ago, Milei himself liked a tweet that denied the fact. “They denied the missing, they denied the dictatorship, they denied the 30 thousand, they denied the mothers, they denied the grandchildren, they denied the children. They deny the trigger-happy cases, they deny the poverty that exists, they deny hunger, they deny that workers, housewives do not make ends meet, that children are hungry, what can I expect? that they have empathy?” she responded.

When asked what she believes are the reasons why she was the target of this attack, she answers, “I don’t know if the point is why me or why not me and not someone else, I think that What we have to seriously debate is that what happened is wrong”. Another complaint was also added to his complaint regarding threats made by Teresa Labordedaughter of Adriana Calvo who was best known as the first complainant in the trials against the Junta (as seen in the film Argentina, 1985). “Between us we also find a force that moves us every day, to be able to say, denounce and make public that these things happen” Sabrina said and referred to the mobilization of March 24: “I find strength in everyone who went to the plaza”.