This Thursday marks twelve years since the Once Massacre. This is how the events of that morning of the February 22, 2012when the train formation 3772 from Sarmiento Line arrived at the terminal Once Station of the City of Buenos Aires, did not stop in time and collided with the brakes on platform 1. The tragic balance was 52 people dead and 789 injured. Figures of a true social crime at the hands of businessmen and officials enriched at the expense of the life (and death) of working people.
At 8:33 Today, just at the time when twelve years ago the horror took over the railway station, more than a hundred people gathered in the platform 1 for honor the victims y denounce those responsible for business and politics again. There were relatives of the deceased, survivors who were on the train that day and solidarity sectors, such as the Flower Assemblyformed in recent months by residents of that Buenos Aires neighborhood following the attacks on working people by the new government of Javier Miley.
It is worth remembering that mercy and its officials reiterate every time they can that their intention is privatize the railways, like other companies. That is nothing more than a new state insult to the memory of the victims, whose fate cannot be separated from the long process of negotiations, corruption and definancing that began in the 90s with the privatization plan of Carlos Menem (idol of mercy).
After the opening words to this Thursday’s event, a siren sounded with which each year the deceased are remembered. Then each of the dead people was mentioned out loud, followed by each name and surname with the cry of “Gift!”. Other massacres or social crimes were also remembered, with relatives of victims present, such as the attack on the headquarters of the AMIA July 1994 (85 deaths) and the Cro-Magnon Massacre December 2004 (194 deaths).
Finally, a document agreed upon by the families of the victims was read, in which the long history of state defunding of the railways was denounced. In particular, the management of Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerunder whose government the avoidable massacre and whose officials ignored (or directly ignored) the previous and repeated warnings from the railway workers themselves.
At the event there was also a recognition of the work of railway workersboth for their complaints prior to the massacre and for being the ones, together with usersare truly committed with the maintenance of such vital public transport. In fact, Sarmiento workers and representatives of the Haedo Railway Unionas the delegate Monica Schlotthauer.
The culprits of social crime
Shortly after the train crash occurred, and when their loved ones were still being buried, dozens of families undertook a tough fighttogether with human rights, political and social organizations, demanding trial and punishment for those responsible.
Thanks to that tireless fightwhich prevented the issue from being forgotten sooner rather than later, a group of businessmen were placed in the dock who for years had become rich thanks to the uncontrolled state subsidies and to the sustained emptying of the railway. He also prosecuted current and former officials of the transportation area that acted at the time of the massacre and in the previous period. The Eleven Massacre It is a symbol of a long process of negotiations and corruption that the railway concessions went through.
12 years to the morning in which 51 people died and hundreds were injured when a train with a rusty chassis collided with bumpers that did not cushion anything in Once. A true social massacre, the TBA company deliberately created it by stealing subsidies. That is the private model that Milei wants pic.twitter.com/KjgnIzXe3n
— Augusto Dorado (@AugustoDorado) February 22, 2024
In 2013, the legal case for the massacre was raised to an oral and public trial. Was 28 prosecuted for the crimes of “fraud against the public administration” y “culpable derailment”. And on December 29, 2015, Federal Criminal Oral Court 2 dictated 21 convictions and seven acquittals. Thus, it was revealed that the accident was caused by the state of the railway infrastructure, among other reasons due to the lack of investment for maintenance and the absence of controls regarding the security of the formations.
In 2018 Julio De Vidothe powerful former Minister of Federal Planning (who served from 2003 to 2015), was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for the crime of “fraudulent administration”. He Tribunal Oral Federal 4 ruled that he should have controlled the public funds that the company TBA He received and did not invest. The Cassation Chamber confirmed that conviction and added, based on reports from the General Audit of the Nationthe General Sindicature of the Nation and the National Transport Regulation Commission (CNRT)what De Vido knew of the breaches of TBA .
In 2020 the Supreme Court confirmed the convictions of the former Secretary of Transportation John Paul Schiavi (five and a half years in prison), to businessmen Sergio y Roque Ciriglianothe train driver Marcos Córdoba (three years and three months) and others convicted in the trial. The resolution on Ricardo Jaimealso former Secretary of Transportation during Kirchnerism.
Claudio Ciriglianohead of the company TBAobtained a firm sentence of seven years in prison and since April 2021 has been under house arrest.
The Once Massacre exposes the hypocrisy of many former officials who, currently, tear their clothes denouncing the reprivatisation plans of Milei and company. They are the same people who twelve years ago also posed as progressives but were part of a political network that used public resources for their own benefit. In this, as in other cases, capitalist profit and state corruption unleashed their worst facet on the working people.
Neither the government of Mauricio Macri (who in 2012 used the case to polarize with Kirchnerism) nor that of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner did anything so that the Ciriglianos and their accomplices return the appropriate funds . Furthermore, despite the renationalization carried out by Kirchnerism after the Massacre (partly recognizing its responsibility for what happened), many service problems continue to this day and, in many cases, worsen over time. In addition, of course, to the persistent persecution by the officials on duty and the bureaucracy of the railway unions of the workers who always denounced the working and operating conditions of the trains.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
