The actions of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police came into focus after an operation was carried out in Barrio 20 in the Villa Lugano area on December 25 that resulted in the death of a 45-year-old man and complaints of excessive use of force.
The incident occurred after 1 p.m. at the intersection of Chilavert and Araujo when Pacification Tactical Unit Division personnel intervened following a call for disturbances on public roads. Sources said officers were attacked with stones and bottles upon their arrival at the scene and three police officers sustained injuries of varying severity.
Always according to the official version, the police personnel did not use firearms and only used anti-riot materials to disperse the aggressors. Three people were arrested as part of the process – two men aged 21 and 32 and a woman aged 42 – who were later released.
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During the operation, one of the men involved in the confrontation, Gabriel González, 45 years old, was treated by SAME for a wound high in the chest and taken to the Piñeiro Hospital, where his death was finally confirmed. Justice is awaiting the results of the autopsy to accurately determine the cause of death and the type of injury that caused it.
The case was referred to the National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 20, which ordered that the proceedings be directed by the Federal Police. In this context, the city police handed over cell phones, cameras and riot control equipment used in the operation for analysis as part of the investigation. In addition, an internal summary was initiated to identify possible responsibilities with the participation of the Office of Transparency and External Control of the Ministry of Security and Internal Affairs of the force.
In parallel with the judicial investigation, videos recorded by neighbors and distributed on social networks began to circulate. These images show the moment in which the troops attack several people and seconds later several detonations can be heard.
In this context, María del Carmen Verdú, lawyer and representative of the Coordinator against Police and Institutional Repression (Correpi), claimed that “González’s partner and mother of his son, Nelly Portillo, was also shot with a gun and is hospitalized, fortunately out of danger as it was in the leg.”
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