Social Protest
  

Pablo Grillo: Police Officer Guerrero was charged with causing serious bodily injury and misuse of a firearm

Judge Servini determined that he was the officer who fired the shot that endangered the photographer’s life on March 12 in front of the National Congress. The attack occurred during the crackdown ordered by Minister Bullrich as part of the implementation of the anti-protest protocol.

Seven months after photographer Pablo Grillo was struck in the head by a tear gas canister during a protest outside the National Congress, a federal court indicted Héctor Jesús Guerrero, a corporal in the Argentine National Gendarmerie who fired the shot. In her ruling, Judge María Servini identified Guerrero  as the one who launched the projectile, found that he did so deliberately, and that he acted in violation of every protocol governing the use of such weapons.

Judge Servini, who sits on the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 1 of the Federal Capital, found that Guerrero committed the crimes of causing grievous bodily injury and misuse of weapons, aggravated by his status as a member of a security force. She also noted that, in addition to the shot fired at Pablo, the officer fired five other rounds in violation of regulations, endangering others present at the protest.

Conduct of the kind carried out by the Gendarmerie on March 12 is directly linked to the implementation of the anti-protest protocol introduced by Security Minister Patricia Bullrich. Since the protocol took effect, the security forces have deployed unlawful operations against those who take to the streets to demonstrate. Over the past nearly two years, the protocol has threatened constitutional rights including the right to protest, freedom of expression, the right to petition, and the right to assembly.

A series of audiovisual recordings made it possible to identify who fired at Pablo Grillo and to establish that the officer did so without respecting the rules governing the use of so-called less-lethal weapons, which prohibit firing this type of tear gas launcher in a straight line at people, particularly at the head or face. In her ruling, Judge Servini emphasized that Guerrero had been trained and qualified to fire this type of weapon correctly (at a 45-degree angle, either upward or downward). Nine days after the attack, the corporal was assigned to give firing instruction to other officers.

Servini’s decision shows that Guerrero fired several shots in violation of regulations without any of his superiors intervening to stop him. They, too, must be investigated.

Pablo’s family has joined the proceeding as a private complainant to ensure the  investigation reaches both the attack itself and the chain of command, operational and political, responsible for what occurred on March 12. CELS and LADH are representing the family in the case.

Photo: Kaloian Santos