International
High-profile murder trial shines light on Argentine discrimination
January 28 | By AFP | Philippe Bernes-Lasserre |
The shocking story of a teenager beaten to death by eight young rugby players has opened old wounds and shed light on class, race and gender discrimination in Argentine society.
Eight friends, now age 21 to 23, are facing life in prison if convicted of the premeditated murder of Fernando Baez three years ago in a popular seaside resort.
The trial is under way in Dolores, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Buenos Aires, and has gripped the nation, as did the original murder that sparked protests in several cities.
In the early hours of January 18, 2020, a fight broke out in a nightclub in Villa Gesell, a resort city popular with young people.
After those involved were evicted from the club, their quarrel continued in the street, but Baez, then 18, became isolated from his friends and surrounded by the eight defendants, who beat him so severely that he died of his injuries.
The trial opened three weeks ago but precious little light has been shone on who did what that night.
Some defendants have even denied hitting Baez.
The matter of who, or what, exactly was responsible for Baez’s death has inflamed social media debates.
“The question of class plays an important role in this case,” said sociologist Guillermo Levy, a professor at the universities of Buenos Aires and Avellaneda.
“Most of the rugby players are from rich, rural families.”
Some have pointed the finger at rugby itself, and the culture that surrounds it.
“It’s true that it is a cocktail of violence, racism, machismo, alcohol, etc. But I’m going to add the component of rugby training,” Facundo Sassone, a sociologist at the University of San Martin who is also a junior rugby coach, told AFP.
He said the “herd” mentality nurtured within a team environment had a role to play.
‘Why did rugby values fail?’
For all its positive publicity as a sport where respect and camaraderie are integral, rugby has a dark side in which gratuitous violence, and sometimes deeply inappropriate pranks, are commonplace and unquestioned.
“If we… say that it is a sport of values and friendship, why did it fail?” asked Sassone.
“Some issues can be misunderstood by rugby players and can generate situations of violence away from the pitch.”
Some former professional players have spoken out on the matter.
Former Argentina captain Agustin Pichot was one of the people to hit out at his sport after meeting Baez’s family in 2021.
He said rugby had “normalized bad things” by failing “to differentiate good from bad” in some of the practices that have developed within and around the sport.
Rugby by no means has a monopoly on violence — barely a year goes by without a death related to clashes between rival football fans, while drink-fueled fights outside nightclubs are commonplace.
It is a minority sport in Argentina, whose popularity pales compared with football.
But it stands out because it is traditionally played and watched by a wealthy elite.
And that is why this case has captured the public’s imagination in a way that violence between poor people would not, said sociologist and writer Alejandro Seselovsky.
The wealthy white “who kills, that’s like ‘a man bit a dog’, it’s newsworthy,” said Seselovsky.
‘Society needs to reflect’
The racial aspect of this murder is also forcing Argentine society to confront an awkward truth it would rather brush under the carpet.
According to witnesses, the defendants called Baez — whose parents, a bricklayer and a caregiver, are both Paraguayan immigrants — a “shitty black” while beating him.
“You cannot escape the reference to Fernando’s blackness in the assault,” sociologist Sebastian Bruno, an immigration specialist, told AFP.
The “racism and classism” is obvious, said Bruno, although Levy points out that it “doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have attacked him if he weren’t” Paraguayan.
In a country where the majority of the population is descended from white Europeans, mostly from Spain, Italy or Germany, the term “black” has been widely used to describe indigenous people or migrants from neighboring countries viewed as inferior, said Bruno.
“We need to reflect on the society that produced this,” said Levy.
International
Trump: U.S. has hit three venezuelan narco boats in Caribbean
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that American forces have struck three suspected Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean so far, not two as previously reported.
“We took down boats. It was actually three boats, not two, but you only saw two,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a state visit to the United Kingdom.
The president was asked about remarks by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who accused Washington of plotting to invade his country.
“Stop sending members of the Tren de Aragua to the United States. Stop sending drugs to the United States,” Trump responded.
The Republican leader mentioned this third vessel a day after announcing that U.S. forces had struck a speedboat in which, according to him, three “terrorists” were killed. Later, from the Oval Office, he claimed the boat had been carrying cocaine and fentanyl.
The attacks come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas, as the U.S. military maintains a Caribbean deployment under the banner of counter-narcotics operations.
The Trump administration accuses Maduro of heading the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which the Venezuelan government denies. Washington has also offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture.
On Monday, Maduro said communications with the U.S. were “broken” in the face of what he called an “aggression” and declared that Venezuela is now “better prepared” in case of an “armed struggle.”
International
Ecuador’s Noboa declares State of Emergency in seven provinces amid fuel price protests
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in seven provinces due to what he described as “serious internal unrest,” as road blockades and demonstrations erupted in response to the elimination of the diesel subsidy and growing concerns over insecurity.
The 60-day measure applies to the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Azuay, Bolívar, Cotopaxi, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.
Since Monday, partial protests have been reported in Pichincha, Carchi, Azuay, and Imbabura. On Tuesday, road blockades extended to northern Pichincha and routes in Carchi, near the Colombian border. In response, the Executive headquarters was temporarily relocated to Cotopaxi and the Vice Presidency to Imbabura.
The presidential decree states that the measure comes amid “strikes that have disrupted public order and provoked acts of violence, endangering the safety of citizens and their rights to free movement, work, and economic activity.”
According to the decree, the goal is to “prevent the radicalization of disruptive actions” in the affected provinces and to limit the impact on the population. It further emphasizes that the situation requires an “exceptional intervention by state institutions to safeguard security, guarantee citizens’ rights, maintain public order, and preserve social peace.”
Social organizations and labor groups, including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), have strongly rejected the diesel price increase following the subsidy’s elimination.
The decree justifies the two-month duration as necessary “to ensure a strengthened state presence in the affected territories, restore order, and prevent further acts of violence against people, public, and private property.”
International
Colombia’s special peace tribunal hands down first sentence against former FARC leaders
Seven former rebel leaders, including their last known commander Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timochenko,” have been handed the maximum penalty established in the 2016 peace agreement.
Under the ruling, they will face mobility restrictions and be required to carry out activities aimed at restoring the dignity of victims, such as helping locate missing persons and participating in landmine clearance in territories where they once operated. These alternative sentences to prison were part of the historic deal signed in 2016 between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) —once the most powerful guerrilla group in Latin America— and then-President Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) found the ex-commanders guilty of being responsible for the kidnapping of 21,396 people before laying down their arms and transitioning into a political party. “Investigations showed that kidnapping became a systematic practice. These crimes not only broke the law but also left open wounds that persist in families, communities, and the daily life of the country,” a magistrate told reporters in Bogotá, in the absence of the former commanders, who had accepted responsibility for their crimes back in 2022.
It took the tribunal more than seven years to deliver its first ruling, amid criticism from opponents of the peace deal who argue it is too lenient on the rebels. The former commanders still face charges for other crimes against humanity, including the recruitment of minors.
During their decades-long conflict, the FARC held hostage soldiers, police officers, businesspeople, and political leaders, including French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt. Images of emaciated captives chained in jungle camps shocked the world and became symbols of the conflict.
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