TOWARDS DECEMBER 12, INTERNATIONAL DAY OF STRUGGLE FOR THE PERSECUTED WORKER
From Argentina
Greetings from Pablo Pimentel, member of APDH La Matanza
"Monday will be the 9th anniversary of that December 12, 2013, where the Supreme Court of Rio Gallegos, in a very quick summary trial, condemned Las Heras workers to life imprisonment. The trial was held in Caleta Olivia city, blaming them of a rebellion and a number of criminal charges, which of course would never come out again.
I introduced myself as a human rights activist: my name is Pablo Pimentel, I belong to the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights of La Matanza,- Buenos Aires Province (TN)- where, I think it was in 2015/2016, in an assembly in the teachers' union of La Matanza (SUTEBA), comrade Cortés went there in despair crying us for help and to accompany him. And there the APDH promised to present an Amicus Curiae, and that is what we did.
And now, speaking with Omar and with the comrades who have supported in an uncompromising and coherent manner, we are going to organize a visit ahead of time and let the courtiers of Río Gallegos know that we are going to ask that they close down definitively, and that they acquit these comrades, that the only thing they have done was go out and demand labor rights that were being complicated for them by the oil companies. So that we cannot sustain a life sentence over time and that it is on standby, we do not know what the situation will be depending on how the political color falls.
So. from here we send a big hug and solidarity to all the relatives, that strength that only those who know how to fight all their lives have.
We will continue to be vigilant through you, and we ask the judges and politicians who are in charge of this province to end the persecution of oil workers. Because in some way it is a persecution that is asleep, it is something that is there and if something happens, they will revive it and they will carry out that perpetual sentence and we do not want there to be more political prisoners in Argentina or in the world."
