"The eventual sentence would be a prison term of over threeyears" (Judge Bailaque, Caleta Olivia).
The judge has denied bail for thenine workers of Caleta Oliviaaccusing them with illegal deprivationof liberty, damage, usurpationand trespassing, impeding operationsand obstaculizing commercial activitybecause of their supposed leadingparticipation in the mobilizationon the Municipality of Caleta Oliviaand the occupation of the Termap tanklot, in actions demanding jobs.
The gendarmes have mounted asecurity zone inside and outside theoil terminal (controlled by Repsol,Vintage and Panamerican). CaletaOlivia, the center of the province'sworking-class rebellion for jobs, hasbeen turned into a military objective.Among those in jail are Marcela Constancioand Leonardo Rodríguez,militants of the FUT Partido Obrero[Frente de Unidad de los Trabajadores:Worker's Unity Front, localSanta Cruz legal electoral ballot ofthe Partido Obrero], together withJorge Mansilla, Héctor Iglesias, LuisCarrizo, Omar Roldán, SelvaSánchez, Elsa Orozco. MauricioPenancho, completing the list, begana hunger strike last Sunday.
The order of the oil companies
Last Friday night a real manhunttook place, with the Gendarmesand provincial Police breakinginto homes and beating indiscriminatelycertain residentsmarked on a list of over seventyworkers supposedly involved in theoccupations of the oil terminal atthe beginning of the year. This firstman-hunt detainee was Norma Villamayor,leader of the PO and thePolo Obrero (savagely beaten) andCristian Ruiz, leader of the occupationof Termap before the previousone, afterwards freed.
The order has been given by theoil companies and carried out by thekirchnerista government (Acevedo)with the purpose of breaking the continuityof victorious mobilizations ofworkers (Caleta Olivia, Pico Truncado,Comodoro, Caleta again) thathave rocked the province and wonover 2.000 jobs in two years.
The rebellion and its contagion
The Acevedo government hasshown its true nature in the face ofthe working class that has begunsince the K[irchner] governmenttook office, but has gained instrength since early in the year withthe teacher's strike and the first occupationof Termap and produced aleap in the worker's rebellion facedwith the massacre of Río Turbio[mining disaster which killed 14workers] and the removal of the localleadership of the CTAbecause ofclass collaboration and ineptitude.It is a political turn-around, in aprovince which deposited huge expectationsin the K administration(in Caleta Olivia 80 percent votedfor him in the presidential elections),where they know of the hugeprofits of the oil and mining corporationswho have literally been givenall the natural resources as aprize and who have seen almost ayear and a half go by without a singleessential problem of the masseshaving been solved.
Perfidy
The same day that the judge rejectedthe bail plea of the nine comrades,declaring that the "maximumsentence in abstract could reach a 16year prison sentence" and that, thus,"an eventual sentence would be overthree years" (Crónica, Comodoro Rivadavia,7/9), the government paid(in a synchronized operation) the 400pesos committed monthly to each ofthe 200 workers that had participatedin the last occupation of Termap.This is a perfidious attempt to divideour ranks.
Adosac, the Black Ballot of ATE [Anti-Bureaucratic group of the Minersof Rio Turbio, within the State WorkersUnion] and the FUT-PO havepronounced themselves and mobilizedon September 6th in Caleta andRío Gallegos [the provincial capital].They have made a call to take to thestreets again on Wednesday the 8th,in the whole province, for the libertyand the dropping of all chargesagainst the comrades.
The PO puts forward
- Liberty and annulment of allcharges against those who struggle.
- Trial and punishment.
- Unity command for mobilization.
- Plan of Struggle.Christian Rath1 Patagonia Rebelde and Patagonia Tragica, referenceto the titles of two books by Osvaldo Bayeron the strike of rural workers in the Patagonia andtheir repression and assassination by the Yrigoyengovernment.