Social Activist is Victimized Again in Argentina
By Verónica Reina, IID (mave1@arnet.com.ar), edited by Luis Fernando Astorga Gatjens (lferag@racsa.co.cr)
Susana Abalo, a social militant with multiple sclerosis, who was a victim of aggression on two occasions in recent months, was victimized again last December 3.
It is an irony that as she was celebrating the International Year of Persons with Disabilities, Susana was attacked for a third time, in what seems to be a plan to stop various examples of human rights activism.
Unidentified people threw a bomb at Susana's room while she was sleeping inside her house. The bomb exploded in her mattress causing a big hole and burning her legs. That morning her husband had protested in the courts about threatening, anonymous letters they had received recently.
Susana Abalo has dedicated her life to the promotion of better quality of living and improved social conditions for the people of "Villa Banana", a poverty-stricken slum of the city of Rosario. Her struggle is part of the hard work being performed by the School of Human Rights of the Faculty of Law of the National University of Rosario, called: Just and Secure Communities (Comunidades Justas y Seguras). Susana is a Catholic militant of a group called Messengers of Jesus (Mensajeros de Jesús).
Background of this new aggression
On August 21 of this year, Susana was attacked while at home. A man and a woman whose faces she was not able to see, got into her home armed with a revolver and a knife. They covered the floor with the bed sheets, tore her clothes off and tortured and sexually abused her, leaving her unconscious and seriously injured. These seem very professionally planned attacks because the man and the women wore surgical gloves and were careful not to stain their clothes with the blood of the victim.
A few weeks before this attack, Susana had received threatening telephone calls because of her work in human rights. They told her to stop her activities at Villa Banana. At the same time Enrique Font, coordinator of the University Center and another Christian assistant with the project, also receive threatening calls. This tells us that the attackers are not ordinary delinquents, but dark forces, the remains of the past dictatorship of Argentina.
Susana was again attacked on October 10, in the bathroom of the Faculty of Law of the National University of Rosario, where she studies law. A big woman jumped and hit Susana, and cut her with something like a fine knife.
The community supports Susana
After the October attack, the community of Rosario expressed its strong support for Susana and made an urgent call to the Provincial Government to investigate these attacks. The students and faculty organized a peaceful protest demonstration where, on the same afternoon of the attack, more then a thousand people came to protest against this type of violence.
On December 5, a protest march of neighbours and human rights activists, headed toward Susana's home. There they expressed their indignation for the last attack on Susana. Many persons were moved and joined the human rights organizations as a sign of support. Along them were, Gustavo Gerosa, Member of the Municipality, and Alberto Piccinini, Member of the National Congress, and both members of the Alternative for Argentina of Equal Persons Party (Partido Alternativa por una República de Iguales).
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