Photos of Favale — an alleged member of the Defensa y Justicia second-division soccer club hooligan gang who was pointed by witnesses as one of the people who shot Ferreyra during the protest — posing with government officials and other pro-government figures had been found on his Facebook profile, but he denied any ties to the ruling party and stated he took the photographs because he is a “star-chaser.” The photos showed Favale with Economy Minister Amado Boudou, Education Minister Alberto Sileoni and journalist Sandra Russo. Favale, 37, stated he was innocent and claimed he could identify the shooter, who he claimed “had a tattoo of a clown in his right arm.”
Press reports yesterday quoted sources from the railworkers sector who said a man of similar features works as train guard at the Constitución station of the Roca railway line and linked him to the “Guardia Imperial” hooligan gang of Racing Club.
Roca railway line shop steward Pablo Díaz has also been arrested in the case, while another unionist remains fugitive.
Ferreyra, 23, was shot dead during a demonstration in support of outsourced workers from the Roca railway line. The left-wing activists were ambushed by a group of alleged railworkers’ union activists, killing Ferreyra and wounding three others. Elsa Rodríguez, one of the people wounded, remains hospitalized in critical condition after being shot in the head.
Several opposition figures had denounced ties between the government and the leadership of the Unión Ferroviaria union and voiced strong criticism against the ruling party for the incidents.
PRO Deputy Gabriela Michetti said the government “aims to keep away (from the incident) rather than resolving” the case, while former Health minister Graciela Ocaña warned that if President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner wants to find the “ideological authors” of the murder should “look around and behind her.”
Also, Radical Party chairman Ernesto Sanz warned that the photographs found in Favale’s facebook profile proved the government “recruits violent people” who “receives money from the state.”
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner herself downplayed the importance of the photos and defended Boudou and Sileoni via her Twitter account, where she expressed the photographs were “casual pictures” taken “at a public event” and did not prove any link between the government officials and the suspect.
Senator Miguel Ángel Pichetto, head of the ruling party caucus in the Upper House, also considered officials “many times take photographs with people they don’t even know” and claimed “that doesn’t mean absolutely anything.”
Pichetto said the opposition “intends to link the government to the situation” but insisted “there is no relation” between the government and Favale.
Railway union strikes over Díaz’s arrest
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner condemned the 12-hour strike which was held yesterday by Roca railway line workers to protest unionist Pablo Díaz’ arrest on Saturday. Díaz is suspected of being connected with the murder of Mariano Ferreyra — a Workers’ Party (PO) activist shot dead during a protest last week.President condemns action measure
Fernández de Kirchner considered the measure to be “shameful” and urged “not to pressure the judiciary.”
“Strike at the Roca (railway line). A shame of the same dimension as those who refused to collaborate with the judiciary before being rehired,” posted the President on her Twitter account in reference to the alleged attitude of outsourced workers who demanded to be rehired in exchange to testify before the judge. “Let the judiciary work without pressures or extortions,” added the President.
The strike was announced by the Unión Ferroviaria railworkers’ union to protest Díaz’ arrest. He is accused of heading the group — allegedly formed by Unión Ferroviaria members — which ambushed and opened fired against the outsourced workers and left-wing demonstrators during Wednesday’s protest, killing Ferreyra and wounding two others, one of them a woman who remains in a critical condition in hospital.
The measure was lifted following the mandatory conciliation ruled by Labour Deputy-Minister Noemí Rial at midday yesterday.
Díaz is believed to have ties to José Pedraza, the leader of the railway workers’ union, and was described by several press reports as the right hand man of Unión Ferroviaria Administration Secretary Carlos “El Gallego” Fernández.
The Workers’ Party released a statement yesterday condemning the strike at the Roca railway line, which they considered to be “a lock-out of the Unión Ferroviaria gang to cover up a crime.”
The PO accused the union of “managing labour relations at the railway line in representation of the government and the private companies, while they also own several of the outsourced companies.”
The party headed by left-wing leader Jorge Altamira claimed the strike “demands the release of the leader of the gangs from the union bureaucracy who has been arrested following a judiciary order — Pablo Díaz — and prevent the arrests of Juan Carlos ‘Gallego’ Fernández and José Pedraza.”
“The lock-out is also an extortion for the government to stop the judiciary’s investigation,” read the statement signed by Altamira and PO officials Néstor Pitrola and Marcelo Ramal, who demanded “trial, punishment and jail for the political masterminds and attackers of the murder of Mariano Ferreyra and the attempted murder against Elsa Rodríguez, Nelson Aguirre and Ariel Pintos” — the three other activists wounded in Wednesday’s incidents.
The Workers’ Party also demanded “the immediate reinstatement of sacked workers and permanent hiring of outsourced workers.”
