Voracious fire in Epuyén (Chubut).

A fierce forest fire in Epuyén, where hundreds of people had to be evacuated and several houses were destroyed. High temperatures and wind gusts of up to 70 km/h made containment work difficult.

The evacuation of hundreds of people and the destruction of several homes. High temperatures and strong winds have hampered firefighters' efforts to contain the fire. Among the evacuees is Mayor José Contreras, who also had to leave his home due to the advance of the fire.

Amnesty International's Harsh Report on Anti-Picketing Protocol: "Dissent at Risk"

Amnesty International (AI) presented a report on Thursday in which it denounced the "disproportionate" use of force by the government of Javier Milei in response to the demonstrations. According to the organization, the federal security forces followed a repressive pattern based on the "anti-picket protocol" promoted by Minister Patricia Bullrich.

What Amnesty International's report says

According to AI, the report on the repression of social protest yielded alarming figures: during 15 demonstrations, 1,155 people were injured, many of them seriously injured. Of these, 33 were hit in the head or face by rubber bullets, which caused severe damage to their vision. In addition, 50 journalists were injured while covering the protests.

In total, 73 people were "criminalized" for participating in the demonstrations. The report details that documented repressive practices include the abusive use of tear gas, rubber bullets, water trucks, batons and batons, and arbitrary detentions. "In emblematic cases, children were even affected by repressive violence," the organization's text said.

Paola García Rey, deputy director of Amnesty International, explained that the report reveals a clear restriction on the exercise of freedom of expression "in the streets" and a "shrinking of civic space."

Regarding the data that support the report, García Rey pointed out that the organization resorted to various methodologies, such as requests for access to public information from the national state, which were in many cases "denied by the Ministry of Security of the Nation."

 30 testimonies of victims who suffered the disproportionate use of force. We also survey images because, now, social networks enable much more dissemination," he explained.

In this sense, he stressed the importance of making violence visible, assuring that "giving an account of the situation of alarm in the face of violence" seeks to highlight how force is used to restrict dissent and "silence voices". Amnesty's representative in Argentina also stressed that, although the country "has a very active use of the street," this does not justify the government's repressive response.

"Without a doubt, Argentina has a very active use of the street and, surely, it was necessary to have a robust debate on the channeling of popular demands to the Government. But the answer can never be fear as a way to inhibit expression and violence as a strategy to achieve it," he said.

Meanwhile, the organization considers that the repression of protests not only infringes fundamental rights, but also generates an inhibitory effect on citizen participation and the exercise of democracy.

Recommendations to the national government

By way of conclusion, the report concludes with a series of recommendations to Milei's government. "Amnesty International urges the Argentine government to adopt concrete measures that guarantee respect for human rights in the context of social protests," the text emphasizes.

Among these measures, the repeal of the anti-picketing protocol  stands out, a regulation that, according to the organization, "not only violates fundamental human rights, but also contributes to the criminalization of those who demonstrate." In addition, they urge the implementation of police regulations and trainings that align with international standards on the right to peaceful assembly and the use of force.

"The use of force by the authorities must be framed by principles of proportionality and respect for human rights," the report concludes

Police

Investigation into the suspicious death of a federal judge who intervened in a case linked to Los Monos

This is Pablo Seró, who was in charge of the case of the kidnapping of businessman Gastón Tallone. Prosecutor María Occhi is considering the hypothesis of suicide, but there is still a need for expert reports to be carried out

The Entre Ríos Police are investigating the suspicious death of Federal Judge Pablo Andrés Seró, who died this morning when he fell from the terrace of a building in the city of Concepción del Uruguay. He is the magistrate who intervened in the case of the kidnapping and disappearance of businessman Gastón Tallone, linked to the drug gang Los Monos.

According to local media reports, the tragic event occurred after 10 a.m. on Thursday in the Antares building, located at 600 General Galarza Street, right at the intersection with Eva Duarte de Perón.

Sources from the provincial Ministry of Security consulted by Infobae explained that, so far, the main and only hypothesis being considered by the team of prosecutor María Occhi, who was on duty at the time of the event, is that of death by self-determination. However, the results of the experts will be awaited to confirm the circumstances in which the Seró fell into the void.

According to what this media was able to find out, his mother currently resides in the building from where Seró fell, who was not at home at the time of the event.

Seró, 55, head of the Federal Court of Concepción del Uruguay, died on the spot as a result of the serious injuries he suffered after falling into the void.

One of the heaviest cases being handled in his court was that of the kidnapping of Tallone. For that case, Gustavo Juliá, who served a 13-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in Spain, had been arrested ten days ago. He is the son of Brigadier José Juliá, head of the Argentine Air Force during the presidency of Carlos Saúl Menem

The kidnapping of the port businessman from Entre Ríos occurred in Almagro, but it has connections with his work in that area and with the Los Monos gang. Juliá Jr. owns one of the cars that executed the criminal maneuver.

The kidnapping would have been, as suspected, for a debt of 500,000 dollars with that organized crime group.

According to documents in the case accessed by Infobae, lawyer José Uriburu, linked to Los Monos, would have made the first extortion call to Tallone's family to claim that money: "Good night cumpa, the thing is short. The thief is here with us and he's fine. Or they return the drugs and the 500 thousand dollars that he stole and everything ends and he comes back, he stole from all the narcos and now it's time to pay. If you beat the cane, we will go down and go for all of you and your helpers. You don't with the mafia," he reportedly said.

The clarification of the case is in charge of prosecutors Josefina Minata and Santiago Marquevich, of the Specialized Prosecutorial Unit in Organized Crime. The Federal Court of Concepción del Uruguay had prosecuted the lawyer Uriburu and an alleged deliverer of the businessman.

Who was Judge Pablo Seró

Born on May 23, 1969 in the town of Goya in Corrientes, Dr. Seró graduated as a lawyer from the National University of the Northeast in 1994 and took office in 2012 as head of the Federal Court of Concepción del Uruguay, from where he worked in public office with all federal crimes in the city and the area.

The magistrate, a reference of the Entre Ríos Justice, knew how to be linked to causes of great public interest, including the investigation of the alleged Iranian citizen who presented himself as Asan Azad, arrested in June 2022 without personal documentation when he tried to buy a ticket in Concepción del Uruguay with an Argentine ID of another person.

The personnel of the Entre Ríos Police work at the scene together with the Criminalistics Division. Sources in the case told this newspaper that, as of after 1:30 p.m., investigators had not yet been able to find Seró's cell phone.

They warn about the disappearance of small farmers due to lack of profitability.

The Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA) raised its voice again on Monday to demand the urgent elimination of withholdings, a request that is gaining more and more strength in agriculture due to the bad financial situation that the sector is going through as a result of low international prices and the risk of an incipient drought that is being felt in some key areas of the country.

It did so through a novel social media campaign, in which it used puns starting with the letters De and Ex, to express the need for DEXs (the abbreviation for export duties) to be removed.

"Urgent elimination of the DEXs now!", is a kind of slogan that runs through all the posts, in which words such as crumble, degradation, disappearance, uprooting, exclusion and expulsion are used, in reference to the effects that withholdings have on agricultural production.

"The countryside urgently needs the elimination of withholdings. The delay in the measure will cause a cessation of payments, the bankruptcy of thousands of producers and a strong brake on the development of the interior and the economy associated with the productive sector," CRA stressed.

Then, he justified that DEXs are "an unsustainable tax burden," because "they decrease the profitability of the producer, reducing the net price they receive for their products, eroding their profit margins and discouraging investment in technologies, high-quality seeds, modern machinery and more."

The State takes 64.6% of agricultural income: "If withholdings disappeared, it would be 36%"

He also explained that "DEXs do not kill in one fell swoop, but they are signing the disappearance of the producer", because "they generate regional inequality, since regional economies, many of which depend on the export of agro-industrial products, are more vulnerable; the large costs add to the retentions, making producers in remote areas of the country less competitive."

Urgent DEX removal now! Because they are an unsustainable tax burden.

He also added that "DEXs affect both the individual economy and agricultural development as a whole" and in this way "the productive reality leads to the disappearance of producers."

"The drop in international commodity prices, the high cost of inputs and the enormous tax burden show negative margins in many activities such as soybeans," he reviewed.

And he added: "DEXs generate a gap that distances us from development, reduces the ability of Argentine producers to compete in global markets, especially against countries that do not apply these charges. This can lead to the loss of international markets and affect the country's reputation as a reliable supplier."

CÓRDOBA ALSO STANDS AGAINST THE WITHHOLDINGS

In the same way, from Córdoba, the Liaison Table of that province also added its claim against the retentions.

From the point of view of the Cordoba countryside, "the agricultural sector has been enduring a state of inefficiency for more than 20 years, with unsustainable expenses and a fiscal pressure incompatible with production."

The problem is that the adverse climatic situation and international markets are added to this panorama, which is what has revealed the "tremendous damage" caused by the retentions; "a distorting and discriminatory tax that, due to its magnitude and persistence, is suffocating the sector."

For this reason, the Cordoba Table considers it "imperative" that the national government review and take measures regarding the withholdings, because otherwise "the prolongation of this tax puts the survival of small producers at serious risk."

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