2001 Massacre of Plaza de Mayo

**The 2001 Massacre of Plaza de Mayo** was a massacre in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires and its surroundings. It occurred on December 20, 2001.

Five people (Carlos Almirón, Gustavo Ariel Benedetto, Diego Lamagna, Alberto Márquez and Gastón Marcelo Riva) were killed there, four others were attempted to be murdered (Marcelo Dorado, Martín Galli, Sergio Rubén Sanchéz and Paula Simonetti). Others were injured.

The events occurred under the presidency of Fernando de la Rúa during the December 2001 crisis in Argentina, during which 39 people were killed, including seven children between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.

## Criticism

The journalist Alberto Amato of the newsroom of the newspaper Clarín, a month after the massacre, referred to it with these words:

> “The massacre of the Plaza de Mayo... bloodied the city with a violence and unreason that recognizes as the only precedent the terrible bombardment by naval aviation in June 1955, three months before the overthrow of Juan Perón... Among other responses that the judicial investigation include those that try to know if there was a moment, and therefore an order, that the repression of the protesters was carried out with bullets. And who gave that order. Who were the civilians who shot at the protesters protected by uniformed police?  Who owns the cars from which people were shot at close range and that a police chief defined with a euphemism that would be nice if it did not contain a tragedy: "civilian cars for police use..."? How was it that, if the decision of the then government was to prevent a hypothetical "takeover" of the Government House, the dead fell several blocks from the seat of power? Did some kind of “death squad” act on December 20? If Justice manages to answer these and other questions, it will elucidate another that is only tacitly formulated: what is the political will to investigate a massacre almost without precedent in the already violent contemporary history of Argentina.”

## Trial

There were 17 people indicted:
1. Enrique Mathov, at that time Secretary of National Security: mastermind.
1. Rubén Santos, at that time chief of the Federal Police: mastermind
1. Norberto Edgardo Gaudiero, at that time General operative director of the Federal Police: mastermind
1. Raúl Andreozzi, at that time chief of the Metropolitan Superintendency of the Federal Police: mastermind
1. Orlando Oliverio, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Carlos López, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Eugenio Figueroa, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Roberto E. Juárez, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Sebastián Saporiti, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Horacio Berardi, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Mario Seia, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Norberto Sabbino, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Ariel Firpo Castro, Federal Police officer: homicide and other felonies.
1. Víctor Belloni, Federal Police officer: 2 attempted murders.
1. Jorge Daniel Toma, Federal Police officer: harassment.
1. Carlos Alberto Loforte, Federal Police office: harassment.
1. Jorge Varando, at that time security chief of the HSBC bank, was initially prosecuted for the murder of Gustavo Benedetto.
- President Fernando de la Rúa, at that time. He was accused of homicide by the prosecution and the plaintiffs, but was finally dismissed by the Argentine justice. This led the Center for Legal and Social Studies to denounce the Argentine State for impunity before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where he requested the trial of De la Rúa.

During the trial, more than 200 witnesses testified. In October 2015 the evidence stage was closed and the allegations began in November. May 22, 2016 the court issued the ruling:
- Enrique Mathov: guilty. Sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison.
- Rubén Santos: guilty. Sentenced to 4 years in prison
- Raúl Andreozzi: guilty. Sentenced to 3 years and six months in prison.
- Norberto Gaudiero: guilty. Sentenced to 3 years in prison.
- Carlos José López: guilty. Sentenced to 6 years in prison.
- Roberto Juárez: guilty. Sentenced to 4 years in prison.
- Gonzalo Firpo Castro: guilty. Sentenced to a 3-year suspended prison sentence.
- Victor Belloni: guilty. Sentenced to a 3-year suspended prison sentence.
- Omar Bellante: guilty. Sentenced to a 3-year suspended prison sentence.
- Eugenio Figueroa: Sentenced to 4 years in prison
- Mario Seia: acquitted.
- Norberto Sabbino: acquitted.
- Sebastián Saporiti: acquitted.
- Horacio Berardi: acquitted.
- Orlando Oliverio: acquitted.
- Jorge Daniel Toma: dismissed.
- Carlos Alberto Loforte: dismissed.
- Eugenio Figueroa: sentenced to 4 years in prison
- Mario Seia: acquitted.
- Norberto Sabbino: acquitted.
- Sebastián Saporiti: acquitted.
- Horacio Berardi: acquitted.
- Orlando Oliverio: acquitted.
- Jorge Daniel Toma: dismissed.
- Carlos Alberto Loforte: dismissed.

## Other websites

- (in Spanish)

## Infobox (event)

- **image**: Gaston_Riva_-_Placa_Av_Mayo.jpg
- **caption**: Plaque in memory of the murder of Gastón Riva in the Plaza de Mayo Massacre, placed in the place where he was murdered by police forces, on Avenida de Mayo at 895.
- **native name**: Masacre de Plaza de Mayo del 20 de diciembre de 2001
- **native name lang**: es-ar
- **date**: December 20, 2001
- **location**: Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- **type**: Massacre
- **target**: 238 people
- **reported deaths**: 5
- **reported injuries**: 225