A group of lawyers filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday against employees of British businessman Joe Lewis for illegal deprivation of liberty, acts of piracy and sedition and attacks against national sovereignty, after the actions carried out against the protesters of the sixth march “for the sovereignty” of the Hidden Lake.
In the complaint filed in the Bariloche court by the Solidarity Lawyers Group, which is made up of Daniel Llermanos, it is reported that last Sunday “the mobilization arrived at the northern head of what they called ‘Lago Soberanía’ – Lago Escondido- and the contingent was intercepted, harassed and deprived of their liberty by approximately fifty men, on horseback and armed, organized by a person who exercised command and was identified as Nicolás van Ditmar”.
This situation, according to the complaint, forced the members of the expedition to try to retreat to the southern head of the lake, where “they spent the night in precarious conditions and with serious risk to the health of the victims.”
In addition to Llermanos, Mario Filozof, Jorge Oscar Chueco, Rafael Resnick, Carlos Roble, Luis Salvatierra, Daniel Trava, Héctor Jorge Rodríguez, all lawyers belonging to the Grupo de Abogados Solidarios, sign the complaint.
“The issue would have worsened when two uniformed men -mountain policemen- made the decision to leave the place, leaving people without any kind of protection and assistance,” they added.
In the court filing, it is argued that “The mistreatment and humiliation that the pilgrims had to endure, surpassed even the most perverse mind of National Socialism, when the aggressors told them that “’they were going to have roast dinner with the meat of their bodies’”.
“Not only did they make threats, but they have gone on to concrete facts, such as the provocation of the sinking of the boat in which the -medical doctor- Jorge Rachid was sailing, who is unbalanced and with serious risks to his health. , without being able to have access to communication channels that allow him to go to the nearest health center “the lawyers denounced.
In this sense, the lawyers considered that “those responsible for these events that clearly violate the right to circulate guaranteed by the National Constitution, would be employed or contracted by an English tycoon, Joe Lewis, who in his own name and/or related companies to his patrimony he acquired important territorial extensions, an issue that does not authorize him to exercise control over public roads and routes, much less to employ gangs of guardians for police tasks.
Llermanos, along with other lawyers, asked the Justice to investigate and subpoena Lewis’s staff for an investigative statement and to take testimony from the two mountain policemen who were at the scene and left and to investigate who gave the order to leave the place.
The delegation of demonstrators participated in the Sixth Expedition March for the Sovereignty of Lago Escondido and was on a path authorized by the Justice when it was attacked last Sunday, according to the Nation’s Human Rights Secretariat that same day.
At the judicial level, the federal justice dismissed two requests for habeas corpus in favor of the protesters, but also issued an order for the national government and the province of Río Negro “to rescue those who need to be rescued”
In this context, a helicopter is expected to leave the Bariloche airfield in the next few hours to rescue the health doctor and Peronist leader Jorge Rachid, who was part of the march, and became unbalanced after being harassed by Lewis’s employees, according to the Foundation. Interactive to Promote the Culture of Water (FIPCA), the organizer of the march for the sovereignty of Lago Escondido.
The filmmaker and teacher Martín “Grifo” Adorno, in charge of the FIPCA communication team, denounced that the protesters “were intimidated last night” when camping in the area by a group of men who answer to the British businessman Lewis and who “fired shots in the air with firearms”.
“They let them know through laser sights and shots that they were there, stationed in the area. This is something that aggravates a little the situation that is being experienced in that place,” said Adorno.
“Given this panorama, we are organizing our own rescue operation and right now we are going to Bariloche to see if we can get a helicopter,” Adorno explained.
However, he clarified that the provincial government reported that today a mountain police patrol would leave for the Lago Escondido area with the purpose of assisting the protesters.
While, Complaints and questions against Lewis’s actions continued to arrive from different union sectors and human rights organizations.
The general secretary of the CTA Autónoma de Río Negro and deputy of the national ATE, Rodolfo Aguiar, denounced that there is “a paramilitary army” financed by the British tycoon to prevent public entry to Lago Escondido.
Due to the judges’ decision on habeas corpus, the union leader pointed out that it is “clear that the rich of Patagonia have their own laws.”
The head of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, also considered that Lewis’ actions in Lago Escondido is a “situation of appropriation of our own lands” and stressed that human rights organizations will accompany “whatever is planned” to Reverse the situation.
“The lake is public, always with the law in hand we have to join forces to fight this and we will accompany whatever is planned. A man with a lot of money should not steal the lakes from us,” said Carlotto.
