The All Boys club held this Monday afternoon an act in memory of Maximiliano Tasca, Cristian Gómez and Adrián Matassa, supporters of the club and victims of the so-called Floresta Massacre, perpetrated 20 years ago by a retired NCO from the Federal Police, in an episode of institutional violence after the social outbreak of 2001 that led to the resignation of then-president Fernando De la Rúa.
Present at the event were Silvia La Ruffa, from the Undersecretariat of Federal Programming and Legislative Articulation of the Ministry of National Security; Carolina Arias, from the Executive Secretariat of the Ombudsman’s Office of the City; Silvia Irigaray, Tasca’s mother; Elvira Torres, Gómez’s mother, and Elena, Matassa’s aunt.
“This was an act of extreme institutional violence. They murdered three kids just for the fact of being kids, when they were at leisure. The new security policies tend to put an end to this type of crime like Lucas’s in Barracas. The dichotomy is not between security and human rights, but between security and institutional violence, “La Ruffa said during the event.
“We must try to have a new police force, because it was created to take care of people. And I agree that there should be no dichotomy between human rights and security. In the new police that one is looking for, these acts no longer have to happen. of violence, “Arias added.
For his part, Irigaray maintained in dialogue with Télam that “what All Boys did today will be unforgettable. ‘Maxi’ loved this club and when I told him that if he did not do well in school he would not come to the field, he suffered. I remember that some marches that we did when the team played away, we had to delay them because the fans wanted to arrive in time to participate “.
⭐⭐⭐This afternoon, at the Don Fernando Sánchez Estate in #All boys A recognition was made to the families of Maximiliano Tasca, Cristian Gómez and Adrián Matassa for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the #MasacreDeFloresta ⭐⭐⭐ pic.twitter.com/2vHFwghRTK
– All Boys Athletic Club (@caallboys) December 28, 2021
“That is why I say that justice was done by the people, that All Boys were among those people and were part of the populace that was made on December 31, 2001 to fight for justice. This is fuel for the soul. It is the first time a police officer has been sentenced to life imprisonment, “he said.
While Torres was also “very grateful to the neighborhoods of Floresta and Monte Castro for so much support. My son was a ´gallinaceo´ of the soul and he was against me because I am from Boca, but All Boys was his neighborhood club. We all have one. Floresta, vices, beer and All Boys are a feeling, was what my son said. That’s why I wanted to say goodbye to this act with his words, “he closed.
“I carry it in my heart to the club and to the neighborhood as my nephew carried it. That is why, when he died that December 29, my life also ended. That is why I never cared what happened to his murderer,” remarked one Elena excited to remember Adrián Matassa.
And finally Fernando García, a member of the All Boys secretariat, stressed that “the club was in debt to these boys, because it cannot be oblivious to these things. This circumstance goes through the social, which is much more important than football” .
At the end of the act, the vice president Hernán Toro showed a plaque to each of the relatives of the murdered youths and that from today will be installed in the club’s secretariat with the phrase “Memory of the neighborhood.”
The three young people have the images of their faces on a mural that overlooks the stadium’s local tribune, on Chivilcoy street.
The presenter of the event was Mariana Fiordelisi, a member of the Department of Equity and Gender of the institution.
The young Maximiliano Tasca, Cristian Gómez and Adrián Matassa, all fans of the black and white, were assassinated on December 29, 2001 by Juan de Dios Velaztiqui, a retired NCO from the Federal Police who provided additional services at the Gaona Avenue service station. and Bahía Blanca.
It was the early morning of Saturday, December 29, 2001, and four friends were sitting at a table in a mini-market located on the aforementioned corner, watching television, where images of the social disturbances of the previous night were shown.
???In addition, a plaque placed in the facilities of #All boys to generate active memory in the neighborhood and remember the Floresta massacre. ???
⭐ #AllBoysNoOlvida⭐ pic.twitter.com/oqDeIPK9HO
– All Boys Athletic Club (@caallboys) December 28, 2021
At that time one of them made a reference against the actions of the forces of order and that caused the reaction of the retired noncommissioned officer who guarded the place, Juan de Dios Velaztiqui, who drew his weapon, shot and killed Maximiliano Tasca, Cristian Gómez and Adrián Matassa, while a fourth young man was saved because he managed to run out of the place. The three murdered were between 23 and 25 years old.
Velaztiqui tried to set up a robbery scene, moving the bodies and planting a knife, but it was not convincing and he was arrested.
The episode resulted in a popular rebellion by the residents of Floresta, who went to the police station to demand justice and were repressed with tear gas and rubber bullets. Neighbors lit barricades and a real pitched battle began in the neighborhood.
The Buenos Aires criminal justice seized Velaztiqui for three million pesos, convertible to dollars at that time.During the investigation it was learned that the policeman – a neighbor of Plátanos, in the jurisdiction of Berazategui – had been part of the illegal repression of the decade of the ’70.
In March 2003 Velaztiqui was sentenced to life imprisonment for “triple homicide classified as treachery” and spent nine years as a recluse in Marcos Paz prison, when he was granted the benefit of home detention after being blind and suffering multiple health problems .
After spending another nine years under house arrest, he died in February of this year of cancer at his daughter’s house, in Berazategui, at the age of 82, although this was questioned by Telam by Elvira Torres, Cristian Gómez’s mother. , “since on two previous occasions he had been presumed dead and it was not true. That is why I am not sure that it is true.”
Both Torres and Silvia Irigaray are founding members of the Madres del Dolor association.
The service station, where residents meet every December 29 of each year to remember the event, closed its doors a few months ago and was boarded up with billboards.
This coming Thursday, the anniversary day of the triple murder, a set of signage pieces will be inaugurated on the corner during an act in which family members, guests and officials will be present.
A commemorative mass is scheduled for 7 p.m. on that day at the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Parish, located at the nearby intersection of Bahía Blanca and Avellaneda.
Then there will be a torch march from the temple to the Plaza del Corralón de Floresta (Gaona 4600), and there, at 8 pm, a mural will be inaugurated and there will be an artistic festival.
