After a year without pilgrimage due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the sanctuary of the Correntina town of Mercedes received more than 100,000 people so far this day to venerate Gauchito Gil on the 81st anniversary of his passing, municipal authorities informed Télam.
The crowd of followers of the Gaucho Antonio Gil approached the sanctuary of National Route 123, 8 kilometers from the city of Mercedes, where his figure is celebrated every January 8.
Delegations from various parts of the country, together with promeseros from the province of Corrientes, star in a different commemoration than in previous years, after the sanctuary was cleared of stalls and the area was ordered with a resolution of the Federal Court of Passage of the Free.
That way, the physiognomy of the place offers more open spaces, a specific arrangement for parking lots, campsites and a market organized in two wings, due to the health situation derived from the pandemic.
A security device made up of the police of the province of Corrientes with more than 170 troops, the National Gendarmerie and 23 volunteers from the White Helmets Commission, guards and provides assistance to the pilgrims.
During the day, isolated fights with injured people were reported without further consideration, while two women had to be treated for decompensation and falls with fractures, according to the authorities of the sanitary operation carried out by the Ministry of Public Health of Corrientes.
The celebration
The commemoration agenda organized by the administration of Mayor Diego Caram It began yesterday at 19 in the municipal cemetery, with a response at the gaucho’s grave which later moved, with the so-called Cruz Gil, to the cultural center of the Mercedes railway station, where the traditional evening took place.
At 5.30 this Saturday, as an epilogue to the vigil, the parish priest of Mercedes, Luis Adis, celebrated a mass considered very emotional by the faithful present, given the emotional charge that the religious gave to his homily, in which he made special considerations to Milton and Sergio Canteros, stabbed to death last August by a gang of stallholders who started a dispute with the family territorial by the installation of informal businesses around the sanctuary.
Thus it is that two wooden crosses in homage to both victims guarded the Catholic celebration, at the end of which the traditional parade to the sanctuary of Route 123 was carried out.
At that moment of the celebration, Mayor Caram presented the blessed cross to a group of more than 300 horsemen They went to the place of veneration, where since Friday night the place of worship was opened for the passage of an intense pilgrimage of the faithful.
The police guard and organize the passage to the closed sector in which a cross with the image of the gaucho autonomista is the space where the promeseros venerate him and deposit offerings, in a period of time of a few minutes.
Municipal sources highlighted the work of the security forces and municipal volunteers and the White Helmets, in assisting with the delivery of water, since the temperature exceeds 35 degrees, as well as medical aid, they specified.
