Hundreds of people accompanied this Tuesday night to Fernando Baez Sosa’s parents, the young man beaten to death in the summer of 2020 at the exit of a Villa Gesell bowling alley, in an emotional tribute made on the second anniversary of the crime, which ended with the victim’s mother decompensated after stepping on the place where her son was attacked.
The event began after 7 p.m., when, under an incipient rain, Fernando’s parents, Graciela Sosa and Silvino Baez, accompanied by his lawyer, Ferdinand Mocking, appeared before hundreds of people gathered in the rain on avenida 3 and paseo 102, in front of the Le Brique dance venue, in the heart of Geselli, where two years ago Fernando was beaten to death by a group of rugby players.
The young man’s parents were greeted with applause and the cry of “justice” by the protesters, who supported him on his first trip to that city since the crime.
The speaker for the evening was John Paul Rollon, a friend of the Báez Sosa family, who asked everyone present to raise the posters with Fernando’s face to give his parents strength.
The first to speak was Silvia, Silvino’s goddaughter, who asked for justice for Fernando “and for every victim of violence.”
Then it was the turn of the head of the NGO December 18 for the Migrant, Diego Laterza, who argued that “there is no peace without justice and there is no justice with impunity“.
The act continued with a prayer pronounced by the referents of five religions: the Apostolic Catholic, the Anglican, the Judaism, the Muslim and the Mormon.
In this framework, Miguel Steuermann, director of Radio Jai in Latin America, took the floor; Marcelo Benavidez, deacon of the Villa Gesell Parish; Eric Escala, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Argentina; Jorge De Ángelo, representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Juan Piriz, pastor of the city and, finally, Imam Marwan Gill, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Argentina.
The religious leaders made a prayer according to their creed to ask for “justice and peace” both for Fernando’s parents and for the whole society.
Around 8 pm, Silvino went on stage and complained several times “Justice“for his son, a request that was accompanied by the applause of all those present.
“Fernando was an excellent boy, he liked Villa Gesell, he liked to come and see the sea and have a good time with his friends,” said the visibly moved man.
About the rugbiers arrested for the crime, Fernando’s father said that “they decided to take his life” to his son, for which he asked for support until the case ends in a trial.
For her part, Graciela, Fernando’s mother, said: “Two years have passed and for me it is as if it were yesterday when we received the worst news of our lives.”
“Let this not come to nothing, I want justice for my son,” added Graciela, who maintained that her life “is destroyed forever” since it was Fernando who “gave them strength” to continue and “took care of them.”
“The way they took my son from us It’s unforgivable, what they did to him…that’s why we fight and try to be strong to continue asking for justice,” he said.
The woman, embraced at all times by her husband, maintained that their lives “are destroyed forever”, since they lost “the best” they had,
“He was our only son, it was everything for us, the one who gave us joy, the one who gave us the strength to fight and we had hope that tomorrow he would be the one to take care of us, however, we lost everything, we will never have a grandson, I will never see my son when he graduates, which was what I yearned for the most,” Graciela told the protesters.
And when she was referring to the fact that it is not easy to be in the place where her son was murdered and that she would like “just a minute” to hug him, Graciela lost her balance and had to be taken by ambulance to the Arturo Illia Hospital in Villa Gesell, where she was treated for lipothymia.
“They gave her a painkiller, they hydrated her and she is close to being discharged,” her lawyer, Fernando Burlando, told Télam.
During the act, Fernando’s parents were accompanied by various representatives of social organizations or simply victims of acts of violence.
Consulted by Télam, several young people of Fernando’s age who spend their vacations in Villa Gesell, said that after what happened with Fernando “the bowling alleys are calmer.”
“With my friends we try not to ‘collide’ with groups of several young people so that no discussion is generated,” said one of the boys consulted.
“Since what happened with Fernando, we take care of ourselves more, we don’t want it to happen to us, we just want to go out and have fun,” added the young man.
