Radio Mundo Real

Peasant leader Cristian Ferreira, from Santiago del Estero, was 25 years old. On November 16th he was at his home, in San Antonio community, organizing an assembly where other activists from the Santiago del Estero Peasant Movement (Mocase) would participate. He was at his home with two other activists worried about the clearing of a neighbor field.

Javier and Arturo Juarez, gunmen hired by soy producer José Ciccioli, from Santa Fe, arrived to Cristian’s home. Without saying a word, they shot Cristian in cold blood, who died a few hours later.

The other two peasant leaders were injured and beaten but are getting better in a hospital in Santiago del Estero.

The San Antonio peasants are literally under siege by the permanent advance of bulldozers, soy producers, politicians and para-police forces. There are 25 families living in 2000 hectares who have suffered several attacks like this one, according to what Diego Monton, from Mocase, told Real World Radio.

Diego said that people have been illegally arrested and a community radio was destroyed, among other things, and the people responsible are still unpunished due to the complicity of the judicial system with the big landowners of the region.

The Mocase has denounced several times the corruption involved in the agribusiness model, the judges (many of whom have been in office since the last dictatorship) and the local politicians. The peasants demand the national government to be more engaged with finding the people responsible for these crimes.

(2011) Real World Radio