Still in the aftermath of the clashes that marked the latest protest in the congress of Argentina, the Javier Milei government has on Monday (17) a controversial measure: he proposed a bill to criminalize organized football fans.
The presentation of the project against the so -called “Barra Bravas” was in charge of the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, one of the main names of this administration. The project seeks to classify fans as a type of illicit association (group of three or more people designed to commit crimes, according to the Penal Code).
The ultimate goal is to aggravate the penalties for those involved. Local law provides for five to 20 years in prison to those who are part of an association whose purpose is to “terrorize the population or oblige the government to perform an act or abstain from doing it”.
Milei’s attempted attempt occurs after some of the national fans express support and participate in the traditional march made by retirees, always on Wednesdays. The last act, on the 12th, had clashes, at least one person seriously injured (photojournalist Pablo Grillo, 35) and more than 100 detained people.
Many critics of Milei’s actions argue that the call for protest and the incitement of violence did not necessarily start from the command of the fans, but from specific fans, more involved with political militancy. For the government, the discernment did not fit.
An investigation from the La Nacion newspaper mapped that the fans who were present at the demonstration were not at the top of the organized fans or had protagonism. They were people who occupy marginal functions in organizations and secondary papers.
Meanwhile, the government states that these people attended the act in coordination with leaders of the regional left for the purpose of causing disorder.
According to Minister Bullrich, the nickname “Anti-Barrae Law” announced a criminal liability of soccer club leaders who collaborate with organized fans in some way. Bullrich says that bus supply to fans or financial aid would enter the typification of this collaboration.
There is also a third element in the auction claimed by Casa Rosada: the impediment that people who respond to any legal prosecution related to violence can enter football stadiums. Already on Monday the Security Folder published in the official bulletin (Argentine version of the Official Gazette) a decree to ban 26 people who claim to be organized fans from entering the stadiums.
The 26 are part of the group that was accused last Friday (14) also by the ministry led by Patricia Bullrich of the crime of sedition (insurrection) for participating in the protest of last Wednesday.
Hours before making the announcement about the bill, the government also formalized a complaint against the judge who last week released the 114 detainees by police during the protest. Casa Rosada accuses her of prevarication (giving resolutions contrary to the law), whose penalty is perpetual disqualification to practice the profession.
As the report detailed, the first instance judge Karina Giselle Andrade said in her resolution that the detainees had been sent to the tens to the police station, without specification of what each would have done and where he had been arrested. As the arrests were operated and presented, she said at the same time, the case was at risk of injuring the right to protest and freedom of expression. The detainees were released about six hours after being seized.
Four people, however, followed in prisoners, even though they speak less of them. One because he had a capture order, and the other three because they were arrested carrying weapons. Now Milei’s government says Andrade has acted for political and ideological purposes, and management supporters claim that the magistrate would belong to La Carampora, a kirchnerism -linked militating grouping, which Andrade denies.
Some of the organized fans have a history of violence in Argentina, such as in the city of Rosario, the homeland of Lionel Messi and Ángel di María football stars, where relationships between drug trafficking, fans and violence are notoriously known.
This Wednesday (19), a new protest was summoned in Buenos Aires.
