Monsanto Protesters Brutally Attacked in Malvinas, Argentina
Brutal retaliation came early in the morning yesterday when two buses of approximately 60 people arrived in camp and attacked the protesters, most of whom were sleeping in tents at the time. They ripped tents, destroyed property, set fires in the campsite, threw bricks and stones and beat protesters with clubs. Some protesters also had their computers and phones stolen.
Approximately 20 protesters have been injured many with head wounds. Outspoken activists, Sofia Gatica and Celina Molina were among the wounded having been beaten and kicked while on the ground.
A small group of police officers were on site but they looked away and did not intervene as protesters were subjected to violence. It seemed the police were only interested in opening up the blockade temporarily to allow entry of a truck of construction materials into the job site. They did however manage to fire rubber bullets at protesters at some point during the attack.
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Published on Monday, December 2, 2013 by Inter Press Service
Argentine Protesters vs Monsanto: “The Monster is Right on Top of Us”
by Fabiana Frayssinet
MALVINAS ARGENTINAS, Córdoba, Argentina - The people of this working-class suburb of Córdoba in Argentina’s central farming belt stoically put up with the spraying of the weed-killer glyphosate on the fields surrounding their neighbourhood. But the last straw was when U.S. biotech giant Monsanto showed up to build a seed plant.
The creator of glyphosate, whose trademark is Roundup, and one of the world’s leading producers of genetically modified seeds, Monsanto is building one of its biggest plants to process transgenic corn seed in Malvinas Argentinas, this poor community of 15,000 people 17 km east of the capital of the province of Córdoba.
The plant was to begin operating in March 2014. But construction work was brought to a halt in October by protests and legal action by local residents, who have been blocking the entrance to the site since Sept. 18.
On the morning of Saturday Nov. 30, troops arrived at the plant, as seen in this video posted on Facebook, and escorted several trucks out of the construction site. The trucks had forced their way past the roadblock on Thursday Nov. 28, when members of the construction union stormed into the camp set up by local residents, with the aim of breaking the blockade. More than 20 people were injured in the clash.
More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/02-2
