A man suffocated to death when he was reduced by police in the Argentine province of Tucumán, in a case that investigates justice and recalls the murder of George Floyd in the United States.
The event occurred last Wednesday at noon in a central area of the Tucuman capital (1,200 km north-west of Buenos Aires) and before dozens of witnesses, some of whom claimed that the police officers beat the subject and pressed his neck to the ground.
A passerby captured the moment in a video where the victim is seen while being reduced by at least four uniformed and two subjects dressed in civilian clothes.
Police action parallels the death of Floyd, an African American killed by a white police officer during his arrest in a case that sparked a wave of protests in the United States and other countries.
“I lack air, I lack air,” said a witness to the Argentine press, identified as Ricardo, the website reported. Infobae.
Ceferino Nadal, 43, was detained for alleged theft, although no one reported the theft, and no evidence was found.
The victim asked for help several times while he was reduced in the apartment, according to testimonies that the local press quotes.
The autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation.
The victim’s family had reported police persecution and mistreatment in a previous arrest made in February by police from the same police station.
Years ago, the victim had served a theft conviction.
The police officers who participated in the arrest were identified and will testify in the coming days.
This was how the police officers tried to revive the alleged offender who was arrested on Wednesday at noon at the corner of Las Heras and Crisóstomo Álvarez, in the middle of the downtown. The autopsy showed that he died of suffocation. pic.twitter.com/6sytrhr0Sz
– Telefe Tucumán (@telefetucuman) June 26, 2020
The actions of the Tucumán police are also under investigation in another case for the murder of Luis Espinoza a rural worker arrested during a horse festival on May 15 and whose body appeared a week later thrown into a ravine.
In the latter case, eight police officers and one civilian are under preventive detention, charged with “illegitimate deprivation of liberty followed by death and forced disappearance of a person” in an investigation for which the Regional Office for South America of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Acnudh) requested information.
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