“They say that photos take out your soul, the native peoples say so, so I’m going to be pure materialism now,” he jokes. the priest Paco Olveira, and poses next to the two scouts who arrive at the Plaza de Tribunales, from Merlo, from their parish: “West Zone”, they underline. The portrait is one of hundreds taken with him by those who come to say hello. This Friday ended the fast that the priest leads by the slogan “Democracy without judicial mafia”. In front of the Palace of Justice, in the heart of the city. And there Paco prays: “Ban, fuck it!”. And on that conviction she built a civic epic this week.
The priest is sharp in his words, and when joking for the photo, he performs at the same time the vindication of the word of the native peopless: it gives them credibility. “In a week where there is talk of pseudo-Mapuches again, and justice is once again in the conflicts that seek to evict them, we must unite. Because this justice responds to the oligarchy, to its economic matrix and fails in favor of those interests”, he will reflect later in the interview with Page 12before the closing mass of the fast.
The girl scouts also laugh for the photo. They are happy. “Paco’s fight mobilizes” says Romina, the mother of the adolescents, also excited and happy. They come from Merlo, Libertad. “From the Eva Perón neighborhood, Father Francisco lives there” they are proud. “Because he lives next to the town and shares his food without asking for anything,” they introduce him. Francisco Olveira, or “father Paco”, priest in Option for the Poor.
It is the seventh day of the fast that began on Remembrance Day, this March 24. “Seven is a biblical number, it is fullness,” says Paco. And he talks, all the time, with the people who come closer, while guitars are heard and chacareras are danced. There, next to the four small tents where they sleep –on Talcahuano street at the entrance to the Palace and under a huge flag with the face framed in the white handkerchief, by Hebe de Bonafini–, Father Paco and the four people who accompany him, fasting.
Reflecting on these days of unusual civic rebellion, he will explain the continuity of the struggle: from the memory of the Mothers, to the confrontation “with the judicial mafia that sustains the economic power of the oligarchy” define. “Because we had a military dictatorship that left 30,000 compañeros and compañeros missing” to impose an economic model. “Today that power is sustained by the rulings of these four judges who do not have the moral authority to exercise the positions they hold”analyze.
In the bus that doubles as a meeting room, Paco sits down, invites them to share the campaign table, drinks a mate, and talks. While the festival continues on the street while waiting for the mass. “Of the celebration of religious brotherhood” specifies the priest, also a lawyer. Born in Malaga, Spain. Paco arrived in Argentina in 1987. Here he was nationalized. And although he preserves the cadence of Andalusian speech, his Argentinean identity is expressed in actions, such as this hunger strike against the political-judicial plot that gags “the future of our homeland,” he describes.
–How are you, father?e felt accompanied these days?
–A lot, for the neighbors, for compañeros and compañeras who have been there since the first day when we decided to set up the fasting tents, and those who joined. There was a lot of repercussion, more than expected. We want to contribute our grain of sand and that grows. ‘It grows from the bottom’ as (Alfredo) Zitarrosa says.
–How was this idea born, what was its beginning?
–We wanted to accompany Les Jóvenes, who invited us to come to the Court from the square. And following the word of Hebe, who pointed against the Court, decidedly. Because here is the problem, in the judicial district, as in Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador. Here outlawing the vice president. Pardon the expression, but we say to the Court: “Proscription to hell!” We are not afraid.
“Proscription to hell”
Paco paraphrases the slogan with which Hugo Chávez defined an economic position: “ALCA, ALCA, to hell”. In the times of Néstor Kirchner, Lula da Silva and even Diego Maradona, at the People’s Summit in 2005, and synthesized the defeat of the Free Trade Area Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), promoted by the United States Today, the power faced by popular governments is judicial, he insists.
That motivated those who came and made the magnificence of this vigil grow: first in small masses, then singing in the streets. Surrounded by the city police, but guarded by neighbors who came to show solidarity, they circled the Palace of Justice in symbolic hugs. They detailed in a letter the arguments for which “the Supreme Court has to resign,” he reviews, categorical. And they delivered it in an episode that flooded the courts with the slogan: “The judicial dictatorship is going to end.”
–Where was the letter delivered? Did they receive it? Did they get alluded to?
–We went to the fourth floor to deliver it. But first we sat down in the hall to sing. We have the sealed paper, although it was not first class. And I think that those mentioned feel because nothing appeared in La Nación or in Clarín. They wanted to silence him. Like fasting. But young people who use the networks very well spread it and that’s how it grew.
Do you think that letter will be answered?
–I believe in miracles, especially when they are pushed. And although we want an answer, if there isn’t one, silence will be an answer. The important thing is to keep fighting. What we are going to do is continue on the streets, follow the political trial of the Court, like David against Goliath, because sometimes David wins.
–What expectations did you have when the fast began?
–The truth is, we didn’t think about what was going to happen, but it exceeded what we imagined, it’s more than expected. For the love and accompaniment. They didn’t leave us for a minute alone. Many people came individually, without an organization, and organizations, unions, deputies from the Political Judgment Commission came… It’s a path, you grow, you learn along the way.
–There is a Bolivian woman, Domitila Barrios de Chungara, a miner, who you remembered as an inspiration these days. Why did you bring Domitila to this cause?
I am inspired by your story, a poor woman from the interior of Bolivia who in 1978 told four colleagues that the problem was not the military dictatorship or the oligarchy, but fear. And they went to the capital, began a hunger strike and, receiving support and accompaniment from other women, managed to overthrow the dictatorship of Hugo Banzer. The strength is in the solidarity networks, and in the sister hands that are encouraged.
fasting
Father Paco finished the fast this Friday together with the priests Miguel “Pancho” Vello and Rodolfo “Fito” Viano, who accompanied him from the beginning. And to Carolina Amejeira and Susana Traversi, from human rights, Catholic and feminist organizations, who, together with other volunteers and social activists, have been getting closer these days. Like the Malvinas Veterans: “Here is Gustavo who turned 60 yesterday,” Paco will say, later, before starting the mass. Or like Gladys, a judicial worker who also fasted.
–What was being done these days was improvised, then?
–We took actions and it could be done because we were accompanied, there we encouraged ourselves. First they wouldn’t even let us set up the gazebo. Larreta wanted to kick us out. she was raining But we settled in and she couldn’t get us out. We cut the street, then we turned around embracing the building, the Palace. Because the Palace of Courts belongs to the people.
–Then they entered the building…
–We entered as a group, to deliver the letter. The five of us from fasting entered, we sang “The united people will never be defeated.” I think about it and I am more convinced: “the only fight that is lost is the one that is abandoned”, that is what the Mothers (of Plaza de Mayo) teach us. God willing it goes well, because one doesn’t go on strike… because he wants to! The workers do not go on strike because they do not want to work, (Carlos) Mugica said, it is part of a struggle. In this case against the rulings of the Court that are always in favor of the concentrated sectors, of the price makers.
–The poverty index was published: 18 million people in that condition, precisely.
—Clarion reports that poverty increased, but does not give the causes for which it occurs. The causes are these failures. We have a judicial party that destroys governments that, with their virtues and defects, are the popular choice. Milagro Sala is being held in custody. They ignore the attacks on the leaders: Cristina and Evo are miraculously alive. And they are politicians who risk themselves, and give their lives for their convictions, and for the people.
–And what can be the path to follow now?
–The fight, there is no other. And the support of these days is important, because really in our country there is no future with this justice that takes over the executive and legislative power. And it has collusion with the right wing of our homeland. As seen in Lago Escondido, or with the ruling for co-participation.
Q: How do you see the electoral projection for this year?
–There is no future with this Court. And if two of the highest judges agreed to be its members and enter through the window, due to the macrista arming of (Fabián) “Pepín” Simón, we cannot naturalize him. I do not know what is going to happen in the elections, but I am going to do everything possible so that the right does not return to Argentina.
