Carlos Fuentealba
Comment: per WP:BIO1E Jishara (please ping upon response) (talk) 23:16, 10 September 2026 (UTC)
| Carlos Fuentealba | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 14, 1966 Junín de los Andes, Neuquén Province, Argentina |
| 💀Died | April 4, 2007 (40 years) Neuquén, Neuquén Province, ArgentinaApril 4, 2007 (40 years) |
| Cause of death | Police firearm wound |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Argentinian |
| 💼 Occupation | Teacher, Trotskyist activist, union activist |
| 🏛️ Political party | Movimiento al Socialismo (1983), Nuevo Movimiento al Socialismo |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Sandra Rodríguez |
Carlos Fuentealba (Junín de los Andes, September 14, 1966[1] - Neuquén, April 4, 2007) was an Argentinian teacher and Trotskyist activist. On April 4, 2007, he was participating in a roadblock against the government of Jorge Sobisch, who gave the order to eject people by force. During the police repression, the teacher was hit by a tear gas canister shot by a police officer, which caused him serious wounds and his death shortly after.
Biography
Carlos Fuentealba was born in 1966 in Junín de los Andes, in the mountain area of Neuquén Province (Argentina). He grew up in the countryside in a humble family, near Huechulafquèn lake, in Junín de los Andes, 400 km south from Neuquén City, where he went to primary school. He moved to the province's capital to attend secondary school at la escuela industrial General Torres industrial school where he graduated as a Technician in Chemistry.
In the following years, he worked different jobs: at a lab, at a supermarket, at a hangar, at a radio, and at a juice factory.
As a teenager, he got an administrative job in the construction workers' union UOCRA. In the eighties, he joined the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party as a construction worker. He participated along with Alcides Christiansen in the recuperation of the local union office in Neuquén (UOCRA). Gerardo Martínez demanded that the National State intervene in the union. Fuentealba became unemployed and he participated in the occupation of Neuquen's Government House in the 90s. Two years ago, he became a teacher, and he has been side by side with his activist friends in every fight since then.
— Patricia Varela, school principal at the secondary school where Fuentealba taught.
His affiliation to the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party dates from those years. He became distant in 1993 when the party was fractured almost to the point of vanishing.
He became a teacher in 2005, at age 38, and began working as a Chemistry teacher at the Centro Provincial de Enseñanza Media (CPEM) n.º 69 of Cuenca XV, one of the poorest neighbourhoods west of Neuquén City. He was chosen as union delegate by his coworkers. In 2006, he received the 'School King' distinction from students as the best teacher.
Around that time, he contacted members of the former MAS who began discussing the refounding of the party, which would eventually be named Nuevo MAS.
Asessination
On April 4, 2007 in the context of a strike by the teachers' union ATEN, member of CTERA, protesters decided to block route 22 in the area of Arroyito, near the town of Senillosa. This decision was taken in an assembly where most union members voted in favour. Fuentealba was against it because he believed the spot was dangerous, but he followed the majority's will.
That day, the police received orders from governor Jorge Sobisch to stop protesters from blocking the road.
The police dispersed the crowd two times with rubber bullets, tear gas, paint bombs, and the use of a hydrant truck. Many found refuge in a nearby gas station (property of the governor's brother-in-law, Fernando Ponte), while others were followed by the police even if they had already left the roadblock. After a conversation between union leaders and the police, repression stopped, and the teachers left on foot and by car towards Senillosa, followed by police trucks.
Fuentealba was in the back seat of a Fiat 147, license plate ACM 169, which was driving away from the place when police officer José Darío Poblete, a member of the Special Operations Squad (GEOP) of ZapalaCity, who was only two meters away from the car, threw a tear gas canister that went through the car's window glass and hit Fuentealba in the back of the neck, causing him a skull fracture. He underwent two surgeries at the hospital , and he died the following day.
On the day he died, Fuentealba was 40 years old, and he had two daughters (10 and 14 years old).
Consequences of his death
On October 4, 2007 there was a teachers' national strike in Argentina, realizó un paro nacional docente en la Argentina, after 6 months of Fuentealba's assasination.]] This event caused shock and outrage, and it led to the declaration of a general strike by the two union confederations (CTA y CGT). At the same time, education workers, administrative workers and teachers all over the country organized strikes, protests and massive assemblies,[2] with slogans such as "Las tizas no se manchan con sangre" ("Chalk is not stained with blood"), "Sobisch Asesino" ("Sobisch Murderer"), "Nunca Más" ("Never Again"), among others. People demanded that Governor Sobisch leave office and be impeached. Students were arrested after breaking the police station's windows.
The teachers' strike in Neuquén lasted over 50 days. The government tried reopening schools by replacing principals with employees from other areas and by hiring substitute teachers. Finally, the union accepted a salary increase, a pension for Fuentealba's widow, and other demands, and teachers agreed to make up for the classes lost due to the strike.[3]
Even though protests all over the country demanded that Sobisch be impeached, the province's Legislature was closed for almost two months, since the governing party's legislators (MPN) did not attend sessions.[4] When the legislative assembly was finally reunited, and the opposition requested the governor's impeachment, the government archived the request. [5] That same day the Legislature approved the pension for Fuentealba's widow.
Police officer Poblete was found guilty of aggravated murder as part of the case "Fuentealba I", which investigates the material responsibilities in the murder. The case "Fuentealba II" investigates responsibilities in the police's higher ranks and the security deputy secretary. Sandra Rodríguez is the plaintiff in both cases.[6] The teachers' union ATEN asked to be part of the plaintiff in both cases and wanted ex-governor Sobisch to be interrogated in the "Fuentealba II" case, but their request was denied.[7]
On June 4, 2008, the trial against police officer José Darío Poblete began in the case "Fuentealba I".
The Court found him guilty of "aggravated murder, for having been committed by a member of the police forces abusing their position, with the aggravating factor of having been committed with violence using a firearm, aggravated by treachery, in ideal concurrence" and condemned him to life imprisonment.
Legacy
After Fuentealba's assassination, his comrades from Nuevo MAS decided to name their teachers' organization "Agrupación Nacional Carlos Fuentealba" in his honour and to pay homage to his experience as a revolutionary activist.
There are several documentaries about his life, such as En obra (2013), directed by Ariel Borenstein and Damián Finvarb, where his union and political life struggles are depicted.
See also
- Víctor Choque
- El ángel de la bicicleta
- Masacre de Avellaneda
- Jorge Julio López
- Luciano Arruga
References
- ↑ Imen, Pablo: [dead link], artículo sin fecha publicado en la revista Idelcoop (dirigida por Pablo Imen), pág. 161.
- ↑ "APF - Neuquén: la manifestación de repudio fue masiva, DERF". Archived from the original on 27 de septiembre de 2007. Retrieved 11 de abril de 2007. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help); Check date values in:|access-date=, |archive-date=(help) - ↑ "El ciclo lectivo se extenderá hasta el 19 de diciembre". Archived from the original on 7 de marzo de 2016. Retrieved 24 de septiembre de 2007. Check date values in:
|access-date=, |archive-date=(help) - ↑ "Diputados en contra del cierre de la Legislatura". Archived from the original on 12 de abril de 2025. Retrieved 17 de agosto de 2013. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help); Check date values in:|access-date=, |archive-date=(help) - ↑ "No habrá juicio político". Archived from the original on 23 de julio de 2019. Retrieved 24 de septiembre de 2007. Check date values in:
|access-date=, |archive-date=(help) - ↑ ""Sandra Rodríguez será querellante en la causa Fuentealba II"". Archived from the original on 13 de enero de 2014. Retrieved 6 de junio de 2008. Check date values in:
|access-date=, |archive-date=(help) - ↑ "" Fuentealba II: el gremio no será querellante en la causa"". Archived from the original on 23 de julio de 2008. Retrieved 6 de junio de 2008. Check date values in:
|access-date=, |archive-date=(help)
External Links
- Grandote, pintón y, para los chicos, el "rey" del secundario, Clarín, 5 de abril de 2007
- Murió el profesor atacado y crece la tensión en Neuquén, La Opinión de Rafaela, 7 de abril de 2007
- Perfil Archivado el 28 de mayo de 2007 en Wayback Machine.
- No matarás, por Sandra Russo, Pagina/12, 7 de abril de 2007
- Homenaje a Carlos Fuentealba, por Marcelo Aurelio, 7 de abril de 2007
- Carlos Fuentealba en Youtube.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9KPcIj4IjE
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryMeOwclXVY
Category:Argentine socialists Category:Deaths by tear gas canister Category:Argentine educators Category:2007 murders in Argentina Category:2007 in Argentina Category:2007 deaths Category:1966 births Category:Pages with unreviewed translations
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