More than 10 months after a nightclub fire in Buenos Aires claimed 194 lives, the victims' relatives are still seeking punishment for those they hold responsible. Every month, they march through the city: to make their demands heard, and to keep people from forgetting.
Although the municipal government has imposed stricter safeguards on club owners since the blaze, illegal concerts at unsafe venues are flourishing.
A combination of negligence and recklessness caused the tragedy at the Cromagnon Republic club on Dec. 30 last year. With the place packed with people, someone set off a flare that ignited the highly flammable ceiling decoration.
Emergency exits were locked, and fire extinguishers did not work. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation. Rescue teams could do little. They found bodies crowded around the exits and even in the women's bathroom, which had served as a makeshift nursery.
"A massacre," say parents of the victims.
"There's a chain of guilt reaching from the club operator to the band to the mayor of the city," declared Diego Rozengardt, the brother of one of those who died.
Distraught relatives are trying to keep memories of their loved ones alive. They have created a travelling exhibition of victims' photographs. They have planted 194 trees.
Help has come from others, too. A ceramics factory has donated memorial plaques to be put up around the country. Human-rights organizations, civic groups, and celebrities have lent support to victims' relatives and friends.
Meanwhile, the ingredients for similar tragedies in the future -- "profit-seeking by disco operators, corruption in the municipal government and police force" -- still exist, Rozengardt said.
So a hard core of victims' relatives marches every month on the 30th from Plaza Once, the scene of the fire, to Plaza de Mayo, the office of the mayor.
At a Mass held before a recent march, many of the participants had tears in their eyes. Nora Bonomini, who lost a son in the fire, stood on the fringes.
"I can no longer believe in God," she said.
She demands that the guilty be punished.
The ombudsman of the city of Buenos Aires, Atilio Alimena, claims that the municipal government failed to inspect nightclubs in the Argentine capital. He had warned long before the catastrophe that many clubs were flouting safety regulations. Today, just 66 of the 250 discos in operation last December remain open, and oversight has increased.
But safety precautions, such as remodelling, for example, or having a doctor and firefighter on the premises, cost money that cuts the businesses' profits.
Club doorkeepers complain about a rule requiring seats for all concert guests. Small clubs in particular have lost their concession as a result.
Nightlife goes on, though. Bands now often play in private apartments or "art clubs," the doorkeepers keeping their eyes peeled for police. Acting on invitations sent by e-mail, rock music fans still go to relatively cheap concerts by new groups. The venues have become smaller, but no less dangerous.
As the demonstrators left the scene of the fire, Bonomini could no longer hide her tears and anger. She fell into line with the other marchers to fight, as she said, her child's "murderers."
Like the other parents, she was carrying a picture in front of her. Hers showed a smiling boy.
"Never again will I be able to sleep in peace," she said.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a