The Judicial Power of Córdoba has set up a case to justify repressive violence and deepen the criminalization of protest in the province.
This Monday, the Prosecutor's Office, led by Ernesto De Aragón, filed the request to elevate the case to trial regarding the events that occurred on August 28 in front of the Secretariat of Social Policies of the Municipality of Córdoba. ATE Córdoba denounced this as "a serious maneuver to criminalize social protest based on an investigation riddled with inconsistencies, contradictions, and deliberate omissions."
On that day, social and union leaders, activists, a lawyer, and a journalist were detained in a genuine repressive ambush and transferred to the Bouwer prison. Among those detained was Federico Giuliani, the general secretary of ATE Córdoba and CTA Córdoba, who remained handcuffed to a hospital bed for 24 hours in an extremely serious incident.
Following another police repression, which took place on this occasion on May 25, 2024, against a demonstration in the capital city within the framework of President Javier Milei's visit, De Aragón initially charged the leader Federico Giuliani with the crime of "public instigation to commit crimes," as stipulated in article 33 of the Penal Code. The prosecutor ordered searches at the ATE Río Cuarto headquarters and at Giuliani's private home, during which cell phones were seized, including that of his minor son, and he imposed a bail of 10 million pesos.
Silvia Alcoba, the adjunct secretary of CTA Córdoba, was also detained, along with César Theaux, the Secretary of Human Rights, who was at the scene performing legal assistance functions and identified himself as a lawyer, and Fermín Denipoti, a press worker for the union, who identified himself as a journalist while covering the events. All of them, along with other activists and workers, ended up detained.
An investigation riddled with contradictions The request to elevate the case to trial attempts to sustain an accusation based on contradictory testimonies and facts that were never properly verified by the prosecution, ATE Córdoba pointed out. Among the most serious irregularities is the fact that municipal employees claim to have seen from inside the building supposed actions carried out by protesters outside, which is materially impossible, as the windows of the Secretariat building are tinted, preventing a view to the outside. Even the witnesses incorporated by the prosecution themselves affirm that it was police officers who placed the desks and objects inside the place, which contradicts the narrative that the accusation is trying to establish.
To this is added that none of the facts denounced are properly individualized, that is, it is not concretely identified who would have carried out each action, which reveals the fragility of a case that attempts to hold protesters and organizations accountable in a general manner. Furthermore, there is an inexplicable absence in the file of a police subdirector who was present during the operation. This police official appeared on the scene during the day of August 28, however, he was not named by any lower-ranking police officer in their statements, nor does he appear in any section of the case, despite his presence being incorporated into the complaint filed by ATE Córdoba. The prosecution's refusal to incorporate this key element deepens the suspicions about the direction of the investigation, the union points out.
The anti-union crusade The investigating prosecutor Ernesto De Aragón has a history of persecution against union and social organizations in Córdoba, and against Federico Giuliani in particular. In October 2023, prosecutor De Aragón requested to elevate to trial a grotesque case initiated against the public servant Federico Giuliani and five other leaders and activists, members of the organizations Workers' Party, Teresa Vive Movement, and MTR We Vote and Fight, for having participated in the March Against Hunger held in the provincial capital on April 5, 2023.
It didn't stop there. Federico Giuliani, with his arm broken by the police and detained on August 28, 2025. On August 28, 2025, a group of social and union leaders was the victim of a police ambush when they were participating in a demonstration demanding food assistance for vulnerable sectors. They were attacked with brutality and detained at the Bouwer prison.
