Argentina has been struck by another tragedy: an armed student entered the Mariano Moreno N°40 school in the city of San Cristóbal and killed a 13-year-old student. This is not an isolated incident, as similar events have occurred in the country before. Among the most notorious are the Carmen de Patagones massacre and the school slaying in Rafael Calzada.
Rafael Calzada: "Pantriste" On August 4, 2000, 19-year-old Javier Romero shot and killed a fellow student and injured two others as they were leaving a school in the Buenos Aires suburb of Rafael Calzada. "Hey, pantriste!" a student shouted at Romero. In response, Romero drew a .22 caliber revolver and fired three shots towards the school entrance. One of the bullets struck 16-year-old Mauricio Ariel Salvador in the head, who died after being hospitalized. Another bullet grazed the ear of 18-year-old Gabriel Alfredo Ferrari. "Now they're going to respect me! I'm going to fuck them all up!" Romero allegedly exclaimed during the shooting. He was arrested five hours later. On April 8, 2003, the shooter was declared innocent by reason of insanity, and in 2018, he was discharged from the facility.
Carmen de Patagones Massacre On the morning of September 28, 2004, three students were killed at the N°202 "Islas Malvinas" Secondary School in the city of Carmen de Patagones: 15-year-old Federico Ponce, 16-year-old Evangelina Miranda, and 16-year-old Sandra Núñez. The assailant, 15-year-old Rafael "Juniors" Solich, opened fire with a 9mm Browning pistol, injuring five other people. "Juniors" was declared mentally unfit to stand trial, and his father, Rafael Solich, served 45 days in prison for negligence for allowing his son access to the weapon.
