In Ledesma, where the history of business terror has roots—from the 'Night of the Blackout' during the civic-military dictatorship to the current layoffs—the myth seems to be coming true again. Over the past year, Ledesma has laid off more than 220 workers, including sugarcane and citrus farm workers, in successive rounds that began in February. The unions denounced the layoffs as arbitrary and stated that among those affected are union delegates and activists, whom they consider clear targets of labor persecution. This is not an isolated incident: year after year, Ingenio Ledesma repeats the same performance, in which a puppet representing a worker is 'sacrificed' before the machines. The scene inevitably evokes the legend of the Familiar, a myth born in the sugar mills as a popular explanation for the sacrifice of workers in exchange for the employer's prosperity. The company, however, argues that the layoffs are due to 'economic losses,' although its own financial statements contradict this version: in 2024, it reported net profits of over $39 billion and continues to make multi-million dollar investments. For many workers, the grotesque 'ritual' of closing the harvest season only served to highlight the employer's contempt and the symbolic violence that persists in the sugar mills of northern Argentina. The end of the 2025 harvest season at Ingenio Ledesma in Jujuy was marked by an outrageous incident. The performance, far from being a simple symbolic ritual, generated outrage and astonishment among those present. Far from being an 'innocent performance,' the act was interpreted as a display of contempt for the workers, especially in a context of mass layoffs and growing labor conflict. During the ceremony to close the harvest, the company staged a scene simulating the death of a worker trapped in a machine. In that monstrous figure, half-dog and half-demon, the people condensed their memory of centuries of exploitation.
