República Cromañón

Graffiti in memory of the 194 victims of the disco fire

-34.609166666667 -58.409722222222Coordinates: 34 ° 36 ′ 33 ″ S , 58 ° 24 ′ 35 ″ W

República Cromañón

República Cromañón ( Spanish for 'Republic of the Cro-Magnon Man ') was a nightclub in the Barrio Balvanera of Buenos Aires , Argentina , in which 194 people and around 700 were killed in a fire in the late evening hours of December 30, 2004 were injured. The accident is one of the most serious discotheque fires in the world and had political consequences in Buenos Aires and all of Argentina: Mayor Aníbal Ibarra was held responsible for the incident and was suspended from duty in 2006.

background

At the time of the accident, the rock band Callejeros was playing in the bar as part of a New Year's event. According to various reports, at least 2,811 people were present, although the discotheque was actually only approved for 1,300 visitors. The structure of the discotheque, which had a fabric-draped balcony on part of the area, and the fact that an important emergency exit was locked was particularly fatal.

Course of the accident

The Callejeros concert was initially uneventful until, according to reports, a 10-year-old child lit a Bengali light , which up until that point was not uncommon at Argentinian rock concerts. After a short time, the fire of the luminous element jumped over to the roof structure of the discotheque and spread to the upper floor. Panic quickly spread among those present who were trying to leave the bar in a hurry.

Heat, smoke, the formation of carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances from the burning curtain, as well as dwindling oxygen caused a huge chaos under these circumstances and hindered the quickly called fire brigade and the emergency doctors at work. When the power went out after a short time, there was a mass panic in which several visitors died of crushing, especially those who had tried to escape through exits behind the stage. Although most of the visitors finally escaped unscathed, around 150 people lost their lives in the discotheque, most of them due to poisoning. The other fatalities died as a result of their severe burn injuries in the hospital, some months later.

Reactions

The public reacted with horror to the incident, and it became the dominant headline in the Argentine media on December 31, 2004 and in the days thereafter. Very early on, various people were blamed for this most serious accident in the recent history of Argentina . Among them were initially the owner of the discotheque, the artist and businessman Omar Chabán , but also the bouncers who were present during the night . Finally, the mayor's office under Aníbal Ibarra was also heavily criticized, as it should never have given a discotheque in such conditions an opening permit. Some tabloid media showed overreactions: They described the accident as a Cro-Magnon massacre and demanded severe penalties for those responsible and the resignation of the mayor.

President Néstor Kirchner ordered a three-day state mourning . In addition to the flag at half-mast, the conditions also included the ban on any dance events in the city of Buenos Aires during this period, which also included the actual New Year's Eve. The mayor's office also ordered that all nightclubs in the city had to remain closed until further notice, until a review by the city inspectors allowed them to reopen.

An arrest warrant was issued against the discotheque owner Omar Chabán, the security chief of the discotheque and the management of the Callejeros band on the grounds that the tragedy was caused by the locked emergency exit, the overcrowding of the discotheque and the tolerance of fireworks such as Bengali lights. Chabán was arrested the next day in Buenos Aires and charged with multiple manslaughter .

consequences

The accident had numerous political and social consequences in the South American country that had just escaped the severe economic crisis around the turn of the millennium .

Protest movement

In Buenos Aires, grieving parents and relatives of the victims as well as like-minded people founded numerous protest groups, which loudly demanded “justice” in several demonstrations in the following days: The discotheque owner should receive a harsh sentence, the officials responsible for checking the discotheques and the mayor Aníbal were dismissed Ibarra resign and, according to some, even be arrested. For these groups, Ibarra was actually responsible for the incident as they believed he had done nothing to address the corruption in the nighttime entertainment exam system. Some groups claimed that Chabán illegally "bought" the license for the discotheque with the help of bribes to the inspectors. In the further course it emerged that the fire brigade's permission to open the discotheque had already expired at the time of the concert and should actually have been renewed, but the allegations of bribery could not be confirmed.

The groups also focused on the rock band Callejeros: They should have encouraged their fans to light Bengali lights and were involved in the event as complicit and therefore also responsible for the tragedy. The band was subsequently also charged with negligent homicide. However, a small counter-movement soon formed among the victims' families, which Ibarra and Callejeros supported and only demanded that Chabán be arrested immediately.

The Argentine public and media reaction to this protest movement was divided. The more radical demands such as the band's indictment were supported above all by more conservative-right circles, but many others described these demands as completely exaggerated, especially when the initial reactions had cooled off a bit.

When Chabán was temporarily released on bail in May 2005, the protesters besieged the businessman's whereabouts, including acts of violence.

Political Consequences

Ibarra was ultimately put on political trial for irresponsible administration . At the end of 2005, the city council of Buenos Aires confirmed that the process was legitimate. As a consequence, the mayor was given leave of absence and his previous deputy mayor Jorge Telerman was appointed as deputy . In March 2006, Ibarra was suspended from duty by the city council by a narrow two-thirds majority after the trial ruled that he was politically responsible for the accident.

Ibarra defended himself against the allegations with the argument that it was an accident that could not have been prevented by political means. In one of his speeches in the political process before the city council, he mentioned several other accidents and tragedies in which there had also been no culprits.

Law tightening

Another consequence was the tightening of security legislation for restaurants and other public buildings in Buenos Aires. This involved a review of many companies. Numerous restaurants and venues, as well as museums and government buildings, had to be adapted to the new fire protection regulations. In the case of the discotheques, these were systematically checked before some of them were only allowed to reopen after a delay of several months. In many cases, the maximum capacity allowed has been drastically reduced.

In other cities, the fire protection laws have also been tightened, accompanied in some cases by further restrictions that had less to do with the safety of the establishments (e.g. ban on alcohol from certain times, tightening of curfew hours).

Critics complain that these tightening of the law were in principle unnecessary; it would have been enough to properly apply and control the existing laws to prevent tragedies like that of Cromañón. So it was just populist activism by the Ibarra government and other city governments.

Court hearing

The operator of the discotheque, Omar Chabán, was initially charged with manslaughter, later the charges were reduced to deliberately endangering 194 people with fatal outcome , which slightly reduced the sentence (to eight to 20 years in prison), but not the expectations of the defense Chabáns, who had called for it to be converted into negligent homicide . On August 19, 2009, Chabán was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Chabán died on November 17, 2014 from Hodgkin's lymphoma .

The band's manager, Diego Argañaraz, and police commissioner Carlos Díaz were sentenced to 18 years, with other defendants receiving lesser sentences.

The other detainees (including the band Callejeros) had been released since the beginning of the trial, as they had only been charged with negligent homicide. The band members were acquitted.