Warning: this story contains images that some readers may find distressing

Argentina’s media community has voiced grave concern for Pablo Grillo, a photojournalist who remains hospitalized in critical condition after police shot a tear gas canister that fractured his skull during Wednesday’s protests.

Grillo, 35, is an independent photojournalist who was covering a protest by pensioners and football fans that ended in a harsh police crackdown. Video by radio station La Tribu shows him taking a photo of a burning dumpster outside Congress before a tear gas canister hits him and he falls to the ground.

He was rushed to the nearby Ramos Mejía Hospital, where he underwent surgery and remains in intensive care. Photos of him being stretchered into the ambulance showed him still clutching his camera.

The first medical report stated that Grillo suffered severe head trauma with several skull fractures and loss of brain mass. After the surgery, Grillo’s father, Fabián Grillo, told press outside the hospital that his son’s prognosis is reserved and critical. However, he highlighted that doctors were able to reduce the pressure in his brain and reconstruct some of the tissue.

“Yesterday’s operation saved his life,” Fabián told C5N TV station on Thursday, his voice thick with emotion. “What he’s going through now is potential recovery.” Pablo is now undergoing studies, he added.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona said the protest was organized by barrabravas (groups of often-violent football fans) who sparked the unrest. Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos told Radio Mitre on Thursday that Grillo’s situation is “very regrettable” and that the government will “try to establish what happened,” but added that protests “cause these kinds of unplanned accidents.”

“Police don’t shoot gas [canisters] at people, they shoot it so that it will fall near the rowdiest protesters to make them leave,” Francos said. 

‘We can’t normalize police violence’

On Thursday morning, the Association of Argentine Photojournalists (ARGRA, by its Spanish initials) held a press conference with the Buenos Aires Press Workers’ Union (SIPREBA) condemning Pablo’s shooting and demanding Bullrich’s resignation.

“We can’t normalize, tolerate or allow for police violence to be used in every protest, and for press to be the preferred target of the repressive forces each time,” said SIPREBA head, Agustín Lecchi. Several reporters also suffered rubber bullet injuries, he added. “Yesterday, they shot to kill. Something worse could have happened to any of the colleagues who were shot with rubber bullets.”

SIPREBA and ARGRA announced they would file a criminal complaint along with the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) rights watchdog, requesting an investigation into those responsible for yesterday’s crackdown against press workers. The complaint also targets Bullrich’s December 2023 anti-protest protocol.

The protocol reintroduced the use of gas-launching guns during police operations that had previously been banned, CELS’ Investigations director Marcela Perelman told the conference.

Perelman pointed out that tear gas guns are the weapon that killed school teacher Carlos Fuentealba during a 2007 protest in Neuquén. His case became emblematic of institutional violence in Argentina.

On Wednesday night, Bullrich mistakenly claimed in an interview with LN+ news channel that Pablo had been arrested and that he was a political candidate alongside Julián Álvarez, mayor of the Buenos Aires province district of Lanús.

Fabián said that the minister’s statements were incorrect, adding that his son in fact works at the Evita Hospital in Lanús. “He is also a photojournalist and travels a lot,” he said. Fabián plans to sue Bullrich and the police.