Facundo Iglesia 
Candidates from the ruling and opposition coalitions suspended their closing campaign rallies for Sunday’s primaries due to the death of an 11-year-old girl in Lanús, Buenos Aires province. At 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Morena Domínguez died after thieves on a motorbike stole her belongings — she fell to the ground and hit her head during the attack, police said. The crime was caught by security cameras.
The mayor of Lanús, Néstor Grindetti, is one of Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) Buenos Aires gubernatorial candidates for the primaries. He was scheduled to hold his closing event in the Lanús Microestadio stadium on Thursday, together with presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich, who supports his bid.
“Another unfortunate insecurity incident that shocks and saddens us terribly,” Grindetti wrote on Twitter. “We have to understand that the fight against crime has to be a state policy without ideologies or speculations.”
Diego Santilli, his candidate for Buenos Aires’ governor, also sent his condolences and demanded the Justice system to “act quickly to find these murderers and bring them to justice to the fullest extent of the law.”
Juan Pablo Arenaza, one of the coordinators of the JxC campaign, confirmed via Twitter that the coalition “decided to suspend the closing act of the campaign in the Province of Buenos Aires” due to “the sad facts of public knowledge.”
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Both Unión por la Patria (UxP) presidential candidates for the primaries, Sergio Massa and Juan Grabois, also suspended their closing campaign events. The suspension of Massa’s rally, which was scheduled for Thursday in the Teatro Argentino in La Plata, was confirmed on Twitter. A spokesperson told the Herald that Grabois also postponed his closing event scheduled for Wednesday in the Malvinas Argentinas stadium in Buenos Aires City.
Peronist Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof also suspended the closing event for his reelection campaign, which was scheduled for today in Merlo. “In the face of this tragedy, the provincial government is coordinating tasks and efforts with the Lanús government,” he said in a letter published on social media.
“Nothing will bring back Morena’s life, but this heinous crime will not remain unpunished.”
“An unlivable country”
Both Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) presidential candidates tweeted about Morena’s death. “We cannot go on living with so much anguish and fear. This cannot stand,” Patricia Bullrich said on Twitter. “They have transformed Argentina into an unlivable country.”
Buenos Aires City Horacio Rodríguez Larreta sent his “condolences” to Morena’s family and loved ones. “We need justice. I will accompany them to demand it,” he said.
Diego Kravetz, Grindetti’s chief of Staff and candidate for Lanús’ Mayor, published a letter where he said that he had detained a thief in a motorbike one month earlier “in that very neighborhood.”
“Guys, let’s see if we understand where reality is coming from,” he said.
Libertarian presidential hopeful Javier Milei also chimed in and held the “political class” responsible for Morena’s death, contending that established politicians caused “decades of putting the victims in the place of the victimizers, and the criminals in the place of the victims.” He said he will push a reform to “repress crime without hesitation”.
“Until murderers, rapists, and criminals know that committing a crime has direct consequences for their entire lives, we will continue to live under this scourge of insecurity,” Milei said.
Frente de Izquierda y los Trabajadores (FIT) candidate Myriam Bregman also decided not to hold her campaign’s closing rally scheduled for Thursday, saying on Twitter that “we stand in solidarity with Morena’s friends and family in face of the awful pain that they are going through.”
Another presidential candidate for the left-wing coalition, Gabriel Solano, rescheduled an event that was supposed to take place on Wednesday to Thursday at 5:00 p.m. in Plaza de Mayo.
“The suspension of Massa, Kicillof, and Bullrich-Grindetti campaign closing events is an act of demagoguery and cover-up of their responsibilities,” his campaign said in a statement.
