A leftist political activist taking part in a protest days before national primary elections in Argentina died of a heart attack that he suffered while being detained by police Thursday, authorities said.
Video posted on the Instagram account of Susana Maresca, an independent photojournalist, shows Buenos Aires city police pinning the man face down on the pavement when Maresca starts yelling: 鈥淗e鈥檚 purple! He鈥檚 purple! He鈥檚 going to suffer an attack. He鈥檚 purple!鈥
The video shows officers then turning the unresponsive man over and performing CPR on him before he was taken to a hospital. He later died, the city government said in a statement.
鈥淭he causes of the death are related to a cardiac arrest resulting from risk factors,鈥 the statement said. It described the man as being 鈥渂etween 40 and 45 years old鈥 but did not name him because he did not have a document on him.
People at the scene identified the victim as Facundo Molares, a leftist activist who was part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, for 15 years and who now worked as a photographer for alternative media. The FARC reached a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016.
Police detained the man and several others near the capital鈥檚 iconic Obelisk as they tried to disperse the protest that had been called by several left-wing groups.
The death could spark anger ahead of the primaries Sunday in which Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodr铆guez Larreta is one of the top two contenders to become the presidential candidate of the main opposition coalition.
鈥淚 want to highlight and fully support the actions of the city police, who acted professionally in containing the acts of violence,鈥 the mayor said in a statement posted on social media.
The city Security and Justice Minister Eugenio Burzaco said in an interview with local channel Am茅rica that when police tried to disperse protesters, the demonstrators responded 鈥渨ith sticks.鈥
鈥淔ollowing that, the police detained five aggressors, and after a few minutes, one of them began to experience a cardiac and respiratory arrest,鈥 Burzaco said.
Human rights groups criticized the action by police as well as the response by officials.
鈥淭he city government, even before any judicial investigation could take place, rushed to establish a narrative that seeks to claim that Facundo鈥檚 death resulted from causes unrelated to the operative,鈥 wrote the Center for Legal and Social Studies.
The protesters denied they tried to block the street or did anything to provoke police.
鈥淲e gathered to hold an assembly with our colleagues to discuss the country鈥檚 situation ... we don鈥檛 know why (the police intervened). We didn鈥檛 do anything, we didn鈥檛 block the street. We weren鈥檛 violent, we didn鈥檛 do anything,鈥 said one activist, Delia Delgado from the Teresa Rodr铆guez organization.
Protests against the police continued late into the night in downtown Buenos Aires Thursday.
Molares moved to the Colombian jungle in the early 2000s where he took on the role of political organizer, among other tasks, for the FARC, he said in a recent interview with Argentina's state-run news agency T茅lam. He was arrested in November 2021 in Argentina due to an international arrest warrant issued by Colombia which accused him of the 2009 kidnapping of a local politician.
Molares spent almost eight months behind bars in Argentina until Colombia's extradition request was denied.
The death came as Argentines were reeling from the killing of an 11-year-old girl Wednesday during a snatch-and-grab robbery in a Buenos Aires suburb. Her death led all major political coalitions to cancel their final campaign rallies ahead of Sunday鈥檚 vote.
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Associated Press writer D茅bora Rey contributed to this report.
