Tiempo Argentino front page. Some rights reserved.In the early hours of Monday a mob of at least twenty people broke into the editorial offices of Tiempo Argentino in the neighbourhood of Palermo, Buenos Aires, attacking three employees and destroying equipment and documents, reported the workers of the Argentine newspaper. One of the attackers identified himself as Mariano Martínez Rojas, a businessman who claims to have purchased the newspaper, once owned by Sergio Szpolski and Matías Garfunkel. Tiempo Argentino became a cooperative initiative in April, when the workers decided to take over the title after five months without receiving their salaries.
There were several hours of tension for the workers who turned up in the offices, to defend their workplace under the rain. Several hours of listening to the mob destroy computers, servers, cables, the administrative area and even the workers' personal belongings. Meanwhile, outside, the police watched the events unfold without intervening. After several comings and goings, with the workers managing to break into their own offices using a side door and people running over the neighbouring roofs, the attackers left the place protected — ironically — by the police.
Later in the morning the workers managed to regain control of the offices, to find a harrowing scene: documents and cables scattered all over the place, broken masonry, and the powder from fire extinguishers poisoning an already rarefied air.
