Buenos Aires Weather | ‘Racism, machismo and classism’ evident in Bez Sosa murder, sociologists say

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The shocking story of young Fernando Bez Sosa being beaten to death by eight young rugby players has opened up old wounds and shed light on class, race and gender discrimination in Argentine society.

Eight friends, now aged 21 to 23, face life in prison if convicted of the premeditated murder of Fernando Bez Sosa three years ago in the notorious resort town of Villa Gesell.

The trial is ongoing in Dolores and has gripped the nation, much like the original murder which sparked protests in several cities. With the exception of runaway inflation (95% in 2022), there is hardly anything more relevant in Argentina.

In the early hours of January 18, 2020, a fight broke out at a nightclub in Villa Gesell, a seaside town popular with young people.

After those involved were kicked out of the club, their feud continued on the streets, but Bez Sosa, then 18, found himself isolated from his friends and surrounded by the eight defendants, who beat him so violently that he died of his injuries.

The attack was videotaped via multiple sources, including from a mobile phone belonging to the attackers, and corroborated in WhatsApp chat messages. There is also a wealth of DNA and blood evidence.

The trial began three weeks ago. Some defendants even denied hitting Bez Sosa. The question of who, or what, exactly was responsible for the 18-year-old’s death has inflamed debates on social media.

“The class question plays an important role in this case. Most rubgiers come from wealthy families in rural towns,” in this case Zrate, 90 kilometers north of the capital, said sociologist Guillermo Levy, a professor at the universities in Buenos. Aires and Avellaneda.

Prosecutors and plaintiffs requested life imprisonment for the eight defendants, as “co-authors of the crime of doubly aggravated homicide”, which they describe as premeditated.

Some have pointed the finger at rugby itself and the culture that surrounds it.

“It’s true that it’s a cocktail of violence, racism, machismo, alcohol, etc. But I’m going to add the rugby training component,” said Facundo Sassone, a sociologist at the university. of San Martn who is also junior rugby. coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima de Ituzaing, told AFP.

He said the “herd” mentality fostered in a team environment had a part to play.

“Rugby Values”

For all its positive publicity as a sport where respect and camaraderie are integral, rugby has a dark side in which gratuitous violence, and sometimes deeply inappropriate pranks, are commonplace and unchallenged.

“If we…say it’s a sport of values ​​and friendship, why has it failed?” asked Sassonne.

“Certain issues may be misunderstood by rugby players and may generate situations of violence off the pitch.”

Some former professional players have spoken about this.

Former Argentina captain Agustn Pichot was one of the people to get into his sport after meeting Bez Sosa’s family in 2021.

He said rugby had “normalized bad things” by not “differentiating right from wrong” in some of the practices that have developed in and around the sport.

Rugby has no monopoly on violence by any means barely a year goes by without a death linked to clashes between rival football fans occurring, while alcohol-fueled brawls outside nightclubs are commonplace.

It is a minority sport in Argentina, whose popularity has nothing to do with football.

But it stands out because it is traditionally played and watched by a wealthy elite.

And that’s why this case captured the public imagination in a way that inter-poor violence wouldn’t, said sociologist and writer Alejandro Seselovsky.

The rich white “killing is like ‘a man bit a dog,’ it’s newsworthy,” Seselovsky said.

Need to think

The racial aspect of this murder also forces Argentine society to confront an awkward truth that it prefers to sweep under the rug.

According to eyewitnesses, the defendants called Bez Sosa, whose parents, a bricklayer and an orderly, are both Paraguayan immigrants, a “shitty black” (“Negro de mierda, mtenlo!”) while beating him.

“You can’t escape the reference to Fernando’s blackness in the assault,” sociologist Sebastian Bruno, an immigration specialist, told AFP.

The “racism and classism” are evident, Bruno said, although Levy stresses that “doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have attacked him if he wasn’t” Paraguayan.

In a country where the majority of the population is drawn from white Europeans, mainly from Spain, Italy or Germany, the term “black” has been widely used to describe natives or migrants from neighboring countries considered to be inferiors, said Bruno.

“We have to think about the company that produced this,” Levy said.

Lawyer Hugo Tomei, who defends the defendants, who played rugby in a Zrate club, asked for their “acquittal”. He argued that the alleged “plan of murder” and who the perpetrators of the crime “could not be proven”.

“The thinking should be about the society that’s producing this, not whether they’re crazy, if they’re psychopaths, because that’s where we’re wrong,” Levy said.

The Buenos Aires Rugby Union has held after-the-crime workshops to re-educate young players who have been trained to act in groups and with violence in the face of aggression.

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