Kirchnerist violence: He broke a man's jaw, believing he was a supporter of Milei

A few days before the legislative elections in the province of Buenos Aires, last Thursday the city of Baradero was the scene of a new and deplorable case of Kirchnerist political violence, a phenomenon that shows a worrying increase in the midst of the electoral campaign.

That day, Thomas Hidalgo, who had just lost his job, was at the intersection of Provincial Route 41 and Lugones intending to place a sign in the public thoroughfare to promote the blacksmithing business he had started with a friend. At that moment, he unexpectedly ran into Leonardo Bagalá, Baradero councilman for Fuerza Patria and current candidate for a second term.

According to the account Hidalgo gave this morning in an interview with Radio Mitre, Bagalá got out of his vehicle and approached him aggressively, believing he was a supporter of La Libertad Avanza. "There was an exchange of words, but my friend and I finished putting up the sign and we went home," he explained.

However, about ten minutes later, when he was already at home and thought the incident would be left in the past, he received another unexpected visit: it was Lucio Bagalá, the Kirchnerist councilman's son.

The Kirchnerist's attack

"Take it –my friend tells me–, they're looking for you." This councilman lives five blocks from my house. I go out and I recognize him as the son. I go out to talk and I say: "Look...," I say. And he says: "What problem do you have with my dad?" To which I say: "I have no problem with your dad. He just stopped by in the car...". Well, he didn't let me explain and punched me and broke my jaw," the victim recounted in the radio interview.

The footage recorded by the security camera that Thomas had installed at the entrance of his house clearly shows the violence of the attack he suffered. With almost no words exchanged, the councilman from Fuerza Patria's son, who was wearing a blue and white cap, a light blue t-jersey, and jeans, punched him twice in the face, causing the neighbor to collapse at the entrance to his home.

Far from stopping, the striker leaned over Thomas, who was lying on the ground unable to defend himself, and threatened him again for something he had, in fact, never done.

As a result of the brutal episode, the blacksmith lost consciousness, while the Kirchnerist striker fled the scene without offering help. Hidalgo suffered a broken jaw and other injuries to the bones in his face, so this Monday he remained hospitalized at Modelo Hospital, in the Buenos Aires district of Vicente López, where he had been transferred from Baradero to undergo facial surgery.

Father of three children, two 4-year-old twins and a 7-year-old boy, Thomas recorded a video from the rehabilitation room in which he recounted what had happened. "All this happened to me for trying to work, for trying to make an honest living. This is not just violence against me, it's violence against the right of any person to live in peace, to express themselves, and to get ahead through their own efforts," he said.

In that same message he added: "I ask for justice. Not just for me, but so that no one else in Baradero or anywhere in the country ends up in a hospital because of a misunderstanding and the violence of others."