A former member of Batallón 601, Rubén Osvaldo Bufano has been managing security tasks for Barrick Gold in Veladero oilfield in the Argentinian province of San Juan since 2006. Union leaders and professionals of San Juan have confirmed this. Bufano was involved in the kidnapping and dissapareance of writer Haroldo Conti.

One of the pending tasks of the national government is, precisely, mining policy. For some reason, the selling of Argentinian oilfields has continued, without any sort of change since the time when president Menem was in office- main responsible for the legislation that favours multinational corporations-.

This is a very serious issue, even though government institutions are trying to minimize it and it is happening in many places in our country. In many of those cases under debatable agreements that allow mining companies to operate outside the country´s laws. There are many examples and it would be difficult to say something that applies to them all. But, there are no doubts that these companies have the tendency to tranform their licenses into private properties. This is a situation that has generated controversy and has sparked violence.

In some cases, this tendency combined with surveillance, is alarming. Not only because of the violent events, which resulted in people getting hurt, but also because of the behaviour that these companies have shown. Now this information cames through the independent media since, mainstream media hardly ever discuss this issues, and we know that a former member of the famous Batallón 601, Rubén Osvaldo Bufano, has been the chief of security at Barrick Gold since 2006 in Veladero oilfield, in San Juan. Union leaders and professionals of San Juan have confirmed this. Bufano was involved in the kidnapping and dissapareance of writer Haroldo Conti. He is also accused of participating in the so- called Fatima Massacre, in the city of Pilar, Buenos Aires province.

According to the data that appears in the case, Bufano pretended to be chased and asked Conti for help and then turn him in to the military who raid his house. In an attempt to account for his actions, Bufano, stated in an interview for a Cuyo newspaper some years ago. “The Argentinian army gave me solid training on security and inteliigence. They taught me everything I know, I owe them my life. Denying that past, would be the same as denying my whole life." Bufano first came to the province with the help of former official Jorge Escobar and created a security company which received favours from the government.

Human rights organizations in San Juan keep on saying that the cheap workforce that is working for the company is, in fact, the province police. This means that public security is actually serving the interests of the multinational corporation. This situation is not only happening in San Juan, but in Catamarca, Chile and Peru, as well. But this kind of experts are the ones in charge of the surveillance, the telephone tappings, and the threats that we have suffered.” Bufano´s cover job in this kind of activity coincides with how the company handles private security issues. One of their main concerns is to dismantle environmentalist groups that have emerged as a consequence of their actions.

Bufano, now in its role as bussinessman has tried to teach a class on "Intelligence and Security" at nothing less than the Catholic University of San Juan. If this were to happen, it would certainly not help this academic institution to have such a character in its faculty.

http://www.laarena.com.ar/opinion-mano_de_obra_sucia_y_vigente-56981-111.html