The photojournalist Pablo Grillo d left the intensive care unit (ICU) this Thursday, eight months after being shot by a tear gas grenade fired by a gendarme of the Argentine State during a protest by retirees in Buenos Aires. Grillo was transferred this morning to the Manuel Rocca Rehabilitation Hospital, located in the city of Buenos Aires, to continue his treatment there, after undergoing his eighth surgical intervention on November 4, according to his family confirmed to EFE. The photojournalist was hit in the head by a tear gas grenade fired by the Argentine gendarme Héctor Guerrero, on March 12, 2025, just minutes after the start of a pensioners’ protest in Buenos Aires.
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On October 7th, the Argentine Justice system indicted Guerrero and seized assets from him for the sum of 203 million pesos ($139,000).
The judge in charge of the case, María Servini, found it proven that the gendarme was the one who fired the tear gas grenade that seriously injured Grillo, that he did so horizontally and against regulations, “knowing that his actions could put at risk the physical integrity of any of the people who were in front of him, or even their lives,” according to the ruling, which EFE accessed. In her ruling, the magistrate dismissed the argument offered by Guerrero in his investigative statement about his difficulty in observing the protesters during the episode. Furthermore, his investigation revealed that during the actions of the security forces on March 12, the corporal fired at the protesters another five times in an irregular manner and highlighted that the corporal was trained and equipped to fire this type of weapon. The incident took place during a demonstration demanding better conditions for the country’s retirees in the South American country. Days after that day, which ended with 46 protesters injured and 124 arrested, the Minister of National Security, Patricia Bullrich, defended the police action and assured that Guerrero had fired in the direction of the sky, at a 45-degree angle.
