The Ramallo massacre occurred on September 17, 1999, in Villa Ramallo, in northern Buenos Aires Province,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, when three armed robbers broke into the local offices of the Banco de la Nación Argentina, taking six hostages. After several hours, they tried to escape in a car, using the bank manager and an accountant as human shields, and holding the manager's wife. A few meters ahead, a special group of the provincial police, the GEO, killed one of the suspects and the two hostages. Another suspect, Martín Saldaña, was found hanged in his cell just hours after the

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

; though it was assumed that he had committed suicide, in January 2007 new research showed that he had been murdered, possibly by first hitting him in the head, rendering him unconscious, and then strangling him. Doubts about the police behaviour arose after the whole country saw footage of the police special unit deliberately shooting the car with hostages inside. After the massacre, several government officials blamed the media coverage for the tragic outcome, accusing journalists of an unprofessional treatment of the news. The provincial governor Eduardo Duhalde claimed that negotiations may have been negatively affected by the police constant communication with radio and television reporters. On October 17, 1999, the Secretary of Justice and Security Buenos Aires,

Carlos Soria Carlos Ernesto Soria (March 1, 1949January 1, 2012) was an Argentine lawyer and Justicialist Party politician. He died in the early hours of January 1, 2012, from a gunshot wound, at his farm, after the New Year celebrations. Soria was the govern ...

, confirmed that police had acted as accomplices of the thieves who robbed the National Bank of Villa Ramallo, a fact which preceded the slaughter of two hostages and a criminal during the escape attempt. "There is, unfortunately, and as we all imagined, some police personnel directly involved," Soria told Radio América, Telam reported.

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