A sudden shutdown across the network
Buenos Aires commuters were caught off guard on Tuesday when a strike brought the entire subway system and the Premetro to a standstill. The action covered lines A, B, C, D, E and H along with the light-rail Premetro, and by the time of reporting no one had said when service would resume. The walkout followed the detention of union representatives during a protest at a station on Line B.[S1][S2]
According to the AGTSyP, the subway workers' union, the detentions took place as employees were lifting turnstiles and opening emergency doors to begin a measure. The union identified three detained representatives: Néstor Segovia, Claudio Dellecarbonara and Facundo Heredia. Two of them were seized by police at the scene, the union said, while the arrests were ordered by the Unidad de Flagrancia Norte.[S2]
The police intervention occurred at the Juan Manuel de Rosas terminus of Line B, where delegates had planned to carry out the turnstile action. Personnel from the subway division detained Facundo Heredia and Claudio Dellecarbonara, who were brought down, handcuffed and taken to a police facility after a struggle. Official sources said the arrests responded to a direct request from the UFLA Norte, headed by prosecutor Celsa Ramírez.[S1]
Union anger and stranded passengers
As officers held him, Dellecarbonara criticized the police operation, saying the union was defending workers' rights and that he was being arrested for denouncing threats to those rights. Before his detention, he had posted a video on X describing the scene at Rosas station, saying it was around 8 a.m., that police had surrounded the area and that they wanted to take one of the delegates under a prosecutor's order.[S1][S2]
In the same video, the Line B delegate argued that workers may organize, protest and carry out measures protected by the Constitution, and said they would defend that right. After footage of the arrest spread online, political and union figures demanded the immediate release of the delegates, describing them as detained at their workplaces for exercising constitutional rights to protest and strike.[S1][S2]
The abrupt halt hit riders hard. At stations such as Carlos Gardel, trains were evacuated, and one passenger said the driver explained that two workers had been detained. Others expressed anger and frustration at being unable to reach their jobs on time as security forces deployed across the network.[S1]
