Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN
Video Credit: CEN
This is the moment political campaigners paint a poor dog in the bright green colours of their candidate and have now been fired because of the stunt.
The incident occurred in the Villa Amalia area of the city of Tucuman, in the northern Argentina province of the same name during a campaign for Carlos “Alito” Assan, who is running to be a provincial legislator, and his daughter, Sarita Assan, who is running to be a councillor.
In the video, a campaigner wearing green a t-shirt bearing the name of Sarita Assan can be seen painting a dog bright green.
Pictures Credit: CEN
A neighbour can be heard reprimanding the campaigners and the man with the paintbrush says: “It’s none of your business.”
The dog then runs away and a man, believed to be the person recording the video, says: “Macaco, Macaco, come here. Paint its paws a bit more.”
The dog then walks towards them and can be seen with pain all over its body and head.
The video was posted online and was brought to the attention of councillor candidate Sarita Assan who then wrote online: “We condemn this! Seeing what happened to Macaco, I called a team of vets to attend to the dog and it is in a perfect state of health. I also took the decision that as of now those who did this are not part of our team anymore. We reject any kind of violence or abuse of the defenceless.”
She also posted images of her with the dog’s owner, named as Isaias, and the pooch in the vet’s clinic with the message: “Isaias, we want to apologise to you and Macaco for what those people did who were obviously not following our orders and they are not working with us anymore. Macaco is well and we are happy with that.”
Carlos Assan leads a local Peronist party, meaning they follow the policies of former Argentine president Juan Peron, and both he and his daughter are running to represent the larger COPADE (Cooperation for the Democracy) party in office.
Peron was an Argentine Army general and politician who was elected President of Argentina three times, serving from June 1946 to September 1955, when he was overthrown in a coup d’etat, and then from October 1973 until his death in July 1974.
During his first presidential term Peron was supported by his second wife Eva Duarte – famously played by Madonna in Evita – and they were immensely popular among many Argentines. Duarte died in 1952, and Peron was elected to a second term, serving from 1952 until 1955.
During the following period of two military dictatorships the Peronist party was outlawed and Peron was exiled before returning in 1973.
