Social leader Juan Grabois was the protagonist of a scandal this morning at the Ezeiza International Airport. The former presidential candidate was insulted and booed by people who were at the station upon returning from the capital of Italy, Rome, where he had traveled to participate in an activity with Pope Francis.
According to several videos that went viral on social media, Grabois “stood up” to the questions. In front of people who accused him of being a “thief,” the lawyer and popular activist repeatedly answered: “Who did I steal from, ma’am? Who did I steal from?” In the background, other voices could be heard replying “the poor.”
The tension began in the arrivals terminal and then moved to the parking lot, where some people were heard shouting: “Go to work.” The leader close to Francis replied: “Go to work yourself, I have no shame.” Then, a man approached the car that Grabois was getting into to leave the airport and reproached him: “Nobody voted for you, you went to lie to the Pope, you didn’t tell him the truth about anything.”
Personnel from the Airport Security Police (PSA) intervened and stood between Grabois and the people who were insulting him to avoid a physical confrontation. Finally, Grabois spoke on social media about the episode: “Keep trying, you will never kick me out of any airport, you will never silence me, we will never give up.”
Grabois was in Italy last week. On Friday, he participated in an activity at the Vatican convened by Francis along with other social leaders from the region. At that meeting, the Pope spoke with a new harshness about the situation in Argentina by openly questioning the national government for the use of pepper spray in a demonstration held against the presidential veto of the retirement mobility law.
“They showed me a video of a repression that took place a week ago, maybe less. Workers, people who were demanding their rights in the street and the police were repelling them with something that is the most expensive there is, that top-quality pepper spray. They had no right to demand what was theirs because they were rioters, communists… and the government stood firm: instead of paying for social justice, it paid for the pepper spray. It suited them. Keep that in mind,” said Francisco.
He also denounced a case of corruption, although he did not specify whether it happened during Javier Milei’s government or in previous administrations. “An international entrepreneur told me that he was making some investments in Argentina to expand what they were carrying out, that they work very well and it was an agreement. He went to present a new plan for new extensions to the minister, the minister treated him very well and said ‘leave it with me, they will call you…’” he continued. “The next day, the minister’s secretary called him, told him if he could come ‘in two days, so we can give you the permit’. He came, gave him the papers and the signature… and when he (the entrepreneur) was about to get up, he said: and for us, how much?… And for us, how much? The bribe. The devil enters through the pocket, don’t forget.”
There was also explicit public support from the Pope for Grabois for the land seizure carried out in 2020 in Entre Ríos on a farm belonging to the family of former Minister of Agriculture Luis Etchevehere.
This is not the first time that Grabois has experienced a bad moment in Ezeiza. In 2022, he was “exposed” in the Immigration area upon returning from another visit to Francisco, whom he sees often. In one of the recordings that went viral of that incident, the leader spoke directly to one of the people who heckled him and asked his name: “You know my name and I don’t know yours. What’s your name? You don’t dare say your name. You’re a s….”
“Do you know what the difference is between you and us? We have courage,” he is heard saying. “I have never stolen anything from anyone. I have worked all my life,” Grabois added, in a tense scene that forced the PSA to intervene again.
“I was defending myself from around twenty people who began to defame me at Immigration. I will not accept that ideological hatred is used to suppress and intimidate any leader of any party or organization, and I claim the right to defend myself against any form of group aggression, physical or verbal,” the social activist said in a press release released after the confrontation.
Something similar happened in November 2023, when a woman started filming him and asking him “Where are you coming from?” “No, I’m leaving,” responded the leader of the Frente Patria Grande in response to insults from his interlocutor, who repeated: “You ruined the country with Cristina, son of a bitch, I’m going to put you on social media, you ruined the country with that daughter of a bitch.”
