Trial of police officer who sprayed tear gas on ten-year-old girl at pensioners' protest
Federal Police officer Cristian Rivaldi faces charges of abuse of authority and assault before federal judge Daniel Rafecas. The incident occurred on 11 September 2024 in Buenos Aires.
The trial over the tear gas attack on Fabrizia Pegoraro
Federal judge Daniel Rafecas began trying on Tuesday one of the most prominent cases of police repression recorded during Javier Milei's government, according to pagina12.com.ar. In the dock sits Cristian Rivaldi, an officer with Argentina's Federal Police (PFA), accused of spraying tear gas at a ten-year-old girl and her mother during a demonstration in support of pensioners.
The events of 11 September 2024
That day, Fabrizia Pegoraro and her mother, Carla Mariana Pegoraro, were sitting on Avenida Rivadavia when federal forces received an order to clear the roadway. Both were facing away when Rivaldi, 39, sprayed them with the chemical agent. The two had to receive medical attention in the vicinity of Congress. Fabrizia was later taken to Hospital Santa Lucía, where she was diagnosed with chemical conjunctivitis.
At the time of the incident, Rivaldi was working for DOUCAD, the PFA unit specialised in crowd control and public order during large gatherings.
The defence strategy and official version
During the course of the investigation, Rivaldi maintained that he had not noticed the presence of the girl or her mother. In his statement, he referred to an unidentified person who allegedly threw pepper spray and a man who attacked Gerardo Perillo Scampini, head of the PFA's Infantry Corps Department.
That defensive line aligned with the position adopted by the Government to explain the episode: claiming that the girl had been sprayed by someone outside federal forces. The then Security Minister, Patricia Bullrich, called Fabrizia's mother "irresponsible" for having taken her to the demonstration. Her deputy, Alejandra Monteoliva—current head of the portfolio—publicly stated that the assailant had been a woman dressed in orange, that is, a paramedic.
Those explanations did not hold up in the Comodoro Py courts. Rivaldi was charged and committed to trial. Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano accuses him of abuse of authority and minor assault against Fabrizia and her mother.
The accusation and allegedly violated regulations
In the request for trial, Taiano pointed out that Rivaldi acted excessively and without justification when mother and daughter were sitting without offering any resistance.
According to analysis based on available images, the officer would have violated regulations establishing that the use of chemical materials is only permissible in the face of imminent aggression. This conduct would have breached both the general regulations for the use of non-lethal weapons and the police training manual on the rational use of force.
Rivaldi would also have violated resolution 943/2023 of the Security Ministry—known as the "anti-protest protocol"—whose article 5 stipulates that officers must employ "the minimum force necessary and sufficient, with special attention and care in the presence of children, pregnant women or elderly people", in proportion to the resistance of the demonstrators.
Lawyer Gregorio Dalbón, representing Fabrizia and her mother, was categorical: "What is being tried is an individual decision by a public official who used state force against a girl and her mother who were not attacking anyone. What is not being tried is a police force or a security policy: what is being tried is a fact, and we are going to demand a conviction."
The context of repression during the Milei government
Statistics compiled by the Provincial Memory Commission (CPM) show that protest repression increased from the moment Milei arrived at the Casa Rosada. In 2024, 17 demonstrations were repressed and 1,216 people were injured. In 2025, violent interventions by security forces rose to 34 mobilisations, with 1,369 injured, a rise of 13 per cent. In March 2025 alone there were 789 people injured. On the 12th of that month was the day of greatest repressive deployment: the Gendarmerie left photographer Pablo Grillo on the brink of death.
The hearing and possible verdict
Rivaldi's defence offered two members of the security forces as witnesses. The prosecution, in contrast, will base its case on images and expert reports. According to Dalbón's explanation, it is possible that judge Rafecas will hand down a sentence in the course of the same hearing day.
Source: Google News AR — Crime