“What happened? Did Rexona abandon you?” on October 2, a gendarme sarcastically asked Maximiliano Ariel Acosta, a street vendor from Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires province. , who in just a few hours became famous as “the talc man”. He had been arrested a few minutes earlier at a border post in the province of Mendoza for carrying among his few belongings 18 bottles of powdered foot deodorant that the police had mistaken for cocaine.
“A lot of talc, not a lot of Efficient-e,” Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said into her long-distance microphone. But the Gendarmerie quickly discovered him thanks to his nervousness and his suspicious attitude. Our country’s security is one step ahead of criminals! He makes them, he pays for them. And he accompanied it with images of the cans as if they were a stash of drugs when in fact they were talcum powder.
What Maximiliano remembers from that moment is different. He says he wasn’t nervous and doesn’t believe he had a suspicious attitude. The only thing he wanted was to return home and reunite with his family after spending three months in the region undergoing treatment for alcoholism under the supervision of the NGO Remar.
At age 42, Acosta decided to seek treatment for his alcohol addiction. He requested help from the non-governmental organization whose modus operandi is to send those being treated to areas far from their environment to end ties that could be conflicting. Three months later, tired of being in Mendoza, he wanted to return to Mar del Plata. The money he had was barely enough to buy the ticket and he decided to resort to what he knew: street sales. Thanks to the NGO Remar, I had contact with a supplier of products to sell on the street. He called him and asked what he could do for him. The answer was talcum powder.
“The guy was selling talcum powder. I don’t know if it’s original or not, but the bottles have an expiration date of 2027. It brings you what it has, so I started selling it,” Maximiliano explained to elDiarioAR. Once in possession of the goods, he walked around Mendoza several times, undecided whether to spend a night in that province or take the first means of transportation that arrived. He went to a hostel, but found it “scary,” so he went to the terminal. He arrived at 7:20 p.m. and the next bus left at 8 p.m. “I didn’t have time to sell the powders, so I put them directly in my backpack and wanted to take them home,” he said.
145 kilometers from the city of Mendoza, the gendarmerie controlled the bus in which Acosta was traveling. They searched his belongings and found talcum powder. They thought it was cocaine. According to Maximiliano, they did some tests with reactive bulbs. They used several, only one changed color. Then, not being convinced of the result, they tried to strengthen the operation. “They called a truck with more bulbs to continue testing. Subsequently, no further tests came back positive. They just grabbed the first piece of evidence that came out, they didn’t let me do anything, or talk, or watch what they were doing. They called two witnesses, truck drivers, who asked to do everything quickly because they had to leave. They didn’t record, they took my cell phone and threatened me continuously, telling me that it was going to devour me for a few years,” he described.
“They were delighted. They were crazy and asked me if I was “Talco”. “They congratulated each other, they made jokes,” he added. “At the lab, I asked them what they were going to do when they found out it was talc, but they wouldn’t let me talk. At that point, they abruptly sat me down and tightened the handcuffs. “They made fun of me and even invited me to fight.”
Maximilien’s trip changed scenery several times in a few hours. From the side of the road to the cell phone, from the cell phone to the laboratory and from the laboratory to unit 32. “They released me suddenly, no prisoner wanted me because they said I was from Buenos Aires, when I told them that I was innocent, of course, some people didn’t like me, they thought. They could have done a lot of things to me, but thank God that didn’t happen. “I prepared for the worst,” he said.
21 days in jail and no excuses
After 21 days, Maximiliano learned that the talc was in fact not cocaine. The judge argued that “he could fail,” but according to Acosta, no one asked for forgiveness. He obtained his freedom, but remained imprisoned in Mendoza: his cell phone and the little money he had with him were under the control of the justice system and he could not withdraw them until the next day. This is how he left prison and found himself on the street, without his belongings, in solitary confinement or with a place to go. Another night of Maximiliano’s wandering. Finally, the justice system gave him a piece of paper, a sort of voucher, so that he could take a bus, but the route only led to Buenos Aires, so Maximiliano had to manage to get to Mar del Plata. This time he contacted his family, explained what had happened and they provided him with the necessary money.
Maximiliano has a partner and three children. In his house he has a small kiosk, which generates income which he supplements with some street sales. He would like to have another, more formal job, but so far he has not succeeded. His stay in Unit 32 was the first experience of his life in prison, as he said. It was traumatic for him and he is still trying to get over it. Thanks to the dynamics of the NGO, he is used to living in different regions of the country, in addition to being treated, he took advantage of this opportunity to travel and get to know him. Today, his dearest wish is to never return to Mendoza. “It was too much,” he said. “They treated me like a criminal. Especially the Gendarmerie. Bullrich scoffed, celebrated before knowing what the truth was and it was their mistake, but those who acted the worst were the gendarmes,” he insisted.
