The takeover
The former Bauen employees met on the morning of March 21st at the corner of the hotel. They were not alone. About a hundred people accompanied them, convened by the National Movement of Recovered Businesses. There, they were advised that the purpose of the call was not to be paid money by the trustee, but to occupy the hotel. It was not a surprise or anything unimagineable to those who were not aware of the true plans, since after all, it was what they had been talking about in prior meetings. Although, Arminda supposes, “if he (Murúa) told us the reality of things, we would not have come, because your family is not going to let you take risks.”
The date was not random. The MNER had reports that the information about the intentions to occupy the hotel already had reached Iurcovich. “We had to take over the hotel that day, no matter what, because the owner had already found out, and before he warned the police, we had to do it,” continues Arminda. Murúa told them, she says, that was “now or never.” It was the decisive moment, and the MNER had managed to anticipate to any repression on the part of the bosses.
The front entrnce on Callao avenue was totally boarded up, which is why, since workers knew about the passage between the BAUEN Suite and the Bauen Tower, they decided enter by the least expected place, which is to say, through the interior of the establishment that still working and in the hands of the Iurcoviches—the BAUEN Suite. The whole group went to the door on Corrientes, to the surprise of employees of the Bauen Suite, using the old employee entrance (Arminda says that, before, all workers, whether they worked in one tower or the other, entered there) and found themselves in the corridor that connects both buildings, closed with a simple door with a small lock. And she continues explaining:
It was at that moment [continues Arminda] that the people who most supported all of us and the workers here at the Bauen entered on Corrientes (…). It was a little lock. They opened the lock, and we went inside. It was such joy –we walked into the lobby– when we saw that the power was on! Obviously, we didn’t think we were going to have power. So, we hugged each other, we started to cry. They [the MNER activists] are so practical…! They opened the door, a tiny, little door because that everything was boarded up, everything was totally boarded up. They opened a door and well, at that point, you see that all the TV stations and journalists had already been notified. It was endless people!