MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine national stabbed in Bolivia dies after being denied medical attention

“My son died on the hospital sidewalk,” Rosales' mother told Neuquén media

The death of an Argentine national in Bolivia after being denied medical attention has sparked nationalistic anger and calls for retribution measures, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

A 35-year-old man from Neuquén was stabbed and died on the sidewalk in front of a hospital in the city of Oruro where he was not admitted, his mother claimed.

Walter Matías Rosales, had arrived in town a day ago with his partner. After that, he met a Colombian man with whom he went shopping at a grocery store and later returned badly wounded to the hotel where he was staying. Once there, he barely managed to tell his girlfriend that he had been stabbed and then fainted.

He was then rushed to a hospital where he was seen by a doctor and two nurses, who told his girlfriend that they would not treat him, Rosales' girlfriend was quoted as saying.

“My son arrived with vital signs and they left him on the sidewalk, he died on the hospital sidewalk,” Rosales' mother -named Karina- was quoted as saying by the LM Neuquén website. The victim's mother also said that Rosales was mistreated by the medical staff while he was being transferred by ambulance from the hotel to the health center.

According to Karina, her son's killer was the Colombian citizen with whom he had gone shopping and who is being currently traced by the police.

Rosales was a member of the organization Ni Un Pibe Menos por la Droga (Not One Kid Less Because of Drugs) in Neuquén. He had an 11-year-old son. He was a musician, as well as a bricklayer.

“He was drinking mate with his girlfriend on the sidewalk when a Colombian man approached him to chat for a while and left. This man came back nervous two hours later and invited my son to go shopping at a nearby grocery store,” the mother also told Neuquén's Radio 7.

She also claimed that a doctor and two nurses told Florencia, her son's girlfriend, that they were not going to be able to treat him.

“'You Argentines know that this happened to him for a reason,' the ambulance driver told them. The doctor told him that he was not going to touch him because he was already dead, that is discrimination, they did not give assistance to my son, and they abandoned him and that is why he died,” said the woman.

Matias' body will undergo an autopsy and the Argentine Embassy is helping the family bring it to Neuquén for burial.

In this scenario, scores of angry Argentines called on social media for local authorities to reciprocate against Bolivian nationals and deny all of them medical attention as well as access to university studies, particularly medical schools.