TRIP OF THEIR DREAMS SHATTERED BY TRAGEDY
They were childhood friends who met in high school and never lost touch. In the photo, taken just before they left Argentina for New York, they looped their arms around each other. They wore matching T-shirts. They smiled easily. They had no way of knowing that their lives were about to be gutted by a terror attack, and that five of them would never return The childhood friends from Argentina had been planning the trip to New York City for years.
The men all hailed from Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city, about 300 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires. As teenagers, they had bonded in the halls and classrooms of the Instituto Politecnico, a technical high school in Rosario, and graduated together from there in1987.
Through the decades — despite job changes, marriage, children, moves to farflung corners of the world — they remained close friends. And on Saturday, eight of the former classmates gathered to fly to the United States to celebrate their 30th graduation anniversary.
They were in their late 40s now, firmly in the realm of middle age. But as they posed for a photograph just before their departure, the old friends slung their arms over one another and grinned like schoolkids. They donned matching white T-shirts emblazoned with the same word: “LIBRE.” Free.
It is unclear when exactly they arrived in New York; they had planned to stop in Boston, to meet up with another former classmate. But what is certain is that on Tuesday — a beautiful, brisk fall afternoon in Manhattan — the men rode bicycles along a bike path flanking the Hudson River.
As they pedalled along the West Side Highway, a white rented Home Depot truck turned onto the path as well.
The truck would soon plow into a crowd of pedestrians and cyclists, killing at least eight people — including five of the Argentine men. At least one other former classmate from the group was injured.
The Home Depot truck would later careen into a small school bus, injuring four more inside, officials said.
After leaving behind a trail of chaos, the 29-year-old driver of the truck was shot and arrested by police, ending what authorities described as a terrorist attack. Officials said the suspected attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, left a note pledging his allegiance to Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saipov was believed to be a lone wolf who was “radicalized domestically” after moving to the United States from Uzbekistan six years ago.
“I’m still in shock. Never in our wildest imaginations did we think something like this could happen.” LUCIANO D’AMELIO FRIEND OF ARIEL ERLIJ
The brazen daytime attack, which took place less than 10 blocks from the World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial, sent shock waves through the city — but also thousands of miles away, as friends and family in Argentina coped with the sudden loss of five of their own.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry identified the five dead Argentine nationals as Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernan Ferruchi. The New York Police Department said all of the men were 47, except for Erlij, who was 48.
The others killed in the attack were identified by police as Darren Drake, 32, of New Milford, N.J.; Nicholas Cleves, 23, of New York; and Anne Laure Decadt, 31, of Belgium.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry said a sixth member of the group of friends from Rosario, Martin Ludovico Marro, suffered injuries and was hospitalized in the Presbyterian Hospital of Manhattan. He is in stable condition, the government said, citing medical officials.
“They were five young entrepreneurs, model citizens in Rosario society,” said Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, in Buenos Aires. “We all must stand together in the fight against terrorism.”
The mayor of Rosario declared flags to be flown at half-staff for three days of mourning, according to the city’s local newspaper, La Capital.
It was Erlij, 48, who had organized the reunion trip for the classmates, paying for those who couldn’t afford it, according to Mary Bensuley, a longtime family friend. Erlij was a well-known Argentine businessperson who owned Ivanar, an iron and steel works company.
“I can say the family has a great spirit of solidarity,” Bensuley told the Post. “Their trip was to mark the 30-year anniversary after graduation . . . They’re great people. They have a good economic position, and they were always offering to help.”
She described Erlij’s family as “devastated.” Like many Argentines on Wednesday, Bensuley was having a hard time processing the motivation for the attack.
“Here, everyone lives in peace, and religion has never been a big subject of conversation,” she said in a Facebook message. “There are big debates about politics and soccer, but religion? Not really. We’re Catholics and we have Jewish, atheist and Mormon friends. Muslim friends, too. Our pain is for the innocent and unjust deaths of people who have nothing to do with the craziness that brought people trapped by their fundamentalist ideas to cause such terrible damage.”
Erlij was at the airport in Rosario on Saturday, but did not depart with the group, instead catching up with the others in New York on a private flight the following day, according to the Argentine newspaper Clarin.
Erlij’s friend, Luciano D’Amelio, told the Washington Post he was successful and generous, a gym buff who made time for workouts despite his busy life. Erlij was Jewish, though his wife was not, D’Amelio said. The couple had three children, she said.
“I’m still in shock,” D’Amelio said in a Facebook message. “The incident really hit us. Never in our wildest imaginations did we think something like this could happen.”
Jose Lo Menzo, another one of Erlij’s friends, described him as an “excellent person and father” who was also very intelligent.
“(Erlij) studied in a public, middleclass school, and he managed to be- come a successful businessman, without forgetting about his friends,” he said. “It is a loss without meaning.”
At least two of the victims, Ferruchi and Angelini, were architects, according to La Nacion.
Ornee Pagnucco,18, one of the three daughters of victim Alejandro Pagnucco, told the Post the 48-year-old and his friends had been planning their reunion trip for more than a year. Alejandro Pagnucco worked for a construction materials company and had never travelled much, but he saw New York as iconic. Visiting the city, she said, had been his “dream.”
After her father left, he sent photos of his hotel room and selfies of him walking through New York’s streets, Ornee Pagnucco said. She added she knew terrorist attacks had happened there but never considered them a serious risk.
“We’re shattered,” she said. “It’s been really hard.”
Early Wednesday, a friend of Pagnucco posted a Facebook tribute to “a good student and son, a great worker.”
“(The attacker) did not care who you were, did not care about the three beautiful daughters you have. Nor your dear brothers,” Gustavo Repizo wrote on behalf of his late friend. “You destroyed a family that was not interested in the religious or monetary problems of the world.”
Cecilia Piedrabuena, the wife of Ariel Benvenuto — one of the Argentines who survived the attack — told Rosario’s Radio LT8 her husband had been bicycling behind the others when “he felt something go past by him.”
“He saw (the attacker’s truck) veer toward five of his friends,” Piedrabuena told the radio station. “He said it was going at more than 150 kilometres per hour . . . terrible.”
Her husband had called her from New York shortly after the attack; she listened to him in disbelief, she said, unable to grasp what had happened at first because it wasn’t yet on the news.
Piedrabuena described the group of Argentines as being the “10 closest friends from high school.” They saw each other frequently, she said, at least a few times a year. They had planned the trip for this year because Erlij had offered to pay for those couldn’t afford it, she told Radio LT8.
Their plan that day, Piedrabuena said, had been to bicycle through Central Park, and then over the Brooklyn Bridge.
“They didn’t make it,” she told the radio station.
Ricardo Berlot thought it was a bad joke Wednesday morning when he read a WhatsApp message saying five of those killed in the Manhattan attack were “rosarinos” — from Rosario, his hometown. In fact, they were from the same school he had graduated from 30 years earlier and where Berlot is now a teacher. The victims had been students in his computing class.
“What happened affects us as if we were all of one body,” said Berlot, 58, speaking to the press outside the school on Wednesday. “At this institution, we create strong bonds . . .It’s absolutely normal that former students get together for an ‘asado’ (Argentine-style barbecue) and to talk about the school.”
“Our pain is for the innocent and unjust deaths of people who have nothing to do with the craziness that brought people trapped by their fundamentalist ideas to cause such terrible damage.” MARY BENSULEY FRIEND OF ATTACK VICTIM ARIEL ERLIJ