Global Courant
“It was a bucket of cold water. The first thing I thought when I heard perpetual was that my dad could finally rest in peace. I don’t even feel angry, the great pain I have is helpless. Because reliving everything that happened to us, seeing the person who killed my father, it was very hard, I don’t wish it on anyone. And on top of that later, we can’t believe it,” René Mendoza Callejas (50), the victim’s son, René, told Clarín Mendoza Parra (77).
Mendoza Parra was assassinated on November 7, 2021. He had been doing social work in the Fátima and San Cayetano neighborhoods of González Catán, in La Matanza, for more than 30 years. They murdered him with 14 bullets at the door of his house, in front of his children and his grandchildren. “It was so traumatic. The boys still hear fireworks or motorcycles and hide because they confuse them with the shots. It’s a tremendous pain,” Mendoza Parra’s son insisted.
According to what was recorded in the trial, Kevin Sergio Leonel Maza (22) went to the house of “Don René” and, when he came out the door, he murdered him.
The verdict was announced this Wednesday by Zoom after a trial in a hybrid format by the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) No. 3 of La Matanza. Meza grabbed her head. He took a deep breath and hid behind his hands. It was while the court secretary was reading that his sentence was the maximum: life.
René Mendoza Parra (77), the social reference assassinated in Laferrere (La Matanza).
Not even four hours passed until they received the notification. He had not been sentenced to life, but to 18 years.
“Impose Kevin Sergio Leonel Maza, alias ‘Carrizo’ and the other personal circumstances in the case file, the sentence of life imprisonment, legal accessories and costs, for being co-author and author, respectively, materially and criminally responsible for the crimes of homicide simple, qualified homicide criminis causa in the degree of attempt and illegal possession of a weapon of war, all of them in material competition with each other, events that occurred on November 7 and 19, 2021, in the Buenos Aires towns of Villa Dorrego and González Catán, Partido of La Matanza, respectively, two of which resulted in the victims René Mendoza Parra and René Mendoza Callejas,” read the secretary.
René Mendoza Parra (77), the social reference assassinated in Laferrere (La Matanza).
“When I heard the sentence, I realized that, for that crime, there was no life sentence. But I imagined that they had forgotten to read the aggravating circumstance of treachery and the use of a firearm. I never imagined this. Even when the notification arrived Four hours later I thought it had to do with correcting that, that it is a material error that can happen, but this? I never saw it. He said the perpetual word six times, it’s recorded,” said Nicolás Rechanik, the family’s lawyer Mendoza.
Before Clarín’s query regarding the “error”, from TOC No. 3 they responded: “At the time of proceeding to read the ruling, a material error has been noticed that must be duly clarified. Indeed, since the full reading It is clear from the decision in question that the act for which Maza was convicted was framed in the figures of simple homicide, homicide qualified ‘criminis causa’ in the degree of attempt and illegal possession of a weapon of war, all of them in material contest among themselves, for which reason it is rectified that the corresponding sentence is 18 years in prison, legal accessories and costs of the process,” they explained, paraphrasing the document they presented to rectify the failure.
“It’s a shame. Perpetua was a bit of a relief for my dad, so that he rests in peace. But a ‘mistake’? I don’t know what to think. You start to think about a lot of things. Justice is very bad. Above is a fugitive and after this, what do I have to think? What are they going to look for him?”, René Mendoza Callejas is indignant.
Relatives of René Mendoza Parra, a social reference in the San Cayetano neighborhood, in Laferrere, murdered by drug traffickers, on the mural where they remember him. Photo Maxi Failla.
The lawyers will appeal the ruling to the Chamber of Cassation of the Province of Buenos Aires to request that they include the component of treachery and the use of a firearm to commit the crime. Although, according to Clarín, there are no elements to denounce the dramatic “error” that the court made by confusing the penalty.
“I have no evidence to say that what happened was anything other than a mistake. What I can say is that I have never seen or heard of anything like that. And if there was a case in which Justice could not make this mistake, it was this. How do I ask the family to believe in Justice after this?” Rechanik wonders.
It is that René Mendoza Parra was assassinated as part of a revenge for his social work. “It is clear that my father had made complaints against drug trafficking to people in the neighborhood. They had already threatened him. That is why we always ask that the mastermind of this be investigated, because they sent my father to be killed, and that was never investigated. “questions the victim’s son.
The widow, Gloria Callejas, and one of René’s children. Photo Maxi Failla.
For the crime there is a second defendant but he is a fugitive. This is Leonel Braian Roque (22) for whose capture there is a reward of 2 to 5 million pesos. Both arrived together at González Catán’s house. They asked for “Don René” and riddled him. It was never known who gave them the order or in exchange for what.
René and his mother, Gloria Callejas (73), continued with the legacy of their Mendoza Parra. They coordinate the neighborhood meeting and do activities for the children. Every weekend they visit him in the cemetery. “We talk to him, we pray. My mother continues with the dining room and helping the boys so that they at least have this containment. It is not fair that a 30-year job dies because of all this,” René closes, after the false verdict He didn’t know what to say to his dad anymore.
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