Global Courant
Elián Valenzuela (23) has been detained for three weeks. In cell 4 of the Quilmes DDI, he awaits changes in his situation. Alejandro Cipolla resigned because he considered that “his cycle was completed.” His new lawyer, who had represented Tamara Báez, the ex of the “cumbia 420” singer, during the negotiation for the maintenance of the daughter they have in common, took office. And he already achieved some changes.
This is Juan Pablo Merlo who now defends him in the four criminal cases that overwhelm Valenzuela, popularly known as L-Gante. “We took office on Friday and we have already filed an extraordinary release request to request Elián’s release. As a subsidiary measure, we ask the judge to give him domiciliary or a bond (something similar to a bond) so that he can continue the process in freedom,” explained to Clarín.
The decision is in the hands of Judge Gabriel Castro, of the Guarantee Court No. 2 of Moreno, who must also take into account “new material” presented by this defense. The judge already gave some definitions about the proposals that could play in favor of Valenzuela when it comes to accessing his release.
This Monday the judge partially changed the qualifications of the crimes that are imputed to L-Gante. The singer is now accused of “illegitimate deprivation of liberty in an ideal contest with coercive threats” against Gastón Torres and “illegitimate deprivation of liberty in an ideal contest with simple threats” against Rosa Passi. In this way, he removed the aggravating factors of “use of firearms” and “perpetrated against a member of a public power” in the case of Torres, municipal employee of Moreno.
Although the judge rejected Valenzuela’s request for ordinary release, he left the question of the extraordinary appeal open. He asked the singer’s new lawyer to rule on the arguments formulated at the time by Cipolla and provide a verifiable address where L-Gante would be staying in the event that they give him house arrest.
According to Merlo, from his studio they presented videos from security cameras in which the two complainants are seen saying goodbye to L-Gante after the alleged episode of “illegal deprivation of liberty” and “threats” that led him to be detained. “You don’t greet your kidnapper before leaving,” argues Merlo, confident that the judge will take the images into account to resolve the appeal.
Vigil of “La Mafilia” outside the DDI of Quilmes. Photo Enrique Garcia Medina
The defense, more technical than Cipolla’s, also toured the Bicentenario neighborhood of General Rodríguez, where the neighbors and witnesses of the episode that led to the complaint live.
Rosa Passi, the mother of a childhood friend of Valenzuela and one of the complainants, would have appeared spontaneously to testify at the Moreno 9 prosecutor’s office to expand her statement, according to Merlo. “Gastón Torres is his boss,” Merlo clarifies, a fact that could imply some kind of conditioning in his first complaint, something that the judge should also take into account.
Torres is a municipal employee in Moreno and who promoted the complaint that left Valenzuela detained. He accuses him of having spent 23 minutes “held against his will” in the white BMW of L-Ghent, to which – always according to his complaint – he would have climbed under threat. A few meters from that same vehicle, Passi would have climbed, who would now deny having been kidnapped by the singer.
For Merlo, resolving each of the cases against L-Gante is the priority. He has at least three in the judicial department of Moreno and General Rodríguez, two brought to trial. In all cases they accuse him of threats.
“Elián is calm, he knows that his situation will be resolved,” Merlo confided to Clarín.
Curiously, in the three complaints against L-Gante, a lawyer represents the victims, it is Leonardo Sigal, who accompanies Torres and Rosa in the complaint that led to the arrest.
Also in the case against Tamara Báez and Luis Martín Ibáñez for threatening a young woman and damaging her car on December 8, 2021 on Route 5, between the Malvinas Argentinas station and the Fonavi neighborhood of General Rodríguez. Prosecutor Leandro Ventricelli, from UFI No. 1, asked – hours after the arrest of L-Gante – that the case be brought to trial for “damages in real competition with threats.”
The second case, which was also requested to be raised to trial, is in the hands of the prosecutor Alejandra Rodríguez for an act committed on February 4, 2022 and has as defendants Valenzuela, Báez and Lourdes del Valle Medina Manaure -a friend of the couple – for the crimes of “aggravated threats” for the singer, and “minor injuries” for the young women.
The arrest of L-Ghent
The complaint was made on May 27 by Gastón Torres, a neighbor of the Valenzuela family and father of friends of L-Gante, who lives in the Bicentenario neighborhood of General Rodríguez.
That day, at the exit of Moreno’s “Río” bowling alley, there was a fight with several “members of the so-called Mafilia”, the group of friends of L-Gante, who moved en bloc to accompany him.
After the conflict, the police arrived. One of L-Gante’s friends called him to ask for help and for fear that they would take him into custody. It was thus that Torres began to be threatened by Elián Valenzuela. “You messed with ‘La Mafilia’, you messed with ‘420’, you’ll see what will happen to you,” he would have told her.
According to the complaint, members of that same group went to his house and “physically assaulted both him and his family” and then “a white BMW drove by Valenzuela passed, lowered the window, pointed a gun at him and forced Torres to get in the car”.
A few meters away, a neighbor of the singer, who had participated in the first discussion with L-Gante’s friends, was also intercepted and forced to get into the same vehicle, as confirmed in the complaint.
Torres remained “23 minutes captive, until L-Gante received a call assuring him that his friends had been released by the police and he freed the victims,” said Leonardo Sigal, the lawyer representing the complainants.
The complaint, according to the prosecutor’s accusation, was confirmed by the security cameras, by the geolocation of cell phones and by the “statement of the police officers, witnesses and relatives of the victims.”
With this evidence, the prosecution requested the arrest of Valenzuela, the judge validated the request and ordered three searches.
MG
