Global Courant 2023-05-07 14:01:20
“I am very optimistic, as I always was. And it gives me confidence that it will be a popular jury that resolves the guilt of the accused.” Susana Ríos, mother of Gonzalo Domínguez, one of the victims of the San Miguel del Monte Massacre, hopes that in the jury trial, which begins this Monday in La Plata, there will be justice for the victims and their families.
Days after the fourth anniversary of the fateful night of May 20, 2019, in which officers Leonardo Daniel Ecilape, Manuel Monreal and Mariano Alejandro Ibáñez and former captain Rubén Alberto García chased the Fiat 147 in which Aníbal Suárez was traveling (22), Camila López (13), Danilo Sansone (13), Gonzalo Domínguez (14) and Rocío Quagliarello (then 13, the only survivor), the agents will be tried.
The death of the group of friends occurred after agents belonging to the police station of that Buenos Aires city, aboard two patrol cars, began to chase them for no reason, and with shots, along the highway 3 collector, which caused the vehicle to crash into a trailer.
“We hope that the jury determines that the four police officers, both the two who were driving and the two who were shooting, were guilty of quadruple homicide doubly aggravated by the use of firearms and by being members of the police force,” Clarín said. lawyer Dora Bernárdez, who represents Susana and Blanca Suárez, Aníbal’s mother.
In turn, the accusation highlights that they violated the duties of a public official.
But, in addition, he stressed that they must be found guilty “for having committed attempted murder against Rocío, also doubly aggravated.” If convicted, the expected sentence is life imprisonment.
The victims of the Massacre of Monte.
“On Monday the popular jury will be appointed and on Tuesday I declare at 9.30 with the rest of the parents. The other days witnesses will come and the evidence will be presented,” says Susana in dialogue with Clarín.
18 people from civil society will be chosen to make up the jury, although only 12 will be the headlines. That day the parties will also make their opening statements.
The process will be in charge of Judge Carolina Crispiani, head of the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) No. 4 of La Plata. It will last for ten consecutive days, which will end on May 17. Three days before the fourth anniversary of the Massacre of Monte.
In turn, the trial prosecutor will be Mariano Sibuet, while the complaint will be divided into three parts. On the one hand, the defense of Bernárdez, that of Margarita Jarque, lawyer of the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM) that sponsors the Sansone and López families; and the lawyer Ricardo Minoli, will accompany the Quagliarello family.
Bernárdez will request life imprisonment for the four policemen since “they had a joint action.” In turn, he emphasized that the Monte Massacre is “the most serious institutional event ever to have occurred in the region.”
Susana’s voice is serene. She looks confident. “We have plenty of evidence that the Buenos Aires policemen committed four murders of innocent children,” she points out. The defendants arrive in custody at the trial.
In fact, among the evidence there are records from the municipality’s security cameras that show that the policemen began shooting at the young people. One of the officers who was in the place of the patrolman’s companion was with half his body outside and in a shooting attitude, which led to the crash of the victims’ car, driven by Suárez, against a trailer.
The woman reflects on her integrity, despite having lost her son. For her, that responds to the fact that she does not know hate: “By not feeling hate, I can see things more clearly.”
The same day the trial began, at 5:00 p.m., relatives of the victims and human rights organizations called for a bonfire in front of the municipality of San Miguel del Monte. The goal is to keep the “flame of memory” burning.
They will meet in the “Plaza de lxs pibes”, which got its name because it was the place where the victims gathered.
the other cause
Apart from the trial for the quadruple crime, another will be held for a cover-up against 19 Buenos Aires police officers. They will also be judged by an oral court in La Plata, although the date for the beginning of that debate has not yet been set.
The second cause responds to the investigation of the prosecutor’s office that was able to determine that in the hours after the massacre within the police force and the mayor of San Miguel del Monte, cover-up maneuvers were carried out.
It was possible to determine that the false declarations, the adulteration of official documents and the attempt to install a story that took responsibility away from the police sought to leave them “clean”.
Rocío Quagliarello, sole survivor of the San Miguel del Monte Massacre. Ferdinand of the Order
Agents Marcelo Idarreta, José Domínguez, Melina Bianco, José Durán, Maia Valiente, Cristian Alberto Righero, Juan Manuel Gutiérrez, Julio Micucci and Nadia Genaro are accused of “ideological falsehood of public instrument, aggravated concealment, abuse of authority and violation of the duties of a public official”.
While the policemen Florencia Stankevicius, Mario Mistretta, Evelin Yael Van Monleghey, Camila Galarza, Marisol Rizzo, Sergio Servia and Héctor Enrique Ángel face charges for “aggravated concealment, breach and violation of the duties of a public official”.
Meanwhile, agents Julieta Aguilera Rearte, Nelson Rodríguez and Raúl Mauregui will be tried for “violation of the duties of a public official.” The then Secretary of Security of San Miguel del Monte, Claudio “Toro” Martínez, was also accused of “aggravated concealment and violation of the duties of a public official”, but he died on May 10, 2022 after being attacked by one of his rottweiler dogs while serving house arrest at his home.
Claudio “Toro” Martínez, former municipal security secretary, was on trial in the case of the San Miguel del Monte massacre.
The mayor of the town at the time of the event, Sandra Mayol, was also investigated for “concealment and breach of the duties of a public official.” But the Attorney General’s Office of La Plata ordered the file of that case.
EMJ
