Global Courant 2023-04-11 14:00:24
Emilio Dikie Acosta Valdiviezo, a 64-year-old Ecuadorian, had come to Florencio Varela to visit his in-laws. That weekend he would return to Bariloche, where he lived with his family, but it all ended in tragedy.
Two armed robbers entered the house on Aristóbulo del Valle street, between Almirante Brown and Pringles streets. Acosta Valdiviezo tried to protect the family and struggled with the assailants, until one of them shot him in the chest and killed him.
The crime occurred on September 10, 2022. But it was not an isolated case. According to what they say in the neighborhood, Aristóbulo del Valle and Juan de la Cruz Contreras streets is a deserted area, there are no neighbors on the porches or on the sidewalks.
There are only a few houses that do not have security alarm signs posted on their fronts.
Emilio Dikie Acosta Valdiviezo (60), the Ecuadorian man killed in Florencio Varela during an assault.
Ana attends from her window. Her voice can barely be heard. With fear, and without approaching the gate, she asks: “What do you need?” From the same place, without looking out, she manages to say: “I’m going to take care of you from here, for security, you know? Just yesterday they tried to rob me, but the alarm sounded.”
“I’m just going to tell you that they go unpunished, we are alone in this fight,” he summarizes, greets and abruptly closes the window.
On the same block, at an address near a bank, on November 15, assailants surprised an 85-year-old retiree. “I thought the noise was coming from next door, so I didn’t give it much importance and let it go,” he told Clarín.
Thefts in Aristóbulo del Valle. Photo Andres D’Elia
“It was ten o’clock at night. At one point I got up to look through the windows and the last room I’m going to look at is where two men were entering. I wanted to die, ”he confesses. The two criminals entered through a window, broke the gate and the blind.
The assailants demanded dollars from the woman while they kept jewelry, fancy chains and cash. “’Are you asking a retiree for dollars?’ I asked her. The one who had me says ‘Well, how do you have this house then?’. And I told her the truth, I have been supporting myself with my sewing machine for more than 40 years ”, she remarks.
“They gave me a few slaps. They had weapons. They took my complaint here, but later I didn’t know anything else, ”she concludes.
On January 30, Ana María (76) was waiting for her husband, Ramón, to return from shopping. She was washing a towel in the kitchen and while she wrung the garment for the last time, she looked up: “There they were, behind the window. I wanted to die because there was no escape, the patio door was open,” the woman told Clarín.
The couple knew that the entrance had prior intelligence. A month earlier they had woken up with a strange graffiti on the sewer lid. At that time they thought it was vandalism until the police told them that they had been marked.
The corner of Coronel Pringles and Juan Cruz Contreras where they marked a house to rob. Photo Andres D’Elia
The assailants who entered moved as a band and communicated by handy. Two entered and another two waited in a white car. They had similar clothing and were hooded, “they looked like police officers.”
“One threw me on the bed while pointing a large knife at me and then, once I was lying down, they put a gun to my head. They told me to give them dollars and I told them I didn’t have any and they still insisted”, recalls Ramón.
From the house they managed to take cash, jewelry, fancy necklaces, a stereo and a device to take your blood pressure. To flee the house, the two criminals changed their clothes and left. “When they left, I was able to look one of them in the eye and he told me ‘don’t look at me or talk to me,’ points out Ana María.
“The complaint was taken here, they told me not to go to the police station because it was under renovation. They were supposed to come back on Sunday, but they never showed up. They only took a handkerchief with which one of the thieves had blown his nose. Analysis didn’t come and they didn’t come, they don’t give a damn about anything. The Police do not act here ”, she denounces.
Less than a week ago, the criminals once again marked a wall of the house with the same graffiti. “Yesterday a patrol car passed by, we stopped him and told him that they marked us again. They told us that it’s okay for us to delete it so they know they’re aware,” the woman said.
Ana and Ramón’s tiredness is the same as in the whole block. “It is a martyrdom, you can no longer live like this. Leaving my house is impossible,” warns the man.
Contreras and José Enrique Rodó, where the residents of Florencio Varela suffer from insecurity. Photo Andres D’Elia
On February 27, the owner of the business “Estructuras Bariloche” was robbed at his home. The criminals threatened the 67-year-old man with a weapon and stole money and a cell phone.
The victim’s daughter resigns herself: “That’s it, you can’t change what happened. Insecurity will continue.”
Another block that thieves have as a point
The block that surrounds the streets Leandro Alem, 9 de Julio and España is another target for criminals.
Nancy (61) owns a kiosk located on the corner of España and Leandro Alem. On Saturday, February 18, at 12 noon, she was the victim of an attempted robbery.
“Above the business we have our apartment. The guy climbed the tree and wanted to enter through the balcony. The patio doors were closed, but he was able to enter the apartment calmly,” he assures Clarín.
The assailant was unable to enter the house, because a woman from the other corner saw him, yelled at him and got out. “The police just passed by, my husband saw them and they grabbed him, but I didn’t know what happened to the boy,” she says.
The block that surrounds the streets Leandro Alem, 9 de Julio and España is another target for criminals. Photo Andres D’Elia
It’s two in the afternoon, the village is inhabited by people who shy away from responding, except for a lady who was returning from work at a medical center on Monteagudo street. “Here there are robberies every two by three, just yesterday my partner was robbed when leaving the center. I have a police friend, he told me that this area is liberated,” she says.
“It is no man’s land and the victims are always vulnerable over 80 years of age,” exclaims the daughter of a 95-year-old retiree who was robbed a few days ago. On January 21, around 2:30 in the morning, the house was completely silent when a noise in the bathroom startled the family.
“We were sleeping and suddenly four guys came in. One looked for me, put the gun to my head, and another went to look for my aunt,” he says.
The modus operandi is repeated. “He began to ask us for dollars. He was convinced that we had it, but we don’t have that,” she highlights. The assailants turned everything upside down: they lifted the wooden floor of the living room, took out pictures and even the refrigerator.
“Tell me where you have the dollars or I’ll cut you off,” one of the thieves threatened the two women.
“Here there are robberies every two by three,” say Bernardo Monteagudo and Leandro Alem. Photo Andrés D’Elia
The ordeal lasted an hour and a half. “When they were about to leave, they asked me to open the door for them and they left. They took cash and my phone,” says the niece of the retiree.
It is presumed that the robbery had prior intelligence. The bars of the bathroom where they entered were filed down. The criminals went with their faces uncovered and circulated in a white Volkswagen Vento.
However, the robberies continued. On February 25 and 26 they broke in again. First they took a bicycle and, the next day, a ladder.
“The police did nothing. They never tracked my cell phone. I moved with my aunt because of this situation. I am tired and frustrated, ”she concludes.
EMJ/MG