With the sentencing of four police officers accused of felony murder for the Monte Massacre, the judicial chapter of the tragedy that rocked the inner city of Buenos Aires is far from closed.
This Wednesday a popular jury unanimously found 12 of its members – police officers Rubén Alberto GarcÃa (50) and Leonardo Aquilape (27) – guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
In addition, the other officers, Manuel Monreal (23) and Mariano Ibáñez (29), will end up in prison for their responsibility for the deaths of four boys traveling in a Fiat 147 that crashed into a truck trailer.
The police officers were found guilty. Photo Mauricio Residence
The conflict occurred – as presented at trial – as a result of a chase for no apparent reason initiated by city police officers on the morning of May 20, 2019.
According to Judge Carolina Crispiani, who led the 10-day trial in La Plata’s courts, the exact amount of the sentence imposed will be known on June 2 and the basis a week later.
After this procedure, it will be the turn of the “Monte II” test. This is an indictment against 19 other Buenos Aires police officers, along with other charges of “serious concealment, non-compliance and breach of the duties of a public official”.
The date of this legal precedent has not been defined, but it is known that it will not pass to a popular jury. It happens that for these reasons the expected sentence is less than 15 years in prison. It is a plan to call common citizens to justice only in case of serious crimes.
What doubts arise from this new oral test?
Prosecutor Lisandro Demonte, who has been investigating the case since day one, believes that the Monte police station tried to cover up the deaths of Anibal Suarez (22), Danilo Sansone (13), Camila López (13) and Gonzalo Dominguez (14). Did. The boys were traveling in a Fiat 147 Spazio, along with the only survivor Rocio Quagliarello (13).
And for that, the agents, officers and sectional heads conspired. He did everything in his power to ignore responsibility for his comrades: scavenging police station documents, damaging equipment, deleting footage, lying to superiors.
Objective: To simulate that the four deaths and serious injuries affecting Rocio were caused by a traffic accident. that there had been no prior shooting and that there had been no chase for no apparent reason.
According to Demonte’s investigation, the maneuver involved Commissioner Julio Franco Micucci, officers José Manuel Durán and José DomÃnguez and Lieutenant Hector Angel, among other police officers.
It was his responsibility to distribute. But agents, guard personnel, rear guard personnel and other agents would also intervene.
Contributions from a neighbor who also collected the served pods and other tests were debunking the false hypothesis.
Case
The incident occurred at dawn on May 20, 2019, when agents began following and shooting at a Fiat 147 Spazio vehicle in which the five victims were aboard. This led to a collision with a truck parked in a street in the town near the Collectorate of Route 3.
Garcia and Ekilap were in the patrol car which followed the Fiat 147 for several kilometers until the accident. On that visit, Garcia fired at least four times at the vehicle.
In another patrol car, Ibáñez and Monreal improvised a bolt to try to stop the car from moving: the former crossed the vehicle on the road and Monreal fired in the direction of the Fiat, hitting one of its legs. Gonzalo is injured.
The allegations in the oral trial of the “Monte II” case will also be in charge of the prosecutor Mariano Cibuete. In the next few days, the criminal jurisdiction should set a date for this instance.
As pointed out in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, because they deal with varying degrees of responsibility and different crimes, there is a possibility of choosing a “summit trial” in the case of the three former agents accused of breaching an officer’s duties. . “Suspension from trial to trial”.
This means, in lieu of admitting guilt, choosing to do the actions that the prosecution will order as restitution.
19 defendants in other lawsuits
Accused in the second trial will be agents of Marcelo Idreta, José DomÃnguez, Melina Bianco, José Durán, Maia Valiente, Cristian Alberto Righero, Juan Manuel Gutierrez, Julio Micucci and Nadia Genaro, for “ideological falsification of a public instrument, serious concealment”. abuse of authority and breach of duties of a public official”.
Police officers Florencia Stankevicius, Mario Mistretta, Evelyn Yell Van Monleghe, Camila Galarza, Marisol Rizzo, Sergio Servia and Héctor Enrique Angel will also appear for “serious cover-up, violation and breach of the duties of a public official”.
Meanwhile, Agents Julieta Aguilera Rierte, Nelson Rodriguez and Raul Mauregui will be prosecuted for “breach of the duties of a public official”.
Another who was charged was the security secretary of San Miguel del Monte, Claudio “Toro” MartÃnez, for “disobedience and violation of the duties of a public official”, but was acquitted on May 10, 2022, after being attacked by a Later he died. While under house arrest of his Rottweiler dogs.
