The Federal Chamber of Rosario today revoked a first instance resolution that prevented continuing the investigation into the death in 1977 of the bishop of San Nicolás Carlos Ponce De León, judged during the last dictatorship as a traffic accident, so that now the judge of the The case should call for an investigative statement from those accused of the homicide, judicial sources reported.
Room “B” of the Rosario Chamber today revoked a first instance ruling by federal judge Marcelo Bailaque, who in August 2021 had ordered not to accept the “nullity for res judicata irritates” raised by the Nicoleño federal prosecutor Matías Di Lello , a necessary step to be able to advance in the investigations of those accused of the murder of the bishop.
The death of Monsignor Ponce De León, which occurred at 6:30 a.m. on July 11, 1977 on National Route 9, in the jurisdiction of the city of Ramallo, was judged during the dictatorship as culpable homicide in a traffic accident.
Luis Antonio Martínez was sentenced for this act in 1977.
According to the sentence, which was confirmed by a Nicolean Chamber, Martínez was the driver of the Ford F-100 truck once morest which the Renault 4 driven by the bishop, who was accompanied by his assistant Víctor Martínez, collided that foggy and rainy morning. .
At the request of the then federal prosecutor of San Nicolás Juan Patricio Murray, the case was reopened in 2004 by the judge of that jurisdiction, Carlos Villafuerte Ruso, to be investigated as a possible crime once morest humanity concocted by the military authorities of that Buenos Aires city during the last dictatorship.
The subsequent investigation, followed by prosecutor Di Lello, made it possible to discover, according to the prosecutor’s office, a series of “irregularities” in the provincial case that judged Ponce’s death as a traffic accident.
Di Lello then requested the investigations of Antonio Bossié, the Army Major at the time and Chief of Intelligence for Area 132; of the then captain Bernardo Landa; Major Omar Andrada; of Luis Martinez; and Carlos Bottini, director of the firm Agropolo SA and owner of the Ford F-100.
As he explained to Télam Murray, now a prosecutor for the unit for cases once morest humanity, in order to carry out the investigations it was necessary for Judge Bailaque to declare the annulment “due res judicata írrita” of the 1977 sentence that sentenced Martínez, who if not so he might argue that he is tried twice for the same act.
Bailaque rejected that proposal, arguing that there was no new and compelling evidence to declare that sentence null and void, a decision that was revoked today by the Federal Chamber of Rosario.
In this way, Murray pointed out that now Judge Bailaque should call for an investigation of those accused by prosecutor Di Lello for their alleged participation in the murder of Ponce De León.
In the grounds of the resolution, the Chamber indicated that in relation to the formal defects of the case, the investigation initiated in 2004 made it possible to determine that “since 1975 Ponce de León had been carrying out intelligence tasks and that he received constant death threats.” ».
Also that “there are discrepancies between the medical report added in the 1977 case with the one made in this file in 2009 on the body of the victim”, and that “the documentation that the bishop kept regarding detainees has disappeared, persecuted or disappeared during the last dictatorship”.
In addition, “it has not been possible to categorically determine how the mechanics of the event was.”
The Chamber points out that “substantial defects” are also observed in the 1977 case, among which it lists “not having carried out an external medical examination of the corpse by the police doctor or forensic medical expert who determined the causes of death as evident and advised once morest , in this way, perform the corresponding autopsy ».
Also “not having added to the file any medical certificate that established the causes of death of the victim” and that “no accidentological expertise was carried out (…) that established in a reliable and unequivocal or even presumptive manner, the mechanics of the accident” in the that the bishop of the Nicoleña diocese died.
An expert witness, through the use of current technical instruments, relativized the idea of the road accident by arguing that the Ford F-100 truck into which the Renault driven by Ponce De León collided was stopped and not moving, as Martínez declared.
And that there is no movement of the brakes of the truck, only the bishop’s car.
In addition, the Chamber ruling maintains that “it is not possible to ignore the fact that the bishop was being subjected to intelligence operations, surveillance and threats by the repressive bodies of the de facto government (operations and threats that were directly linked to the defenses carried out by Ponce de León regarding persecuted or disappeared persons)”.
These antecedents, says the resolution, “at least lead us to suspect that the death of Ponce de León might have been engineered by the military authorities of Military Area 132”, then led by Colonel Manuel Fernando Saint Amant.
Among the evidence of the cause, there is a message that the bishop received at that time, which made reference to the crime of his peer from La Rioja, Monsignor Enrique Angelelli, assassinated a year earlier by the dictatorship.
“We’re done with Angelelli, Brasca’s over, now it’s your turn,” read one message.
Also the testimony of Father Nicolás Gómez, a seminarian at the time, who declared that “Saint Amant had a lousy, authoritarian and cruel character, he mistreated Ponce De León directly.”
“He did not go through intermediaries, to the point that Bishop Ponce de León once told him that when people began to disappear, Ponce had interceded for the disappearance of children and people, and that at Ponce de León’s request, Saint Amant replied “and yes, I stop them, so what” “, declared the witness.
And he added that “Saint Amant’s treatment was very strong to the point that he told Ponce de León “I am going to make everyone who is next to you disappear, and I still can’t because you are a bishop.”
Telam Agency
To comment on this note you must have your digital access.
Subscribe to add your opinion!
Subscribe
