While the investigation stage of the nine accused of “torture followed by death” in the case investigating the death in the jail of Bouwer de César Moreno (50), the man from Villamari who would have had a psychotic break in the city of Córdoba during a lightning trip and was involved in an altercation in a bakery in the Nueva Córdoba neighborhood, a central area of the Capital city, new testimonies emerge about the hours before the disastrous outcome.
As he was able to reconstruct The voice Based on accounts from sources who requested strict confidentiality of his identity, once Moreno was subdued by the Córdoba Police and detained near the Paseo Buen Pastor shopping center, he was admitted to the Contents and Apprehended Unit (UCA).
There, always according to these testimonies, the man would have resisted when being entered into a cell.
“He grabbed the bars of the entrance gate to the Gray pavilion of the UCA, where he was detained for a few days (from September 14 to 16). He didn’t let anyone pass. “No one could enter or leave the hallway because the man was clinging and wouldn’t let go,” he began, recounting an occasional witness.
After that, upon seeing that Moreno did not budge in his attitude, a group of guards would have made the decision to intervene.
“They surrounded him with five guards and started hitting his hands. They hit him a lot, because he wouldn’t let go. They hit him so much that his hands were swollen. When they were able to free him, they put him in the bathroom of the pavilion and beat him,” said the witness who preferred anonymity.
“While he was clinging to the bars, Moreno screamed and told the guards to let him go and that ‘he was going to kill them’. He was out of his mind, as if going through a fit of madness. And that bothered the pavilion guards,” commented the same source.
Other information that was released by prosecutor Rubén Caro, who handled the case from when Moreno was involved in the altercation in the bakery until his death was announced four days later, assures that the man, in a fit of irrationality, stabbed a pen on the lip of an SPC operator at the UCA.
This would have happened upon entering the prison, when the guards were trying to receive the police procedure and place Moreno under detention.
When asked about the attacks that the victim could have suffered, the Córdoba Penitentiary Service (SPC) preferred not to make statements on the matter so as to “not air details” that belong to the file. The information provided by the SPC auditor, Gustavo Vidal Lascano, was confirmed, who had stated, on the basis of a forensic medical document, that Moreno had admitted Bouwer with blows, abrasions and injuries.
However, the prosecutor in charge of the case, José Alberto Mana, focused the investigation on the restraint measures that occurred two days later, in the maximum security prison.
For these actions, nine have been charged with “torture followed by death” who have not yet been summoned for investigation. From those around the accused, they expected to be summoned last week. Now they believe that the appointment will be next week.
Strict silence prevails in the prosecutor’s office. Despite this secrecy, investigators linked to the case revealed that one of the reasons why the investigations were being delayed could be a list of new defendants.
Beyond these speculations, prosecutor Mana’s sides stated that they are working concentratedly with the evidence collected so far. That this work is arduous and that therefore the investigation could be delayed even more.
However, no one dares to deny that new raids and new arrests could occur.
So far, the nine defendants are: the mayor of Bouwer, Pablo Luján; the guards Mariano Santucho, Leonel Vaquel, Nicolás Cebrero, Roberto Molina, Lucas Argüello and Néstor Bazán (who was in a passive situation); plus the doctor on duty, Ignacio Eduardo Segovia, who was the one who received Moreno, and the psychiatrist, Ana Laura Grassi.
There are expectations for what Grassi could declare; sources linked to the functioning of the SPC assured that the psychiatrist requested the “urgent transfer” of Moreno when he saw him in conditions that were not suitable to continue being housed in Bouwer. The professional would have requested, and then insisted, that the prisoner be transferred to the CPA, a request that was never fulfilled.
Resignation of doctors and affected care service
After the arrest of the doctor on duty and the psychiatrist, a number of doctors not yet officially confirmed resigned from their jobs at the SPC.
Unofficial sources assured that in total there were 12 doctors who signed their resignation, which would have left the care of the inmates seriously resentful.
In addition, it was detailed that the SPC resorted to hiring a private benefits company (Vittal). “That company sends paramedics with a tablet hanging around their neck. The paramedics interview the inmates and the doctors give formal instructions, but they do not enter the prison,” sources linked to the penitentiary function warned.
Those same voices said that fights between prisoners often occur inside the pavilions. “When there is a fight, which is quite common, the doctors have to act immediately because otherwise the life of one of them could be put in danger,” they explained.
When asked about this situation, the SPC confirmed that “it was part of the service that was subcontracted.” “There were doctors and also paramedics who performed this function and little by little doctors are joining,” they detailed.
In turn, they assured that next week the impersonation of the doctors who had resigned will be completely regularized.
The case
César Moreno (50) had traveled to Córdoba, from his hometown of Villa María, on September 14. He was accompanying a friend who had to carry out a procedure in the Capital city and had not given his family too many details about the trip. According to Soledad González, his ex-wife, with whom he had an excellent relationship, the man was going through a crisis as a result of his neglected psychiatric illness.
When he said goodbye to his friend, he entered a bakery on 70 San Lorenzo Street, in the Nueva Córdoba neighborhood, a central area of the city. There he would not have respected the line and would have started an altercation. According to police sources, he attacked three employees and broke a digital scale.
For his family, violent or aggressive behavior was inappropriate for him. “At most he would yell if someone didn’t understand what he was saying, when he had a psychotic break like the one he was probably having,” González said of the events.
Finally, he was arrested and transferred to the UCA, from where on September 16 he was sent to Bouwer prison. There the prisoner was ordered to be restrained and on September 18 he suffered cardiorespiratory arrest from which he was never able to recover.
The lawyer representing the family, Alejandro Pérez Moreno, defined the case as a fact of “institutional violence” and warned that they will go “to the last resort.”
