He Federal Oral Court of Corrientes ordered the arrest of seven ex-military who are accused of the crime of Matias Chirinothe young 22-year-old soldier whose life was taken in the military garrison of Artillery Group 3 in the Corrientes town of Passage of the Free after a “initiation ritual” occurred in 2022.
Two years after the fatal episode, Justice ordered “make preventive detention and immediate arrest effective” of former Army officers Claudio Andrés Luna, Rubén Darío Ruiz, Hugo Reclus Martínez Tarraga, Darío Emmanuel Martínez, Exequiel Emmanuel Aguilar and Gerardo Sebastian Bautista. The same measure reaches the second lieutenant Facundo Luis Acosta who had his prison exemption revoked and also ordered his immediate arrest, reported The twelve. While the remaining two defendants, Second Lieutenant Claudia Daniela Cayata and Lieutenant Franco Damián Grupico, were charged as secondary participants in simple homicide, but will remain free.
In September of last year they had been charged with simple homicide as co-authors and preventive detention was added because the existence of procedural risk was “proven.” However, it did not become effective in 2023 because his defense filed a appeal to the provisions of the Federal Chamber of Currents.
On that occasion, the family of the young officer from Córdoba reported that they were going through “hell.” “How can it be that those responsible for my son’s death are free?” the victim’s father had questioned, who also commented – in statements to Telam Agency– that the family situation is difficult: “We are very bad, this is hell every day for us. “We go to bed crying and we wake up crying.”
Chirino lost his life on June 19, 2022, after a night of abuse and forced to eat and drink excessively in a context of “baptism dinner”a ritual that caused him a bronchoaspiration which led to his death, as detailed in the case.
Of the nine accused, eight were dismissed by military justice This is the maximum disciplinary sanction in the Army.
In the resolution, the Court entrusted the “diligence to the National Gendarmerie, who must house those named until a space is available in the Federal Penitentiary Service.”
With the arrests, a new chapter opens in the case of Matías Chirino. It is expected that the judicial process will clarify all the details of the tragic event and determine the individual responsibilities of each of those involved.
According to the investigation, led by the federal prosecutor Fabian Martinezit was determined that Second Lieutenant Chirino and two more colleagues had to appear and begin performing duties, by order of the second head of the Unit, at 07:30 on June 20, 2022, but finally by instruction of the Second Lieutenant Facundo Luis Acostamust have arrived ahead of schedule, at 8:15 p.m. on June 18, 2022.
Between check-in time and 12:30 a.m. June 19, 2022, It was found that inside the officers’ barbecue area and its surroundings, the accused “took advantage of the authority they had (…), in contempt for the physical and moral integrity of their comrades.” Matías Ezequiel Chirino, Jorge Manuel Chaile and Rufino Ezequiel Mezathey gave him arbitrary orders and mistreatment,” the file says.
It details that the mistreatment consisted of “forcing them to carry out different degrading tasks”, from organizing a dinner based on different alcoholic beverages and soda, cigarettes and food at the request of the union members, to consuming them in an uncontrolled manner.
“With an empty stomach they forced them to drink alcohol excessively, offering them their glasses, one of them containing wine with plenty of salt, under the order ‘take, take’, causing them to lose consciousness.” Likewise, they were required to put on summer clothing in the face of temperatures between 4 and 2 degrees and submerge themselves in the pool of the officers’ casino, whose water was dirty, for approximately 30 seconds.
As the hours passed, they lost consciousness due to alcohol poisoning and other circumstances of abuse. In this context they were abandoned in the place, where they were left lying on some mats that were lying on the floor until 06:09 when an alert was issued due to the serious condition in which one of the second lieutenants, the young Chirino, was.
According to autopsy carried out, the victim died from bronchoaspiration after vomiting in a state of unconsciousness and lying down, while it was recorded 1.45 grams of alcohol per liter of blood.
Following the tragic death, in 2022, the then Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, prohibited the authorization and carrying out of celebrations, “rites and ceremonies of initiation”, social gatherings or any type of activity; as well as the entry, provision and consumption of alcoholic beverages within military units and establishments on the occasion of the beginning or completion of training or training activities.
