“Let whoever has to fall fall, my dad or whoever,” says the older brother

Due to the dense vegetation, it gets dark earlier in the 9 de Julio area, the national epicenter for the disappearance of Loan (5), whose whereabouts have not been known for nine days. On the dirt street of José and María’s house, in the Chaquitos neighborhood, you can practically see nothing.

From outside you can see the movement inside the house. They are almost ready to go out to march, this time with the presence of the baby’s parents., holding a huge flag that screams “Loan.” To dry.

Mariano Peña (25), the eldest son, walks around a soccer field that is a hundred meters from the family home. He is alone, watching a game played by Loan’s friends, with whom the little boy played every afternoon. in this same place. “I can’t believe he’s not there… I always came to see him play, my little brother liked him, that was the only thing I didn’t fight about.” Usually reluctant to talk, this tall skinny man who works in the field implicitly accepts.

“I need to get away a little from this hell we live in these days. When you (the media) leave, I escape to move a little, to think… “Too many things happen and it’s hard to assimilate them.”.

Mariano expresses himself well, which is why he claimed to be one of the spokespersons for the Peña family. He speaks and uses silences and ellipses, he is also defiant. He is consulted about the town rumors involving his parents and José’s paternity. “My mom and dad get along well, they are parents of eight children, and Loan too. My dad is his father and my mom is his mother. Spot. Nothing more, They are both having the worst time of their lives and I tell them not to listen to TV. I don’t let them turn it on. “They get poisoned.”

Small town, big hell… The old axiom spreads in Corrientes 9 de Julio, a quiet town “from the mouth out, but within the four walls, we suspect everyone,” says a merchant on Route 123 that runs through the area of ​​three thousand inhabitants.

“Will you put your hands on the fire for José, your father?” Mariano is asked. “Let whoever has to fall fall, my dad or whoever. I am convinced that everyone should be investigated, everyone who was at that table having lunch is suspected until proven otherwise. I see my dad every day: I put my hands in the fire, but I don’t know what is being said. But they made my little brother’s cause a true media circus,” he claims.

Mariano is more angry than distraught. He admits to being “cold.” He says he doesn’t cry. “It doesn’t work out, I don’t know, what does it matter? I just want Loan to come back, he’s lost, poor thing.” Lost or kidnapped? he asks himself. “Lost, do you know what lost is? He’s not kidnapped, no one took him, he got lost. He trusted that they will find him.”

Mariano does not come out of his argument, since without knowing the land where Loan was on that June 13, in the surroundings of grandmother Catalina, he insists on saying that he was lost. “I think he got lost, but I don’t know where he is, obviously. I don’t think those who are detained have anything to do with it. I know Victoria (Caillava) and Carlos (Pérez). I trust them, I can’t believe they’re involved. Also, what did they find? I heard, on the one hand, that they found traces in the back seat, then in the trunk, they say different things all the time.”

Mariano knows Victoria, the former Municipality official and secretary of a secondary school, because Jorge, the defendant’s son, was her employer. “I know his son, his mother, they are not going to convince me. I know things, I know aspects of the investigation but I am not going to tell them to you, I am not going to tell them to you because later the people are going to come to my house. But I know things that I’m going to keep to myself and when all this happens I’ll be able to talk.but I’m not going to start pointing fingers just because.”

Mariano’s cell phone rings, he hears the message and immediately says that he has to go. Accept a quick ping-pong. What do you think of your uncle Antonio Benítez? “He is not my uncle, he is a close friend. But nothing, I don’t think about him, I don’t want him, I have no connection, if I cross him, ‘hello and bye’. I don’t know if he had anything to do with it.”. Grandma Catalina? “She is my dad’s mother, my grandmother, everything is fine, I have nothing to say.” How could the link between Catalina, 87 years old, and Caillava, 30 years younger, come about? “They know each other, they appreciate each other, Victoria helped my grandmother, and my grandmother cooks what she likes.”

He says goodbye with a handshake and speaking face to face. “I insist that my brother is lost, but that does not mean that each of the people who were at that lunch should not be cited. I always say the same thing, but my mother tells you one thing and the police another. My dad the same. They should take them, let them be calm and question my parents and everyone at the table. “The people ask for justice, they demand in the marches, but in a low voice they also say their things that sometimes hurt.”

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