Kidnapping and femicide of Candela Rodríguez: second trial begins against four other defendants

This Tuesday, March 5, begins the second trial for the kidnapping followed by femicide of Candela Rodríguez, the 11-year-old girl who on August 22, 2011 was about to meet some friends, in the Buenos Aires district of Hurlingham. among them Miguel Ángel “Mameluco” Villalba, who has a previous sentence of 27 years in prison on a series of drug trafficking cases that he committed in Villa 9 de Julio de San Martín; former Buenos Aires police officer Sergio Fabián Chazarreta; security forces informant Héctor Horacio “Topo” Moreira and carpenter Néstor Ramón Altamirano, all as “co-authors.” You may also be interested in: Femicide of Candela Rodríguez: the sentences of the three convicted are confirmedAs reported by the agency Argentinian News (NA), Villalba is accused of being the mastermind of the kidnapping of the girl. In the previous judicial instance, the detainee had declared “that the kidnapping had actually been a reprisal against the girl’s father, Alfredo Rodríguez”, who was himself arrested for robberies in the area. Miguel Ángel “Mameluco” Villalba, one of the main defendants in the second trial for the kidnapping and femicide of Candela Rodríguez.The first trial culminated on June 29, 2020 with the life sentences of Hugo Elbio Bermúdez (63) and Leonardo Daniel Jara (43), pointed out as co-perpetrators under the cover of “illegal deprivation of coercive liberty followed by death” and also Gabriel Fabián Gómez (49) to four years as a “secondary participant” of the fact. At that hearing, Judges Ricardo Maidana, Ricardo Borinsky and Fernando Mancini had anticipated that there would be a second trial that would investigate the other four defendants as “necessary participants.” Security forces informant Héctor Horacio “Topo” Moreira, another of the defendants in the second trial for the murder and femicide of Candela Rodríguez.Candela was kidnapped on the corner of the house where she lived, in Villa Tesei (Hurlingham). On August 28, the girl’s aunt received an extortion call attributed to Jara. Officers estimate that his life was taken between the 29th and 30th of the same month. A day later, the body was found in a field near the Western Highway, near Hurlingham, and signs of sexual abuse were identified in it.

Original source in Spanish