Killing of Luis Espinoza

Luis Armando Espinoza, a 31-year-old Argentinian citizen, died during a police raid in the northern province of Tucumán, Argentina, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the country.

Killing of Luis Espinoza
DateMay 15, 2020 (2020-05-15)
LocationMonteagudo, Tucuman, Argentina
TypeHomicide
CauseBullet wound
Police brutality
Participants
List
  • 9 Tucuman Province Policemen[1]
    • José Morales
    • Rubén Montenegro
    • Miriam González
    • René Ardiles
    • Víctor Salinas
    • Carlos Romano
    • José Paz
    • Gerardo González Rojas
    • Claudio Zelaya
  • 1 municipal security guard [1]
    • Fabio Santillán
OutcomeDeath of Luis Espinoza on May 15, 2020 (2020-05-15)
Protests, social media criticism on police brutality[2]
BurialMonteagudo, Tucuman, Argentina
Arrests10
Accused10
Charges

After his body was found, an investigation (Luis Espinoza case, Caso Luis Espinoza in Spanish) revealed that he was shot to death after being wrongly suspected of engaging in an illegal horse race. Covered in plastic and rug, his body was moved to a police precinct. It was then placed inside a car trunk which traveled to the neighboring province of Catamarca where his body was dropped into a ravine.

The public opinion traced similarities between his murder and the Santiago Maldonado case.[2][3][4][5]

In June 2020, the UN launched an investigation on the crime, through the OHCHR.[6][7][8]

Victim

Luis Espinoza was a 31-year-old rural worker, from the town of Melcho, Tucumán and a father of six. He had seventeen brothers.[9][10][11]

Arrest and death

On May 15, 2020, while Argentina was under a nationwide quarantine because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Luis Espinoza was found by police on the northern town of Simoca, Tucumán, where an illegal horse race was taking place. The conduct of the said activity was in violation of the quarantine policies. The victim was riding a horse along his brother Juan in the vicinity of the race, when nine police officers and a municipal security guards arrived to stop the illegal event.[9][1]

At least four police officers had a struggle with Juan and, when his brother Luis tried to defend him, he fell off his horse and ran; being later shot at his back with a police service gun. The bullet entered through his left shoulder blade, piercing his lung.[1][12]

His body was then moved to the Monteagudo police precinct, where for four hours, it was being readied to be disposed. The corpse was stripped into a flag pole with plastic bags and a rug.[13][1] He died in some moment between the shooting and the moving to the police precinct.[14]

His body left the precinct inside the car trunk of Rubén Montenegro, deputy commissioner, and he was transported 75 miles to the border of the Catamarca province, where he was dropped into a ravine.[13]

On May 16, 2020, Luis' family tried to file a police report for his disappearance, in the very same precinct where his dead body was taken. The policeman declined the chance to file a report before 72 hours since his disappearance.[14][9] After several days, the policeman admitted of having a silence pact and later on, informed the location of the body.[9] It was found in La Banderita, Catamarca, on May 22, 2020, inside a 492 feet-deep ravine.[9][15]

Once the corpse was found, an autopsy and ballistics report established that the bullet causing the deadly wound came from a police service gun, a Jericho 941 (an Israeli tactic .9mm pistol) that belonged to José Morales, one of the accused policemen.[9][16][17][18][19]

The usage of this weapon by the Tucuman security forces had been under question two years prior to the Luis Espinoza case, since it is not a common weapon for security forces in any other area of Argentina. This resulted in a criminal case for fraudulent administration against the province civil servants, which was dismissed.[20][21][19]

Indictments

Several security forces members were accused for Luis Espinoza's crime, under the crimes of forced disappearance followed by death and kidnapping.[1]

  • José Morales
  • Rubén Montenegro
  • Miriam González
  • René Ardiles
  • Víctor Salinas
  • Carlos Romano
  • José Paz
  • Gerardo González Rojas
  • Claudio Zelaya
  • Fabio Santillán (municipal security guard)

On May 20, 2020, judge Mario Velázquez order the pre-trial detention for the length of six months for six of the ten accused.[22] The prosecutor had requested a 12-months remand.

See also

References
  1. Inesta, José (2020-06-09). "El crimen de Luis Espinoza en Tucumán: las pruebas que comprometen a los policías detenidos" [Luis Espinoza crime in Tucumán: the evidence that implicates the policeman under custody]. Todo Noticias (in Spanish). Buenos Aires. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  2. "PRO condemns institutional violence in statement". Buenos Aires Times. Buenos Aires: Editorial Perfil. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  3. "Nora Cortiñas: "El caso de Luis Espinoza es muy similar a lo que pasó con Maldonado"". La Izquierda Diario - Red internacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  4. ""No les interesa qué pasó con Santiago ni que no haya más Ramonas"". La tinta (in Spanish). 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  5. "¡Alerta coronavirus! El Gobierno decretó la "emergencia sanitaria" en Argentina" [Coronavirus Alert! The government declared sanitary emergency in Argentina]. El Intransigente (in Spanish). 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  6. "Tucumán: Probe into police opened after man 'suffocated' during arrest". Buenos Aires Times. Editorial Perfil. 28 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  7. "La ONU busca recabar datos sobre el crimen de Luis Espinoza en Tucumán". Agencia Télam (in Spanish). Télam. 2020-06-27.
  8. "«La APDH se reunió con representantes de Oficina Regional para America del Sur del Alto Comisionado de la ONU para los DDHH sobre el caso de desaparición forzada y asesinato de Luis Espinoza" [The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights met with representatives of the OHCHR Regional Office for South America on regards of the kidnap and murder of Luis Espinoza]. Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos (ACNUDH) (in Spanish). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  9. Lopez, Fabian. "Tucumán: confirmaron que Luis Espinoza fue asesinado con el arma reglamentaria de un policía" [Tucumán: Luis Espinoza death confirmed to be caused by a policeman service weapon]. La Nacion (in Spanish). Buenos Aires. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  10. "Uno de los policías detenidos fue el que le disparó al peón rural" [One of the arrested policeman was the rural worker shooter]. Perfil (in Spanish). Buenos Aires. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  11. "Tucumán: Probe into police opened after man 'suffocated' during arrest". Buenos Aires Times. Editorial Perfil. 28 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  12. "Police violence escalates in Argentina during quarantine". La Política Online. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  13. "Telenoche a fondo: el caso Luis Espinoza" [Telenoche in-depth: the Luis Espinoza case]. Telenoche (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Canal 13. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  14. Cavanna, Joaquín (2020-06-07). "Crimen de Luis Espinoza: dos de los policías acusados hicieron controles de cuarentena mientras otros llevaban el cadáver a Catamarca" [Luis Espinoza crime: two of the accused policeman did quarantine controls while others took the body to Catamarca]. Infobae. Buenos Aires.
  15. Meyer, Adriana (26 May 2020). "La desaparición forzada de Luis Espinoza en Tucumán: "Tiene todos los condimentos del terrorismo de Estado"". Página 12. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  16. "Uno de los policías detenidos fue el que le disparó al peón rural". Perfil. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  17. "Identificaron al autor material del crimen de Luis Espinoza". El Litoral. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  18. "Impulsan una reestructuración y profesionalización de las fuerzas policiales". Télam. Agencia Télam. 30 May 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  19. Druetta, Eugenio (4 December 2020). "Manzur compró armas a Israel por 9 millones de dólares y denuncian sobreprecios". Perfil (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Editorial Perfil. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  20. López, Fabián (31 May 2020). "Manzur busca contener el escándalo provocado por un asesinato policial". La Nación. Buenos Aires. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  21. "Dos legisladores radicales denunciaron a Manzur y a Maley por la adquisición de armas". San Miguel de Tucumán. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  22. López, Fabián (20 June 2020). "Prisión preventiva para nueve policías por el asesinato de un trabajador rural". La Nación. Buenos Aires. Retrieved 20 June 2020.

 

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