Pablo Ventura, the rower who did not learn to hate

Diana Baccaro

06/06/2020 - 14:22

• Clarín.com
• Society

The last time rower Pablo Ventura had cried it was for love. But a long time had passed since that, so much so that when she finally felt that salty taste on her lips, no one could stop her. Neither the two policemen who were guarding him in that hot cell of Villa Gesell, nor when an agent brought him tea to calm him down. Pablo's long and contained crying had only begun on the second day of his arrest for the crime of Fernando Baez Sosa. Throughout the journey on patrol from his house in Zarate to the Coast, his head was full of questions: why am I handcuffed, where are they taking me, what for, who are those rugbiers who accuse me of being a murderer. And the first night in prison the fatigue fainted him in the dream. But as soon as he climbed its almost 2 meters high on the mattress that had been improvised on the ground, all that humanity collapsed like a bag of sand . At first his eyes clouded, then the tsunami struck. And there he was, curled up giant on the small mattress, the other two days he was detained. As if someone had hit him in the stomach with a stick.

-No, no, I wasn't crying out of hatred .

Pablo says it almost 5 months after that nightmare in which he was involved in the crime of a boy he had never seen. For that murder there are 8 imprisoned rugbiers. They blamed Pablo when the police came looking for them at the vacation home they rented. " It was Pablo Ventura, " they chorused as a joke? tasteless.

At home. Pablo spends forty years studying Pharmacy and listening to music.

-They never called me to apologize, never. But I don't hate them. Everything is paid in life. And if it is perpetual, let it be perpetual.

Today Pablo spends his days also locked up, but for the quarantine. Those who know him say that he stopped being that piece of shadow that was when he left the DDI of Villa Gesell and returned to his house in Zárate. Now he looks more mature, less innocent, but without a vengeance.

-Do you know why I cried that I hardly ever cry for anything? Because of his helplessness, he wanted to know why I, just me, who had never fought with anyone, was chained to the wall with his hands cuffed. That's how I stayed for four days! I didn't even know those rugbiers. Then I remembered that with one of them I had kept a crossroads in a bowling alley, a long time ago. Was that enough for such evil? I cried because I wanted to understand and did not understand anything.

The attack with blows and kicks in which Fernando died on the morning of January 18 was filmed by security cameras and cell phones. Hours later, ten rugby players from the Arsenal de Zárate Nautical Club were arrested on vacation and staying near the Le Brique bowling alley, where it all started. Eight of them are now in Melchor Romero prison. The remaining two were accused of "necessary participants" and were released.

It took Pablo almost three weeks to go back to sleep all night. He avoided the cameras from the day he was dismissed and took refuge in his family. He did not even have the strength to go to Fernando's march that took place a month after his murder to ask for justice in front of Congress. I wanted to avoid public exposure. Many things had been said about him: that the rugbiers had him knitted, that they called him "little" (from above) and fucked him with that of 'canoe foot' for wearing almost 50, that he never had a girlfriend, who was very shy and quiet, that he had few friends at school and that he only felt good in the Yacht Club where he practiced rowing. However, Pablo assures that if he could survive those four days handcuffed in a cell, it was precisely thanks to his friends . "The day they took me into custody they came to say goodbye: everyone gave me encouragement and, most importantly, they said they trusted my innocence," he clarifies.

Pablo Ventura with his father in Villa Gesell, after his release. Photo Maxi Failla

That Saturday Pablo was taking a nap at home when a police mobile arrived. The mother attended and called José María, his husband. There the odyssey began. They showed the family the images from a video where a gang attacked a boy lying on the ground. " I wasn't there ," Pablo defended himself immediately. But that same night he was already on top of the patrol car heading to Villa Gesell. His dad followed him back with his Peugeot 208, but shortly after leaving he burst a cover and did not accidentally kill himself. He put the spare wheel on and went back to Campana to buy a new one. By going back out on the road, he had already lost his son. When they arrived at the 1st station of Villa Gesell they told him that Pablo was in General Madariaga. There they told him that he was actually in Dolores and there they confirmed that he should go to the DDI of Villa Gesell. When his exhausting pilgrimage was finally over, he asked to see his son. They did not leave it. He settled for going to the corner to buy her a Milanese sandwich with a soda.

Pablo Ventura and the hug with his parents, on the return home. Photo: Martin Bonetto

" It was all I ate in four days, " says Pablo on the other end of the line, separating the syllables to give more emphasis to his words. And remember those days as a bonfire. "It was so hot that I wasn't hungry. The days were eternal and I was there, lying on the mattress, tied to the wall, looking at the ceiling. I couldn't use my cell phone, listen to the radio, or receive a visit from my dad. Nothing. It seemed like four years in hell. "

Why so many days to confirm that Pablo was not in Villa Gesell that tragic morning? No one ever clarified it for him despite the fact that he immediately presented the filming of a restaurant in Zárate where he appears having dinner with his parents hours before the crime.

Pablo Ventura, on the way back to the neighborhood, with his neighbors photos Martín Bonetto

Pablo says he accepted the interview with Clarín because he already feels better and because the quarantine has him a little boring. The only son, a Sagittarian, he spends most of the day between video calls with friends, online games, some Netflix and training in the garden. He wants to be a pharmacist (like his parents), but this semester confesses that he scored only in one subject, professional practice, because he is not very concentrated. At 21 he has ears full of electronic music, trap, pop, rock. And of a buzz that does not stop: the search for Justice. Why retell your story now? Because it is not always true that bad characters are unforgettable and no one remembers the good ones .