Virginia Messi
07/11/2020 - 7:00
- Clarín.com
- Police
It rarely fails. One mentions Guillermo Heisinger (60) and the interlocutor responds: "What a character!", In a tone ... sometimes smiling, sometimes bitter. And there is something of that, although in recent years his name appeared in the newspapers - without any glamor - as part of a Colombian drug gang.
Lawyer, former official of the Ministry of the Interior during the presidency of Carlos Menem, former devotee of Opus Dei, in February went through the Civil Registry to marry Jorge, her Colombian boyfriend whom she met in 2007. With him she celebrated on Wednesday in her flirtatious floor of the Recoleta neighborhood his acquittal in the Narcoarroz case, as the seizure of cocaine embedded in rice occurred in September 2015 was baptized.
In the same ruling, other defendants were convicted, such as the Colombian Williams Triana Peña (38) , the alleged head of the narco clan. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison as a member of an illicit association, although he was not blamed for any particular drug trafficking case.
The verdict was read - which came after a two-year trial - on the last Wednesday afternoon, was conducted by teleconference, was delivered by the president of the court, José Martinez Sobrino, and lasted half an hour. Of the 17 accused, the name of Guillermo Heisinger - defended by Catalina Santoro and Lucia Tarico - was the last to appear.
"When I got to jail, I didn't have the palest idea of Criminal Law, but I learned. I knew that in judgments you start with the one who will receive the most penalty, but you still had doubts. Cut nails, really. It was a horrible moment , I do not wish it on anyone. I perspired as a false witness, "Heisinger told Clarin and, incidentally, explained why the judges reprimanded him at the end of the reading of the ruling:" I took off my shirt because I was all sweaty from the nerves".
-And how did the festivities continue?
-At night we ask for delivery, asadito. We ate it at home, bound with Jorge. Very happy receiving phone calls, because the ball ran very fast. One calls you, the other calls you. All those who appeared in difficult times call you. And those that did not appear, appear now.
Heisinger married Jorge, a Colombian hairdresser.
-How long was he imprisoned?
-I was imprisoned from September 19, 2015 to December 19, 2019. I was then released with an electronic bracelet and restricted freedom. So I was until the verdict. The four years I lived in the Ezeiza Penitentiary Complex I. Fortunately or unfortunately I had to know the truth about prison. I was never in a special ward, as others in my cause were, because if that were the case, I would not have been able to move to the University: I was academic secretary of the UBA 22 program at the Ezeiza University Center (CUE). So I was always with the general population. I was able to meet interns from the 6 modules at Ezeiza.
-In the UBA Module zafo more ...
-More or less. 600 or 700 inmates per week pass through this place, from all the criminological profiles that occur to them. I was in contact with the entire prison population, not only with those of certain crimes, primary, as usually happens. I met the worst of the worst and the best of the best.
-Did you ever think "here they kill me"?
-I've suffered. I have been in quite complex situations many times.
-But he seems an intelligent and skillful man ...
-Seee ... but in prison intelligence and ability are often not the predominant factor. In prison what counts is the law of the jungle, force. But thank God I was able to get away from ugly things that have happened to me and that I don't want to remember now.
-He was acquitted in the Narcoarroz case, but the case for money laundering of drug trafficking is still pending.
-That is a cause related to drug trafficking. In it I was investigated three years ago by federal judge Sergio Torres. On July 18, 2019 they dictated a "lack of merit" to me. They have no proof, I don't know what will happen to that cause now.
Triana Peña fell in Bogotá. She had an Interpol red alert.
-What was your relationship with the Triana Peña family?
-I met them for having a Colombian boyfriend, but it is difficult to have a relationship with Colombians. I was a lawyer and the wife of a Colombian who was a friend of Jorgito introduced me to one and so on. You start doing a good task of legal advice and they recommend you. I cared for a lot of Colombians.
-But you are integrating companies investigated for money laundering.
-Like any lawyer in the field, when you work with entrepreneurs, you often participate as a substitute director. Of these companies I have been alternate director or legal director. But I never had executive positions.
-In Creole: a figurehead.
-Nerd. It is not a figurehead, it is a legal legal mechanism. He did not test anything because the substitute director was only a requirement that was requested at that time to form a company. I never exercised functions.
-Did you ever notice anything strange?
-Let's see ... of all the Colombians I have dealt with, there is a fable that they are drug traffickers. I am not aware of the Triana at all. On the contrary, I would say that they were the least likely to be suspected. I made the majority of the Triana family a nationality, I nationalized them Argentines. In the nationalization process, the federal judges request around 9 offices to find out about the petitioner's conditions. And I had the list of a lot of trades of the Triana family (from Interpol, from the Side, from Recidivism) and they were all impeccable profiles.
-In other cases, Colombian drug traffickers also had perfect profiles, until they went looking for DEA.
-These were Argentine authorities. I had the collection of the good family man. I never saw anything strange or talked about the drug issue. From being a university professor, worker, politician, I became a "drug trafficker ...", insane. Almost five years in prison to be told: "Sir, you have nothing to do with this."
-Do you think that the Triana Peña are innocent?
-I never saw anything strange, in any of the Triana. In fact, the conviction is not for drug trafficking, it is for illicit association.
At the time of the Menemist civil servant, Heisinger (seated) next to Gustavo Béliz.
Guillermo Heisinger knows that he led and leads an interesting life. And he likes to talk about his political past, his friends and his exit from the closet after years related to very orthodox sectors within the Catholic Church, such as Opus Dei.
"Being gay in the Process years was very hard. I did a lot of therapy and today I am a very happy, very happy person. But I had hard times and that this happened to me was the hardest thing I had to live. I am an only child and I lost my mother while in jail. Even because of SPF irregularities, I was unable to assist her in her last moments, they did not take me to her funeral or funeral, "he laments.
"I have had the profile of an upper middle class guy from Zona Norte. I was born in Tigre, I studied in San Isidro at the Marín school and I graduated as a lawyer at the Catholic University. I was a partner of Daniel Hadad, of Juanjo Alvarez, of Gustavo Hornos. Studying in an Opus Dei center I met Gustavo Béliz and he approached Dr. Carlos Menem. When I asked my partner that he was going to leave the profession for politics he told me that he was crazy to go follow that monkey '", remember.
-Are you still a man of faith? His last words before the Tribunal were from the Apostle Saint Paul ...
-I said them from a human point of view. It is a phrase that speaks of someone who has fought the good fight, has reached the goal and has not lost faith. And I did not lose faith in Justice.
Jorge Jacome and Guillermo Heisinger, during a vacation in the Seychelles.
-Her husband is eavesdropping on a case in which a Colombian hitman accused of a crime in Palermo is being investigated. How do you explain that?
- Obviously Jorge has nothing to do with it. These were people who were going to cut their hair at their hairdresser, who neither knew nor knew who they were. Clients, they were clients.
-Self-criticism? What was wrong?
-I never did anything with intention. I was neither wrong nor guilty. I did things well and Justice ended up accepting it. As Edith Piaf would say: "Non, je ne regrette rien" ... No, I don't regret anything.
GL