Ursula's femicide: the two arrest requests for the murderer and the unusual reason why they were not executed

Natalia Iocco

02/10/2021 1:56 PM

• Clarín.com

• Police

Updated 02/11/2021 8:54 AM

When Matías Ezequiel Martínez (25) killed Úrsula Bahillo (18) the impotence was so great that it awoke the collective anger -first- from all of Rojas, then from the rest of society.

The previous complaints, the requests that were not attended and the history of violence of the Buenos Aires official were the fuel of the anger.

How many alerts were ignored?

How much sooner could it have been stopped?

The truth is that, due to a previous complaint,

Martínez should have been in prison

.

Due to a bureaucratic decision by the Mercedes Justice, he evaded jail, returned to Rojas and killed Úrsula.

From the beginning of his career in the Force, Martínez's record was questioned.

He had been a police officer since April 2015 and was on psychiatric leave since September 8, 2020, a strategy that - they denounce - had emerged to evade exoneration and continue to collect part of his salary.

In five years with the police uniform accumulated transfers and sanctions.

They describe theirs as "a difficult personality", minimizing their actions.

When Belén, his former partner, denounced him for violence and threats (in June 2017), he was notified of a transfer, which was finally carried out.

Look also

In Photos: Femicide in Rojas and request for justice by Úrsula Bahillo

"

If they transfer me, I'll drop a bomb,

" he warned by phone to a superior who notified him of the change.

She, also a police officer, warned of the reaction and a summary was generated in Internal Affairs of the Bonaerense for May 2019.

When he reached 9 de Julio, his new destination, he met another woman.

The violence was repeated, as with Belén, in the same way that - later on - it would reply with Úrsula.

"He was transferred to July 9 to take care of him, that's when he committed the rape ... his mother told me, who contacted me," Belén denounced on social networks.

For that reason, Martínez should have been a prisoner.

It was in June 2020 that her then partner appeared before the Justice to report a violation.

According to what is stated in the Public Prosecutor's Office No. 2 of Mercedes, Martínez raped the niece of this young woman,

a girl with a disability

.

Three months later he was back in Rojas and asking for a psychiatric license.

Judicial sources confirmed to

Clarín

that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the tests were delayed, "although the case advanced with other test measures," they indicated.

Only in December the girl managed to declare and ratify her ordeal.

Martínez was accused of aggravated sexual abuse in the Mercedes Judicial Branch.

Prosecutor Sebastián Villalba

requested his arrest on January 7

, a month before he murdered Úrsula.

However, Facundo Guillermo Oliva, head of the Court of Guarantees No. 2 of Mercedes, was on vacation.

Villalba's request fell to his replacement, Marcelo Enrique Romero, in charge of the Court of Guarantees No. 1, who excused himself from resolving the arrest request because he was at a judicial fair and he was not the natural magistrate of the case.

But the requests did not end there: at the

end of the judicial fair, Villalba reiterated the arrest request

.

Martinez had another chance to end up in jail and in that way, femicide could have been avoided.

That request was never resolved: four days later, the Bonaerense agent killed Úrsula Bahillo with at least 15 stab wounds and then tried to kill himself.

In all these instances, Martínez was on the verge of being disaffected from the Bonaerense, something that did not materialize despite his record.

It was only after the complaint of aggravated sexual abuse that they applied the suspension, restricted him to carrying out administrative tasks and took the regulation weapon from him.

That situation evaded her with the medical license.

Later, Ursula's complaints arrived.

And not even these antecedents were enough for the Junín Justice to order protection measures for her.

On January 28, Patricia Nasutti (52), the mother of the murdered girl, had denounced Martínez for

threat and disobedience

, after breaking the restrictions of approach.

That file fell into the hands of the prosecutor Sergio Terrón, of the Junín Prosecutor's Office No. 5, who is now in charge of the femicide case.

Also the elevation to trial for the complaints of Belén, since 2017.

On February 5, Úrsula reiterated the complaints because the harassment continued.

On the same Monday, February 8, hours before killing, Martínez was summoned to be notified of the causes that were being initiated against him.

And on February 18 he had to appear at a hearing to start the trial for the attacks on Bethlehem.

This Wednesday, the Justice of Guarantees validated the imputation of femicide with the aggravations of

"treachery" and "cruelty"

for the police.

Threats to the femicide's family

In the midst of the collective outrage over the absence of protection measures for the victim, despite the repeated complaints of violence and the antecedents registered in the Justice, the anger also reached the Martinez family.

Through social networks, they accused their sisters of covering it up and denying previous complaints.

So much so that they threatened to set fire to their house and, they warned, they had to flee for fear of reprisals.

The femicide has two 19-year-old twin sisters, almost the same age as Úrsula, with whom he had a relationship for seven months.

They are in the care of their mother, who has a disease.

Loana Martínez told C5N that her brother "is going to have to pay for what he did" and added that his family "has nothing to do with it."

"We are very bad. We still have not fallen from everything that is happening. The family is bad because what happened was something very ugly with Úrsula. We had to leave my house because of threats. We are victims and we are sorry. What my brother, nobody defends him and he will have to pay for it, "he insisted.

He also acknowledged that he knew that his brother had a restriction of approach and previous complaints, although he denied having seen situations of violence between them.

"I never saw anything violent, verbal or physical in my house. I never saw anything," he said.

Concerned about the violence generated by the femicide, she said that they had to move because of the threats.

"I am the same as everyone. We are in shock. My brother did not kill a fly, although we knew he had a complaint," he acknowledged.

As in most cases of gender violence, attacks occur in the private sphere so that the aggressor can ensure impunity.

GL - EMJ