Natalia Iocco
04/28/2021 5:51 PM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 04/28/2021 5:51 PM
On December 2, 2018, there was a blackout in a Burzaco neighborhood, south of Greater Buenos Aires, and Rosa Ramona Agüero (59) lit a candle.
She did it to light the house but, after arguing with her partner, José Carlos Canteros (72), ended up dead.
As they were able to reconstruct in a trial that began on April 12 and whose sentence was known this Tuesday, the man had just arrived at the house on July 9, 2424 when the discussion began, around 23.
He had gone to get something from the workshop at the back of the property and, while Rosa was holding the candle in her hand,
she tossed about a liter of gasoline at it
.
The flames reached her immediately and seriously injured her.
He died after dying for three days in the Churruca Hospital.
Canteros is a retired federal police officer who worked for private security companies.
Witnesses, including his children, acknowledged that he
had a "bad relationship" with his wife
.
Among the stories that were known at the trial, were those of a son of the couple.
He was a witness to the event because he lives in another house a few meters away.
At the time of the crime, he said, he was taking food out of the trunk of his car, listened to the discussion and saw how his father threw a "liquid on the ground."
Then he felt the explosion.
In charge of the decision were the judges of the Oral and Criminal Court No. 1 of Lomas de Zamora, Nicolás Plo, Mariel Alegre and Fernando Ariel Bueno.
Attenuation
But it was the trial prosecutor, Marcela Dimundo, who had considered the "
extraordinary mitigating circumstances
" and asked that he be sentenced to 13 years in prison, something with which the court agreed and even reduced because it ordered a
12-year sentence.
.
For Dimundo, there was no violent relationship between them because "although there were discords, they were so for different reasons."
"Mrs. Agüero,
far from being a submissive person, also argued, started fights
. She worked long hours, left her house," he argued.
And he added: "Although the friend of the family said that at one point she spoke of a kind of violence, she made reference to many years ago. It had been more than ten years."
According to Dimundo, as there were no previous complaints, the victim worked and also argued with her husband, the maximum penalty for homicide aggravated by the relationship and for mediating gender violence did not correspond.
Neither because of the treachery with which the femicide was committed.
During the discussion that ended with the crime, Canteros shouted: "
If this house caused you so much trouble, then you want to set it on fire, well here you are
."
Immediately after, he threw at least a liter of fuel at his feet.
Another of the arguments supported by both the defense of Canteros, and the prosecution, is
the bad relationship that the victim had with her children
.
Two of them had no connection with their mother and, that night, Canteros returned from visiting them.
The woman would have reproached him for being drunk.
Rosa died from burns, congestion and pulmonary edema caused by the smoke.
During the hearings, sources with access to the file explained, it was clear that it had not been an accident and that there was no violent emotion. Canteros knew that he could kill his wife and that he was putting his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, who were in an adjoining house, at risk.
According to the prosecution, the victim's "claims" were linked to her estrangement from her children. "Agüero's claims have a margin of injustice because a mother cannot demand that a father stop seeing his children, as one witness stated, 'Rosa wanted him to defend her before her children.' In the framework of those discussions Mr. Canteros could not be required to stop maintaining ties with his other children. He also takes into account that these discussions took place in situations in which the accused had ingested alcohol, "he explained.
But he acknowledged that Canteros is "positioned and crossed by patriarchal cultural issues, linked to the prohibition of separation, the prohibition of the work of his wife, who in turn states that she has been the mother and father of her children, because the Dedication to his work prevented him from being present in his paternal role. "
However, it did not seem sufficient to him to consider the crime in a context of violence.
Agüero's children justified their father's actions and one of them even considered that he tried to "provoke" her by throwing gasoline at her and not killing her.
As the penalty coincides with what is requested by the prosecution, it will not be appealed
.
The truth is that Canteros will not spend a day in jail.
Because of his age, he received a moderate sentence and will serve his sentence in
house arrest.
Gender violence
Since March 20, 2020, there have been 279 femicides, 8 transfemicides and 20 linked femicides of adult males and children, according to data collected by the “Adriana Marisel Zambrano” Observatory of Femicides in Argentina, who runs La Casa del Encuentro.
Of that total, 35 of the femicides had already been reported and had a history of violence.
Another 18, like José Canteros, had been members of the security forces.
In the last ten years in Argentina there is an average of one femicide every 30 hours.
According to statistics from the Office of Domestic Violence of the Supreme Court, in 2018 alone there were 278. Most murders occur in the homes of the victims and are committed by partners or exes.
Where to call
Line 144
Care for women in situations of violence.
Line 137
Attention to Victims of Family Violence.
911 Emergencies
EMJ
Look also
The bodybuilder arrested for the Los Toldos femicide received a beating in prison
"Together for Mariana", the solidarity collection after a femicide in Flores
