Benjamin Gamond, in an image of his social networks. RR SS
A judge has linked to judicial proceedings for the crimes of injury and aggravated homicide to Cruz Irving, 21, accused of killing an Argentine tourist with a machete in Oaxaca and wounding two others. The accused will be remanded in custody while the trial takes place. The family of Benjamin Gamond, 23, who died Monday at Mexico City's General Hospital from his injuries, has donated his organs. The young man was dismissed to applause from the medical center of the country's capital.
Last Friday, Benjamin Gamond finished eating with two friends, Sebastian Lastra and Macarena Gonzalez, at a beach restaurant in Lagunas de Chacahua, on the coast of Oaxaca, western Mexico. After going to ask for the bill, Cruz Irving pounced from behind with a machete and made two deep cuts to his head and face. Lastra and González, who intervened to try to stop the attack, suffered injuries to their hands and back. She had to undergo surgery, but is out of danger.
The three young men had met the assailant just a day earlier, when they arrived by boat in Chachua. They asked him for southern instructors. "The tourists stayed in a cabin and changed places the next day, we managed to establish that, on May 12, around two in the afternoon, they went to eat, the accused intercepted them and for no apparent reason assaulted people," Bernardo Rodríguez Alamilla, the state prosecutor, explained at a press conference.
On the left, an ambulance transports one of the attacked tourists, and on the right, Gamond is treated by paramedics. RR SS
Although the motive for the attack is still unknown, the Prosecutor's Office places drug consumption as the main line of investigation: "Due to the characteristics of the behavior presented by the accused when he was made available to the Prosecutor's Office." The accused was arrested in flagrante delicto by the municipal police of Tututepec.
This theory coincides with the narration of the facts made by Fernanda Carina González, Macarena's mother, to the Argentine media: "He was talking to them and told them he was a surf instructor. When they got to the island, he told them he was from there and that whatever they needed, he was going to walk along the coast." Just before the attack, "the guy looked at them like he didn't know them." According to the municipal president of Villa Tututepec, Jesuhandy Conde Gómez, the assailant took the machete, a common work tool in the area, from a place where coconuts were stored that was visible. Conde has pointed out that Cruz Irving, from Guerrero, was in the region looking for work and that he had already shown some substance use problem.
The case of the three young men, natives of Córdoba, has shocked Argentina. The family of Benjamin Gamond began Sunday to ask for help to save the young man, who at the time was in an induced coma, after a six-hour operation. They managed to get a Mexican government medical plane to transfer the young man from the small medical center in Puerto Escondido, where he was to the General Hospital of the capital.
The next day, his brother Facundo managed to reach the city and a few hours later, Benjamin died. "The Gamond family reports with immense sorrow that Benja did not make it. The miracle did not happen. The efforts were enormous, like his strength and heart, but it was not enough," they wrote on social networks. At that time, the young man was still connected to the devices that kept him alive, because the family wanted to donate his organs. This Wednesday, the health staff of the General Hospital said goodbye with applause to the young Argentine, as his brother shared on his Instagram account: "So we say goodbye to you little brother of the soul, like a hero."
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In Mexico, a country that registers almost 100 homicides a day, drug violence is encircling certain tourist areas, such as the Riviera Maya, however, it was not a problem that had been registered on the tourist coasts of Oaxaca until now. However, just this week the body of a Canadian tourist also murdered was found in Puerto Escondido, a few kilometers from Gamond's crime. The state prosecutor's office says four people killed the 27-year-old after robbing him.
"At the time of paying the bill there was an altercation between the tourist and the people he was with. Upon leaving the place, he made 911 calls to say that his things were stolen, and the next day he appears lifeless. The strongest line we have is the altercation he had with these people in the establishment and probably the robbery. We have a clear identification process and the investigation is carried out to define the levels of responsibility to bring before the judge whoever is responsible, "said the prosecutor.
The two cases have impacted this quiet area of the Oaxacan coast that has seen since the pandemic the irruption of thousands of tourists, the growth of nightspots and with them also the increase in drug sales.
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