In this green labyrinth of immense, imposing and ostentatious houses, what abounds is
silence.
One day after the crime of the controversial Uruguayan businessman Gonzalo Aguiar (46),
Clarín
walks the streets of the Cantegril neighborhood, near the Punta del Este Golf Club.
What is perceived this Tuesday is a secrecy mixed with curiosity:
no one knows and no one says, but everyone wants to see, snoop, find out.
For Aguiar's murder, the only person accused is Romina Camejo (26), his ex-partner and mother of his seven-month-old daughter.
On Av. San Pablo, right in front of the Golf Club, some cars surreptitiously stop in front of
La Maison
, a property located a few blocks from Brava beach, on a
6,000 square meter
plot of land that Aguiar acquired in 2021 at an auction. .
That mansion guarded by statues of lions and ostentatious decorations is frozen in time, and only – for a second – does the figure of a woman appear, closing the few curtains that have revealed the interior.
There are no questions among the furtive observers.
Only awkward silences, pointing fingers, and glances through the windows.
For the most part, these people avoid commenting with
Clarín
about everything related to the 46-year-old man who lived among them like another neighbor.
Video
In 2021, the woman uploaded a song to her YouTube channel.
He had already uploaded covers of pop singers in Spanish on the networks.
“That's how things are, you see,” laments a woman who does not get out of her car, and who says
she has no idea what happened
to the owner of that mansion that is opposite and that attracts anyone's attention.
Those around him improvise a response to get out of the moment, and almost all of them are the same.
La Maison, the house of businessman Gonzalo Aguiar, one of the most luxurious in Punta del Este.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
-I didn't know him much, almost at all.
-I do not know a lot.
I found out on TV.
―Ask him or her better.
At the Golf Club, one of the employees reveals that Aguiar never attended despite living very close, and that there were few who knew him since
“he arrived in the neighborhood with his partner very recently
. ”
He describes that the businessman, who was also linked to the scandal of the
medical cannabis
company “Boreal”, did not interact much with his neighbors.
The Maison is surrounded by green.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
In fact, remember the news that broke in February 2023, when
La Maison
was robbed and the loot from the robbery turned out to be
a security chest and twenty weapons
, between short and long, some of which were collectible.
He says that since then Aguiar
was always guarded
and kept distant from the rest of the world.
“The previous owner, who was from Brazil, did come here, played golf, interacted with people, but he never did,” he remarks.
The silence spreads
These hectares of infinite greenery, of trees of all kinds, of cyclists who pedal and -sometimes- observe, are all there is during the almost 4 kilometers that separate La Maison from the intersection of Mar Chiquita and Mar de Coral streets, a place in in which
Aguiar was shot dead several times by Romina Camejo
.
This happened on Monday at 4 in the morning.
The house on Mar Chiquita and Coral, in Punta del Este, where Aguiar's crime occurred and the Lamborghini Huracan parked at the door.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
A day later, a gray Lamborghini Huracan, owned by Gonzalo, is still parked in front of this home, which turns out to belong to a friend of his who became an
eyewitness to his murder
.
According to what was confirmed, the car had been there days before what happened and it is not the same one with which Aguiar arrived at the house that early Monday morning.
Inside this vehicle, you can see a license plate, a beer bottle, a Coca Cola bottle, and some other items scattered and dirty on the floor.
There is nothing fenced off, nor left out of the sight of casual snoops.
Beer, disposable tissues, a patent, an unfinished coke and other waste inside Aguiar's Lamborghini.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
Once again, the dead, empty streets.
The occasional spectator who briefly fixes his gaze and comments in passing that that house was on the news.
But just like La Maison, it is also surrounded by neighbors who
do not come out, who do not answer, and who deny knowing about the issue
.
A curious fact: 1,300 meters from La Maison and halfway to the mansion in the Cantegril neighborhood where the Aguar crime occurred is
Gypsy Queen
, the swinger mansion, the axis of the Edwar Vaz murder plot, on July 9, 2018 in Maldonado.
Three of the six accused of the homicide lived in that luxurious property.
The swinger mansion case shocked Punta del Este in 2018. Photo Marcelo Carroll / Special Envoy
Another point in common between the two cases is that the motive for the crime was due to a conflict between Vaz and his ex-partner Lulukhy Moraes, who hired hitmen to kill him.
In mid-2022, the Uruguayan Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) confirmed the sentences of 6 people involved in the murder of Vaz.
The sentences were between 8 and 25 years in prison.
Romina Camejo, free but unable to leave Montevideo
For now, Romina will not be able to return to the house where the crime occurred or to La Maison, since although she was released, she established an address in Montevideo and Justice prohibited her from leaving that city for at least 150 days.
To these restrictions, she also added the retention of her passport and the prohibition of using her cell phone.
The corner where the Punta del Este businessman's crime house is located.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
This was ordered by the Uruguayan Justice at the hearing on Tuesday.
The public hearing of “limiting measures” was attended by Camejo, who was detained at the Maldonado Police Department Headquarters.
“The investigation was not formalized, nor has the case been filed.
There are expertise that we believe will be useful to us and may be clarifying.
With this measure, no decision was made regarding the case, simply given the limited deadlines we saw the benefit of the doubt, and that it was prudent to ensure the restraining of the accused and continue the investigation.
There is no doubt that she shot, but we want more time to corroborate the theory of self-defense,” says prosecutor Sebastián Robles.
At the hearing, he pointed out that there are
four direct witnesses to the crime.
Video
The owner of one of the most exclusive mansions in Punta del Este was murdered by his ex-partner.
“There was an announcement that he was going to be present at that place that day.
They didn't live together.
He was always armed.
She defended herself
.
One of her fears was the physical integrity of the baby, because there was also a situation of violence against her.
"Romina stated that there were threats (from Aguiar) to take the baby," says Camejo's lawyer, Camilo Silvera.
The defender emphasizes the detail that they were not living together, but the aunt says the opposite.
Likewise, he expresses that he is facing a particular case due to the fact that it occurs in an area with people who can provide their statement.
This is the luxurious mansion where Camejo and Aguiar lived.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / Special Envoy
"Here what is being discussed is
whether there is a crime of homicide or whether
there is not a crime."
because there is a cause of justification that is legitimate defense.
In that case, there is no crime, there is no responsible person to impose a penalty on,” he indicates.
Silvera adds, finally, that until now no security measures have been designated for Camejo.
She traveled yesterday to Montevideo, where she will be with her baby and in the care of her family.
Punta del Este. Special Envoy
MG