It’s been a month since Cecilia Strzyzowski was last seen in the Chaco city of Resistencia— her 19-year-old husband César Sena is accused of femicide alongside his parents, Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña. Today, human rights watchdog Amnesty International launched an international solidarity campaign calling for justice and exhorting people to send a template letter to the case’s prosecutor, Jorge Cáceres Olivera.

“The world is watching what’s happening in the Cecilia case. In a context where the suspects have strong ties to political power it’s imperative that the state guarantee an effective, impartial, independent investigation with a gender perspective to shed light on what happened and that victims receive reparations,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina.

The template letter highlights a “pattern of systematic impunity” when it comes to cases of gender-based violence in Argentina and the region, which Amnesty also emphasized in its annual international human rights report.

“Faced with that reality, it’s fundamental that the judiciary adopts all resources at its disposal to advance the investigation urgently, break the cycle of impunity, guarantee the protection of women and girls, and make sure that cases of gender-based violence are addressed according to national, regional and international standards,” the letter reads. 

“We urge you to send an unequivocal message that gender-based violence will not be tolerated and will not go unpunished.” 

According to the National Femicide Registry, there was one femicide every 39 hours in 2022 — Chaco is the province with the second-highest number proportional to its population with 12. Of the 226 femicides nationwide, 167 happened in the context of domestic abuse.

You may also be interested in: Amnesty International report highlights crises and impunity

“Why are we being incriminated?”

Marcela Acuña, Strzyzowski’s mother-in-law, is one of the seven people in custody and published a handwritten letter directed at the press today calling the investigation “a comedy worthy of Dante.” 

“If César was responsible for the crime, why are we being incriminated?” wrote Acuña, who is being investigated for premeditated murder as a co-perpetrator.

In the two-page letter, also published today, Acuña said that she and her husband, Emerenciano Sena, are innocent.

“We shouldn’t confuse things, one thing is Cecilia’s femicide which is heinous from every perspective, and another is a prosecutor wanting to incriminate us with no evidence not only locking us up and parading us as trophies, handcuffed like delinquents, but being lumped into a case with unsubstantiated accusations, just assumptions,” she said.

Both Acuña and Emerenciano were candidates for Capitanich’s Frente Chaqueño for this month’s primary elections but were removed from the ballot after suspicion about their role in Strzyzowski’s disappearance grew. The Senas are a politically powerful family with ties to Chaco’s Governor Jorge Capitanich, although he has distanced himself from them in press conferences. Emerenciano Sena leads a foundation that built a neighborhood for low-income families with provincial funding during Capitanich’s first term — Acuña contended that his work as a social leader makes them “guilty mafia members for the judiciary.”

“We are innocent and may God forgive those who act with malice, they’ve caused a lot of hurt and God sees it all— you shouldn’t be using other people’s pain to position yourself in a society that believes media outlets,” she said. 

She closed out the letter with a paragraph which — like the Amnesty International template — is dedicated to Cáceres Olivera, the prosecutor.

“The first day he met me he said ‘You won’t do what you want,’ threatening me in front of police officers before this comedy worthy of Dante exploded, organized by him and the mafia that wants to see Emerenciano defeated, jailed, and torture a woman like me because they felt challenged.”

“My daughter was scared”

According to investigators, Strzyzowski’s husband César Sena, his father Emerenciano, and Acuña told her they were going on a trip to Ushuaia, then murdered her. Some burned items, confirmed today as her backpack and wallet, were found in the Sena family’s backyard. Human remains were also discovered and the evidence is being studied by forensic anthropologists from Córdoba province’s judiciary.

Strzyzowski went missing on June 2 and hundreds rallied at a bridge yesterday in Chaco to mark one month since she was last seen and calling for justice. 

“My daughter was scared but she never told me in order to protect me. 80% of women don’t tell their family because they’re scared,” said Gloria Romero, Strzyzowski’s mother, in an interview on Crónica TV at the rally. “Absolutely nobody can blame a girl for being beaten, raped, or killed.”

Romero said that as soon as she found out about her daughter’s disappearance, she knew that there were very few chances of finding her alive.

“When I met the head of police he grabbed my hand and promised he would find my daughter’s body. That’s when I knew we were looking for a body,” she said. “She would have turned 29 on August 3.”

—Herald/Télam

—Herald/Télam