Photos by: Julio Pereyra
Human rights activist Fernando Albareda was detained on Thursday and charged with the murder of his mother, Susana Beatriz Montoya. She was the widow of a deputy commissioner forcibly disappeared by the last military dictatorship and her death has been closely followed nationwide. The latest twist in the case has been met with shock and some reservations by human rights groups.
Montoya was found murdered in her home on the outskirts of Córdoba city last Friday. The words “We’ll kill you all. Now we’re going for your children. #Police” were scribbled on her walls. Albareda had reported written threats against himself as early as December 8.
A press release by Córdoba’s District IV Preliminary Prosecutor’s Office, led by Juan Pablo Klinger, said Albareda’s handwriting had “similar characteristics” to the threats and there was “abundant and conclusive evidence” against him. He has been charged with aggravated homicide and will testify within the next few days.
Montoya’s eldest son gave interviews to various media outlets following her murder, pointing to police involvement. “Since the return of democracy, the police force has never been cleansed, so I am suspicious of everyone,” he told local news channel Cba24.
Albareda, who claimed to have found the body, was a member of the Córdoba branch of H.I.J.O.S., an organization that groups the children of those kidnapped by the dictatorship. He currently works for the National Human Rights Secretariat.
According to local media reports, the autopsy revealed that Montoya had been killed with elements found within her home, and there were no signs of a forced entry. The body was allegedly hidden under grass and dog feces.
Local media said that the prosecutor’s office also has security camera footage placing Albareda in the house at the time of the murder and that one of the suspected motives for the killing involved the money of a state reparation for victims of the dictatorship.
The arrest happened less than two hours before a march scheduled by human rights organizations in downtown Córdoba, which took place despite the news.
In a charged atmosphere, hundreds marched around the José de San Martín monument in the homonymous square under a banner that read “We already said ‘Never again’.” The protestors chanted “Never again,” demanded justice for Montoya and for the 30,000 people forcibly disappeared by the 1976-1983 dictatorship — the desaparecidos.
Emiliano Salguero, an activist of the Córdoba branch of HIJOS, a human rights organization made up of children of desaparecidos, said he felt a “lot of uncertainty.” “We are very worried and concerned and we hope that the justice system will act. We can say no more,” he told the Herald.
Some demonstrators told the Herald the announcement could have been timed as a “political set-up” to harm human rights movements
Elvira Álvarez Igarzábal, a member of the Relatives of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons organization, said she was surprised by the news of Albareda’s arrest. “This march was in condemnation of the murder of [Susana] Beatriz Montoya, Fernando’s mother. What happened, well — time will tell. The justice system is involved and we have to trust them,” she said.
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