Maldonado case: the case was dismissed and the constable returned. Emmanuel Echazú

The Rawson Federal Judge Gustavo Lleral closed today the case of the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado, the young man who was last seen alive on 1 August, expelled from the gendarmerie in the Cushamen region, and whose body appeared in the waters of the Chubut River 77 days later. For the magistrate, the second speaker in the case, there was no enforced disappearance, one of the investigative hypotheses of the case and which has always fueled the trial of relatives of Santiago, 28 years old at the moment of his disappearance. In his resolution, of 263 pages on which he accepted PROFILELleral also dismissed Constable Emmanuel Echazú, the only accused in this case. "The truth is that the truth surrounding the disappearance and death of the victim of this case (and victim of all the misleading manipulations that result from it), is one," said the judge.

In his resolution, the magistrate gave a detail of the case since its inception until now. He referred to the various testimonies and evidence in the case. Also the positions of the different parties and the former judge of the case, Guido Otranto. "Public concern and expectations which has undoubtedly generated the present case, obliges me to recall and, in a nutshell, to present to individuals and to society as a whole the content of this inquiry and the work proposed and deployed with a view to providing a solution based on Justice. .

For the magistrate, it is clear that the body of Santiago was from its appearance until its discovery, in the waters of the river Chubut. "There his body remained trapped, hanging in the dense underwater branches, which kept inert and hidden for the necessary time so that, after its natural internal decomposition, it will overcome the cold pressure and temperature of the water until climate changes occur. "

And he adds: "And only, as it sank, without anyone noticing it at that moment, emerged in the same place, in the backwater of the river where he had been hiding and where his submersion had taken place. At this point, a branch of the same willow where he was trapped held a support, held it until it was seen and finally, it was removed. The truth is that. When the simplicity of things is obvious, they fly over the troubles of misleading speculation, "Lleral developed.

In other sections, he said: "The facts presented in this case, they are not a crime. Nobody has forced the disappearance of Santiago Andrés Maldonado. The evidence gathered as the author of this criminal hypothesis did not identify anyone. Nobody was criminally responsible for his death. "

Referring to the situation of the accused gendarme, he stated: "That is what is happening, and according to the information that emerges from the evidence gathered in the case and exhaustively badyzed above, that excludes any intervention of the national gendarmerie, in general, and Mr. Emmanuel Echazú, in particular. "