The retired soldier, Juan Rebollo, was prosecuted with imprisonment by the 23rd shift criminal judge, Isaura Tórtora, for the murders of Diana Maidanic, 22 years old; Laura Raggio, 19; and Silvia Reyes, also 19 years old, events that would have occurred on April 21, 1974.
Retired soldiers José Nino Gavazzo and Eduardo Klastornick, who died during the judicial process, had also been prosecuted.
The investigation concluded that the three girls were shot in a military operation perpetrated in the Brazo Oriental neighborhood, where they were looking for the militant of the National Liberation Movement – Tupamaros, Washington Javier Barrios Fernández. At that time, the latter was in Argentina looking for a house to move to and escape the persecution to which he and his family were subjected.
On April 21, 1974, the violent operation broke out throughout the block and the three young women were shot. “The hypothesis that the three women were killed without a previous armed confrontation is compatible with all the elements,” said Tórtora.
One of the neighbors of the scene narrated what happened: “At that moment several soldiers entered my apartment, some entered with a revolver, they took me outside, where they put me against the window, and while they searched me they asked me what my name was. . Someone shouts “It’s not there, it’s next door”, there they start firing shots towards apartment No. 3 without having hit. I don’t know who was firing the shots because I had no visibility […] the bullets continue, around five to seven, or 10 minutes -I don’t know exactly- until the shooting stops and then the screams of the soldiers and the girls begin, who shouted not to shoot, not to kill them, and after that you feel a burst of machine gun that shook the wall”.
Rebollo was prosecuted with prison for the murder of the three women as a co-author. He was in charge of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group 1, led by Lieutenant Colonel Washington Enrique Scala Demarco, who ordered the operation at dawn on April 21.
Cabildo Abierto defends it
For the Cabildo Abierto party, the prosecution is not justice but rather “revenge”. This is the opinion of the senator and lobbyist leader, Guillermo Domemech. “The processing of Lt. Gen. Juan Rebollo is an act of undisguised revenge, unbecoming of a Justice that in the past filled us with pride and in which supporters of Marxist terrorism are crouched today, ”he commented on Twitter on Saturday night.
The senator of the same party, Raúl Lozano, aligned himself with the thought and stated: “Captain Julio C. Gutiérrez, killed in this operation, left behind 3 children, ages 6 and 5, and an 11-month-old baby. Lieutenant Colonel Juan M. Rebollo was wounded while trying to help the officer. After 48 years, he is prosecuted with prison. Justice? Difficult to explain”. Lozano also made these comments on Twitter and ravished the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou.
For Guido Manini Ríos, senator and maximum head of the ultra-conservative party, he expressed that “once again what we all know is verified and many do not dare to denounce, what even Azucena Berruti and José Mujica said: this is not Justice, it is revenge…”, and mentioned the official account of Cabildo Abierto and his wife and Minister of Housing, Irene Moreira.
