The photojournalist José Luis Cabezas was remembered this Tuesday with acts in different parts of the country on the 25th anniversary of his murder, and from the city of Pinamar, where the crime was committed, the photographer’s relatives and colleagues warned that the “freedom of condemned is an affront” to memory and “a danger to society”.
“There were no arms or words to help me understand what was happening. Why, José Luis? Why our children? Why their parents? Why their sister? Why me? The pain remains in me, and I always find her clear and transparent gaze in the gaze of our daughter”, said Cristina Robledo, the photographer’s widow who currently lives in Spain, in a letter that was read by the photojournalist and journalist’s friend, Gabriel Michi.
Also present at the event the mayor of Pinamar, Martin Yezain addition to the photojournalist’s sister, Gladys Cabezas, as well as the media businessman and union leader Víctor Santa María, among others.
Participants they discovered a monolith that remembers the reporter and planted a tree in his memory.
For her part, Yeza apologized on behalf of the municipality, according to the magazine Noticias, which covered the event.
In addition, Gladys Heads He stated in statements to Radio 10 that “all those convicted in the case are free and with many benefits” and assured that “we continue to fight to end impunity in this country because there is no Justice for José Luis or for the rest.” .
michi, who was doing the summer journalistic coverage in Pinamar for the magazine Noticias together with Cabezas when the photographer was murdered on January 25, 1997, considered in statements to Radio del Plata that “the freedom of the condemned is an affront to José Luis and a danger to society.
“All the murderers were sentenced to life but later came a shameful ruling from the Chamber of Cassation of the province of Buenos Aires that reduced their sentence, they applied the 2×1, and having served a third of the sentence, they all went home “said the journalist.
Cabezas was remembered by Argra in a face-to-face event that took place in the Balvanera neighborhood of Buenos Aires, with the slogan “There is no democracy without justice. There is no justice without truth and there is no truth without memory”.
At the event, which was attended by representatives of the press unions, Eva Cabrera, photojournalist for the Télam agency Y the first woman to preside over Argrasaid that the murder of Cabezas was “an act of intimidation against independent journalism as a whole, society, its committed political and social leaders” and stated that the request for justice for his death became “a symbol of the fight against impunity”.
“It’s a Never Again for us, this set a limit,” Cabrera said later in statements to Télam and stated that “it has to do with the collective struggle and with our claim. Saying ‘never again’ to a murdered journalist, we are not going to allow no one to hurt our colleagues.
For your part the head of the Public Defender’s Office, Miriam Lewin, In dialogue with this agency, he highlighted the importance that “all of society has taken to the streets to stand up against impunity, against power” after the assassination of Cabezas, and affirmed that “what it guaranteed is that there would never again be a journalist murdered in Argentina”.
On behalf of the press unions, they were present the head of the Buenos Aires Press Union (SiPreBA), Agustín Lecchi, the general secretary of the Buenos Aires Press Union (Siprebo), Antonio “Chiche” Guillen, and the General Secretary of the Argentine Federation of Press Workers (Fatpren), Carla Gaudensi, who spoke out against “different forms of restricting press freedom” and in defense of “collective struggles, in the streets, in the newsrooms,” during the act.
To the act too The Trade Union Association of Subway and Premetro Workers and the Trade Union Front for the National Model General Confederation of Labor joined.
While, the Deliberative Council of General Pueyrredónwhose main city is Mar del Plata, paid tribute to the photojournalist with the placement of a commemorative plaque and a photo inside the enclosure and discussed an initiative of the Frente de Todos bloc, promoted by councilor Mariana Cuesta and her peer Vito Amalfitano .
The mayors agreed in affirming that the crime of Cabezas “became a symbol of the fight against impunity and of a dark Argentina”, while during the tribute journalists and representatives of the local press expressed slogans such as “we do not forget Cabezas” and “without justice there is no democracy”.
The members of Argra in Córdoba, For their part, they remembered the photojournalist at an event in which one of his directors and photographer from this agency, Irma Montiel, stated that “always remembering José Luis is a way of saying that we are not going to allow any abuse against the free exercise of our trade” and assured that “we are going to defend freedom of expression forever, as a pillar of a free and democratic society”.
In turn, the photojournalists and journalists from the city of Santa Fe paid tribute to Cabezas, where the photojournalist Hugo Pascucci pointed out that “it should be noted that it was a murder” and highlighted that “a press colleague was killed, and that, until now, unfortunately we feel that it has gone unpunished”.
In the city of MendozaIn turn, photojournalists associated with Argra put up allusive posters on the Godoy Cruz bike path, at the intersection with Calle Salta, and read a document in which they stated that “we remember and celebrate the short life of José Luis, because it was a full life, a life of love and generosity”, they affirmed that “we take with us his family, his work, his commitment as a colleague and companion” and they wondered: “who and how will they remember their murderers. What has been the life of one and others, and what has been their harvest”.
For its part, in Neuquenthe members of the Association of Graphic Reporters of the Argentine Republic remembered Cabezas and the member of the organization, Juan José Thomes, expressed in dialogue with the press that “as Miguel Gaya said, who is Argra’s lawyer and was one of the plaintiffs together with Argra in the case of José Luis, we have won with this that the reaction of journalism was so strong that they did not dare to touch any other journalist”.
For the murder of Cabezas, the postal businessman Alfredo Yabrán was prosecuted as instigator, who committed suicide in Entre Ríos after remaining a fugitive for a few days, and the Buenos Aires police officer Gustavo Prellezo was convicted as the material author of the act, sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2002. , but he only spent 13 years behind bars despite the fact that the sentence was ratified in the highest judicial instances of the province and the country, while he remains on parole since December 2017 and since 2010 in his home under house arrest.
The other convicted, members of the Los Horneros group recruited by Prellezo, were former police officer Aníbal Luna; Mario “The Hare” Gomez; Sergio Cammaratta; Sergio Gustavo Gonzalez; Jose Luis Auge; Horacio Braga and Miguel Retana.
