Breaking the Silence: The Maria Soledad Case (2024) Movie Script
1
That's Soledad there.
Mirian,
Mara Eugenia,
Mnica, Caizares,
Silvia, Nancy, Marcela.
I'm in fifth A!
Fifth A, I'm in fifth A
We were planning our
senior trip to Carlos Paz.
But, obviously, not everybody
could afford to go.
So we came up with
this idea to hold fundraising dances
so we could raise money
to pay for the girls
who couldn't afford to go.
I was one of those girls.
Spring Fling,
crowning the Spring Fling queen.
We had the party on Friday, September 7,
at a club downtown.
LE FEU ROUGE CLUB
We didn't live
in the city, so to get back home,
we needed to find someone to come
and pick us up.
Sole said, "Where am I going to sleep?
I have no way of getting back home."
I said, "Sole, you can stay at my house.
It's not a problem. You can stay with me."
It was called "The Night of Surprises."
SPRING FLING QUEEN
It's ironic, but I don't even know
why we called it that.
That evening, we were all really excited
to get to the club.
We each had something to do
and somewhere we had to be.
And Sole was in charge of the tickets.
There were lots of people.
Everybody was there.
Anything that could go wrong
did go wrong that night.
The bouquets of flowers that were meant
for the queen were missing.
It was a weird night.
I don't know.
Something just felt off.
I told Sole, "Let's go home."
She said, "No, hold on.
Give me a minute, Ro."
So I said, "Okay, fine."
After about 40 minutes,
I was like, "Come on. Let's go, Sole."
And she told me
she wasn't coming home with me.
I asked her why.
And she said,
"I'm getting a ride from someone else."
I asked her, "Who?"
And she said,
"You know who."
That's when I knew...
it was him.
The girls called me around 3:00 a.m.,
saying, "Marilyn, get over here now.
The power went out. It's total chaos."
So I left in a hurry,
and that was the last time I saw her.
By the time I got back, she was gone.
I should have put my foot down.
I should have stood my ground
and said, "No."
"You're coming home with me.
I already told my parents."
I should have stood my ground.
At two or three in the morning,
Mara Soledad left the party.
Did Tula pick her up?
Did she go to the bus stop?
Nobody knows what happened
to Mara Soledad after that point.
BREAKING THE SILENCE:
THE MARA SOLEDAD CASE
How do I stop time and come back to life?
Marilyn used to play the guitar,
and we'd all sing and dance.
But when Marilyn sang sentimental songs,
Soledad would start crying.
I asked her once, "What's wrong?"
CLASSMATE
She told me she was in love
with a man she couldn't be with.
She used to kind of hide it.
CLASSMATE
Like she was embarrassed
to say she was in love.
But I noticed.
DON'T SAY YOU'LL LEAVE ME
Soledad was a writer.
We all knew she liked
to write poems and things like that.
You could tell from the way she wrote
about him that he was her first love.
The age gap was hard on her.
He was 28.
She never introduced him to us.
She never said,
"Girls, this is my boyfriend." Never.
I saw him once.
CLASSMATE
One day, I was leaving school with Sole,
and he was just passing by.
She said, there goes "el Flaco."
She called him "el Flaco."
We were waiting at the bus stop,
and Sole said,
"Come on, Mirian.
My friend's gonna give us a ride."
I asked, "But who is he?"
And she said, "It's Luis."
I said, "No, count me out."
"I'm not allowed to get in cars
with people I don't know."
"You can go, but I'm not coming."
And she said, "Oh, Mirian.
I hate you. I wanted to go."
So, I didn't get in.
She ended up staying with me.
She didn't get in, and the car left.
Supposedly, the driver
was the guy she liked, Luis Tula.
I didn't know who he was, so I'd tell her,
"All that matters is that you're in love.
That's a beautiful thing."
I had no idea who she was talking about.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1990
That Monday, I got to school,
and one of the girls asked me, frightened,
"Mnica, have you heard from Sole?"
She told me, "She never made it home."
I was like, "What?"
On that Monday, I had a class
in a room facing the schoolyard.
I saw a man standing by the flagpole.
He shouted to me,
"Sister, my daughter never came home!"
I asked, "Who are you, sir?"
He said, "I'm Mr. Morales,
Mara Soledad's father."
I asked, "Where is she?"
He said, "She never came home
from the dance."
He told me they'd spent the weekend
looking for her.
And, without asking him anything else,
I brought him into the classroom.
MARA SOLEDAD'S FATHER
I remember seeing him there.
He said, "Girls, I just want
to know where my daughter is."
"Did she spent the night somewhere else?
Is she at someone's house?"
We said, "We don't know where she is.
If we knew, we'd tell you."
"We have no idea."
We didn't have any information
that could help Mr. Morales, so he left.
Nobody came to give us class that day.
We were nervous because we were wondering,
"Where are all the teachers?"
They left us alone in the classroom,
but we were told to stay put.
Our classroom faced the main entrance,
which was next to the principal's office.
One of us climbed the window
to see if she could hear anything.
And then, suddenly...
At around 11:00,
Elas Morales came back in,
and he cried out,
"They found my daughter!"
Patricia was listening in.
And she screamed, "She's dead!"
Those exact words.
That's when the chaos began.
Teachers and assistants
came running from all over,
trying to keep the girls inside.
Windows were broken. Some got hurt.
I felt so angry
and powerless that I punched a door.
I still have the scar to this day.
They had to give me sedatives
because I was having a breakdown.
It was horrible.
We were all distraught.
It was so sad.
We all had...
so much fun together that Saturday.
And then we received
such terrible news the following Monday.
I don't know
how my classmates and I made it
from the school to the bus stop.
Or how I got on the bus.
I just know as soon as I got home,
I told my family it was
my classmate Sole who had died.
She had been killed.
I'm sorry.
We were only 17 years old.
We had lived a sheltered life.
The innocent times of our senior trip
and our graduation dinner.
Before that point,
we had no idea that evil existed.
Early Monday morning,
a bus driver traveling
from Valle Viejo to the Capital Department
passed the bend at Villa Parque Chacabuco
and saw people standing next to a car.
He thought they had had an accident.
He got out and noticed something odd.
He noticed that the people
were behaving strangely.
They seemed suspicious.
A few hours later,
in that exact same place, two workers
came across Mara Soledad's body.
This is the road to Villa Chacabuco.
It's the place
where her body was found,
ditches very close to her parents' house.
The girl was found partially buried...
FEDERAL ARGENTINEAN POLICE
...very close to the city.
Mara Soledad Morales's body
was found disfigured.
Had you ever encountered
a body with so many injuries before?
SUPERINTENDENNo, never.
The police are hard at work.
There is no news yet.
Judicial sources
have said that the officers
that carried out the initial work
where the body was found were negligent.
I passed by at 8:30,
and there were cops everywhere.
NEIGHBOR
I walked right up to the girl.
Anybody could have done the same.
People were everywhere.
Nobody cordoned off the area
to keep people away from her.
The police were just walking around.
Even with the body faced down
and the majority not knowing
the victim was female,
some police officers
already knew it was Mara Soledad Morales.
The lack of preservation at the scene,
and the number of inconsistencies,
show that the goal was to prevent
the crime from being solved, right?
The police issued a warrant
for the detention of Luis Tula,
who was identified as the main suspect
due to his alleged romantic relationship
with Mara Soledad Morales.
The judge handling the case
will hear Luis Tula's testimony.
He's been detained as the sole suspect
in the death
of the young student from Catamarca.
POLICE STATION FOUR - REGIONAL UNICATAMARCA POLICE
This afternoon,
after a brief interrogation,
Tula was released
due to lack of evidence against him.
It seems as though this crime
won't be solved anytime soon.
The following day, at the burial,
we agreed that we'd all wear our uniforms.
To honor her,
because she loved her uniform.
May the Lord open the gates of paradise
to his daughter Mara Soledad,
so she can return to that land
where there is no more death.
We said our goodbyes to her
the day she would have turned 18.
Eighteen years.
I remember it was cloudy that day.
And while we were carrying the casket,
I saw all these little droplets on it.
And I thought, "It's raining."
Her casket was covered in tears.
They were our tears.
We had to accept that
we would cry without seeing her.
And the block was full of police officers.
Police officers and patrol cars.
They wanted to take the girls' statements.
I said, "Excuse me,
but the girls are underage."
"They'll only do it
with their parents present."
They were all scared.
There were rumors going around,
I think, in Catamarca.
But we knew...
that we wouldn't just leave it at that.
Soon after the body was found,
names of people that we never thought
would be involved, started popping up.
There were rumors that there were
sons of politicians, powerful people.
We didn't know
what we were getting involved in.
We just wanted justice.
We wanted them to pay.
We wanted the perpetrators to pay.
We will get an explanation.
They are going to tell us what happened,
why she was killed, and who killed her.
That's why we agreed
to take to the streets and demand justice.
At first, Sister Martha didn't agree
because it was very dangerous.
They sent us a letter asking our parents
for their permission to let us out.
I had issued an order
that every girl that went to that funeral
had to have her parents' permission.
Many parents were not okay with it.
They were afraid
something would happen to us.
That morning, Sister Martha told us
that we couldn't leave
because the police chief was there.
Ferreyra, the police chief, came early,
before the girls left, to visit me
and tell me the motives
behind Mara Soledad's murder
to keep me
from leaving the principal's office.
I arrived at the Carmen School,
and the sister received me,
and we had a conversation,
just the two of us, in her office
for about 30 or 40 minutes.
It was not a friendly chat.
They talked inside the office.
For a long time.
He had three theories.
That it had been a butcher relative
who was skilled at using knives
to have been able
to carve her up like that.
That it could have been people from a cult
who performed satanic rituals,
and that they had fulfilled a rite.
Or, if not, then it was something to do
with revenge or relationships
in which Mara Soledad was involved.
That was his goal.
To fill her head with different stuff,
that it had been a satanic cult.
The cover-up had begun, you know?
From the start.
At that moment, I didn't believe
any of the three theories.
I listened to him,
and every now and then,
the receptionist said, "Just a moment."
I'd go out,
and the whole school was ready to go.
Five hundred girls were waiting
in silence with their teachers.
Mr. Ferreyra, did you ever try
to prevent Carmen School
from carrying out the marches
or any Marches of Silence?
No, I did not try to prevent
any March of Silence from taking place.
He said, "Sister, you are responsible
for anything that might happen."
I asked, "What might happen?"
"We're trying to figure out
what happened to her."
"What's going to happen?
What could happen? Tell me."
It was a long wait.
Then Sister Martha came out.
She said, "I cannot let you go."
"What guarantees do I have
that you'll all be okay?"
And we said, "To make you feel better,
we'll all be silent."
"That will be our protest."
"We'll walk in silence.
We won't do anything."
So, she said, "Girls, get out there."
WE DEMAND JUSTICE
FOR OUR CLASSMATE MARA SOLEDAD
FIRST MARCH OF SILENCE
There wasn't a big crowd
because it was us
and the families,
basically, that marched with us.
We were very scared.
I remember we walked closely together
with our arms intertwined
because we felt that pressure
from the police
who had come
to try to prevent us from marching.
Catamarca stood still
as the march passed by.
I realized, in amazement,
that, as we marched by,
people who were driving on side streets
stopped their cars and got out,
as if we were singing the national anthem,
and they stood and watched us march,
joining us in that way.
And you could only hear
the sound of people's footsteps.
And that's how
"the Marches of Silence" began.
We arrived at the entrance
of the cathedral, and we prayed there.
We all prayed.
We asked the Virgin
to help us in our quest for justice.
We asked her for justice.
IN SILENCE, YOUNG PEOPLE
DEMANDED JUSTICE YESTERDAY
THE CRIES OF SILENCE
Sister Martha told us,
"Your behavior was exemplary,
so, from now on, girls,
I want you to know
that you have my full support."
The march of complete silence has begun.
SECOND MARCH OF SILENCE
It is being led by Sister Martha Pelloni,
principal of Carmen y San Jos School,
where Mara Soledad used to study.
The parents are by her side.
Move over, Cuqui.
1,128 KM FROM CATAMARCA
I worked for Telefe Noticias.
And suddenly, for three days in a row,
there was a news story
in the Clarn newspaper.
And Carlos Montero,
who was the editor in chief,
was curious about why the story
kept being published
and that it mentioned something
about the "children of power."
It was horrifying.
So, he decided to send a team to Catamarca
to find out what was happening.
He chose me, which was strange,
because they usually send men.
San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca,
a city of masses, naps, and silence.
A profoundly Christian city,
whose 90,000 inhabitants have been shaken
by the discovery
of the destroyed and desecrated body
of Mara Soledad Morales.
On the first week,
we went to the pedestrian area.
I approached people and asked,
"What do you think of the case?
What happened to Mara Soledad?"
"Who killed her?"
People did this, covering their faces,
and they wouldn't talk.
What are people saying
about the Morales case?
I can't tell you anything
because I wasn't here at the time.
That was the first thing that stood out.
We're also a little helpless
because people are afraid.
I don't know of what right now,
but we are afraid.
People are afraid.
I've missed two weeks of university
because I'm afraid
to be walking on the street.
The people we think are guilty
are out here,
and anything could happen to us.
And they said this to us,
"The thing is, you can leave,
but we have to stay here."
There is a lot of fear in Catamarca.
Who could be so powerful
to instill so much fear?
Power itself.
Nobody talked to me
about the Mara Soledad case.
So, we went to Carmen School,
where Mara Soledad used to study.
And the principal, Martha Pelloni,
welcomed me very kindly.
Do you think some people
know more than they're letting on,
saw more than what they say,
and are afraid to testify?
Yes, I am really convinced that's true.
I said, "Sister, you're bold as hell!"
And she covered the camera with her hand,
and said, "No, Fanny, not that."
So, I asked her if I could go
to Mara Soledad's class.
Fifth year A at Carmen y San Jos School.
Nothing will ever be the same
since September 8.
And the girls also told me many things.
All of us dreamed of graduating together
and making the most of this final year,
and going
on the end-of-year trip together.
All of a sudden, one of us was gone.
And the worst part
is the way in which she...
What was done to her.
So... that was very hard.
There's an empty chair behind yours.
It's Mara Soledad's.
Yes, there is an empty chair.
We cannot understand this massacre,
because not even animals kill
the way they killed her.
There's no explanation as to why
they would kill and end a life like that.
What was going on socially?
What was happening politically, Sergio?
I think the brutality of the crime,
and especially the circumstances
in which it happened,
caught the attention of media outlets.
That's why they came.
That's why they all paid attention
to this crime.
But also to the political situation.
Nobody can deny that there is
a lot of nepotism in Catamarca.
Going to Catamarca meant going
to Saadi's kingdom.
Ramn Saadi is sat on people's shoulders
at 6:20 p.m. here in Catamarca.
We'll try to reach him.
Ramn Saadi
had been elected as governor in 1983.
He was the son of a very powerful
national Peronist political leader,
Vicente Saadi,
who was the mentor of the man
who would later become president.
Carlos Sal Menem.
PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA (1989-1999)
Carlos Menem owed
his political career to Vicente Saadi.
Ramn inherited power
because his father had had it,
and he surrounded himself
with these sorts of thugs
that later became
congress members and senators.
So, he could sanction whatever he wanted.
They appointed judges
and police officers whenever they wanted.
They ran it like a fiefdom.
I mean, there was
a history of quiet, subdued people...
because he owned Catamarca.
Governor, may I ask you to do something?
Talk to your people.
He received us in a dimly lit office,
and the first thing that he asked was
if I wasn't afraid
of walking by myself outside.
It was explicit impunity.
Governor Ramn Saadi...
MARCH OF TRUTH
OCTOBER 25, 1990
...is leading the march.
THE GOVERNOR CALL THE WHOLE TOWN...
The government organizes
the so-called "March of Truth."
They brought supporters,
against what they said
was a political move
against the government.
I can assure you,
as a citizen, as a father,
and most importantly, as a governor,
that those who are responsible
will pay for it in court.
Catamarca!
THE MARCH OF TRUTH
A LACKLUSTER IMITATION
I want to say something
to all Argentinians.
Right from the start,
we've known who did it
and how they did it.
The crime is solved.
But since they have...
Since those who killed my daughter
belong to Catamarca's political elite,
they want to cover it up.
But that won't happen
because in Catamarca,
we all know who belongs to which side,
and this won't go unpunished.
The following week,
30,000 people joined the seventh march.
NOVEMBER 1, 1990
Seventh March of Silence.
Thirty thousand people marched.
One third of the population of Catamarca.
This was the first time there was
a big demand for justice in our province.
It had never happened before.
Let's hold hands
Let us hold hands
Let us finally hold hands
I feel confidence in my heart
That we will finally succeed
As governor of this province,
we have helped
to get this crime solved the whole time.
Unfortunately, some crimes
are solved quickly
and others take longer.
Media outlets all over the country
covered the marches.
So, the federal government felt pressured
and had no choice but to get involved.
President Menem told Governor Saadi
to appoint Deputy Commissioner Patti
to lead the investigation of the case.
They sent Patti, who was
a popular police officer with an iron fist
and who would supposedly solve the crime.
It's 10:00 a.m.,
and the Aerolneas plane
transporting Luis Patti
has just arrived.
Patti arrived in Catamarca
he could solve and resolve the crime.
Patti!
PATTI: YOU ARE OUR HOPE
BE STRONG, PATTI
WE LOVE YOU
He's the only one who will help
the people of Catamarca.
Defend Mara Soledad!
Why Patti? Because we have lots of faith.
Because he did lots of good things
in Buenos Aires as well.
Deputy Commissioner Patti
left to carry out a procedure.
Good!
By order of Deputy Commissioner Patti,
the land will be cleared out
and searched manually,
not with machines, but manually,
in order to try to identify any elements
that could help in the investigation.
Usually, when a body is found,
the site is searched thoroughly
for evidence.
In theory and in practice,
that's usually true.
Has that not been done
here since September 10?
No, that type of search
has not been carried out.
From the time you arrived until now,
has the investigation progressed at all?
Are you closer to your goal?
Well, it has progressed. That is clear.
And are you much closer to your goal?
There are no timelines
for homicide investigations,
so we just have to wait.
He asked if he could come talk to me
at my home.
He wanted me to go
to the Federal Justice Department.
I said, "If you want to come,
I'll see you at my house."
What I told him was that the names
we had given the president
were confirmed
so that they wouldn't alter
the investigation or waste time.
Is the investigation going off course,
or are Patti's statements diverting it?
I am not going to judge what he's doing
because I don't know him,
but if he's going after Tula,
he's diverting the investigation.
Apparently, it had been a crime of passion
because Mara Soledad was dating a man
who was ten years older than her.
That man was Luis Tula.
Tula was
poor.
He wanted a better life.
He was a traffic employee,
but he was studying.
He was married. Or maybe he wasn't.
JOURNALISTula is a strange character.
Did you read Patti's note?
Some of it.
I'll read you an excerpt.
It says, "It was a crime of passion."
They ask, "Why are you so sure, Patti?"
"Due to several circumstances."
"The only solid theory
among the three or four possible
is it was a crime of passion."
"For example, who drove Mara Soledad
in their car?"
"It all seems
to indicate it was Tula's car."
They wanted it to be Tula
because, later, there was
another request from higher up...
Another request.
That's what Menem wanted to avoid
by appointing Patti.
LUIS PATTI - WE HAVE A SUSPECTula was tortured,
and he was promised the world
if he accepted responsibility
for killing Mara Soledad.
- How much were you offered?
- Two million.
- And did you accept it?
- No.
None of it?
They wanted something quick
to close the case.
No politics.
But it was up to the judge.
Patti's theory
is limited
to some passion-related circumstances
in a simple love triangle situation.
My theory is a bit broader.
From the start,
people linked Mara Soledad's murder
to "the children of power,"
because, apparently,
the children of power had the habit
of taking "bumpkins," as they called them.
Since the children of power
are upper class,
they call humble girls "bumpkins."
Children or family members
of powerful politicians who had a habit
of going out on the weekends
and looking for girls to have fun with.
Obviously, they didn't rape
and kill a girl every weekend,
but it's like they were used to having
a certain level of impunity.
Guillermo Luque's name came up
because somebody recognized his car,
which was the car that picked up
Mara Soledad at the bus stop.
One of the government's wealthy ladies
held a tea party at home
and told her friends
that Guillermo Luque had killed a bumpkin.
Could Tula be in the same situation
and be linked to these people?
Of course, he could--
If not Tula or Luque, hypothetically,
could it be Tula and Luque?
And some other things.
I'm not being accused of anything,
so there's no evidence
that I committed that crime,
or that I was even
in the province of Catamarca.
He lived in Buenos Aires.
He worked
at the National Congress Library.
Did you see Guillermo Luque
on Friday, September 7, here in Catamarca?
Yes, I saw him
because of a special circumstance
on Repblica Street,
between Salta and Rivadavia.
INVESTIGATING COURT 1
Judge Ventimiglia ordered
Guillermo Luque's arrest.
What are the latest updates related
to the arrest of Congressman Luque's son?
There is a warrant for his arrest,
and we're figuring out how to arrest him,
so it could happen at any moment.
Some suggest Guillermo Luque
is not currently in the country.
- Is that true?
- I doubt it. He must be in Buenos Aires.
Deputy Commissioner Patti
is traveling to Buenos Aires,
but Guillermo Luque
manages to avoid police efforts.
The well-known police chief
is now the main target for criticism.
Will you replace Patti?
No, the Ministry of Justice
will replace him.
The disagreements with Judge Ventimiglia
made him return to Buenos Aires.
Did you fail in Catamarca?
No.
He left empty-handed.
He didn't achieve anything at all.
- Is Guillermo in the country?
- He's on vacation.
Well, he's on the coast.
He might have already gone,
or he'll be going soon, to Punta del Este.
But he's always in touch with us
for when the judge subpoenas him.
Guillermo Luque,
son of a national congressman
and a provincial congresswoman,
so he really was a child
of the Catamarcan political elite.
Menem, who was the president at the time,
was a close friend of Ramn Saadi
and Luque.
And flying to Catamarca,
on the same plane,
is Guillermo Luque.
But Mr. Guillermo Luque has told us
that he won't speak to the media today.
I won't speak to the media
until I've spoken with the judge.
I've come back from abroad.
If I had had
any concerns about my situation,
do you think I would've come back?
Wouldn't it have been easier,
since, as you said,
I'm so well-protected by political power,
to distance myself from the situation?
Since I am innocent, I came back.
A new witness
incriminates Guillermo Luque.
This time,
not only does he destroy the alibi
that he wasn't in Catamarca
when the crime took place,
but he also implicates him
in Mara Soledad's murder.
There is a group of people
that have come together to accuse me
because they want to alter the information
and divert attention
from the city of Catamarca,
and they want to divide
the Catamarcan family.
He left on Friday 7, at around 10:00 p.m.
and returned on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
Who left on Saturday... on Friday?
"El Hueso" came to pick him up on Friday.
GUILLERMO LUQUE'S FRIEND
Then he returned on Saturday by himself.
He met with his dad inside the room.
I heard his father yelling,
"What have you done?"
And then they left again immediately.
They returned at around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m.
Then they gave me the clothes to wash.
They were bloodstained,
both the pants and the underwear.
And the car was taken to La Merced,
where it has stayed ever since.
- But who washed the car? Moreno?
- Moreno washed it.
What is your role at the Luque home?
I'm the gardener.
I was intrigued by that red color it had.
And I peeked inside,
and Moreno told me it was blood.
Apparently, Guillermo had killed a girl.
My son Guillermo Daniel Luque
was not in Catamarca on the 7, 8, or 9.
Anybody who saw my son
on September 7, 8, 9, or 10,
should tell the police
and law enforcement.
Were you paid off?
They didn't offer me anything.
- Did they just threaten you?
- Yes.
Who threatened you, specifically?
ngel Luque.
The Luques had told him
that if he talked, they'd kill his mom.
Things won't end well for anyone who
comes here to give a false testimony.
It seems that Guillermo Luque's situation
is getting more difficult.
I think so.
There's progress in the investigation,
and, as it deepens,
the situation of the accused
gets more difficult.
Especially for Luque.
Good morning. Have you testified?
It was a farce, a sham.
- Why?
- Because it's a setup.
- Who set it up?
- Were you able to testify?
Who set it all up?
Luque was the straw...
that broke the camel's back.
ngel Luque.
When the suspicions about Luque increased,
the congressman showed off his power
in his area.
With impunity,
trying to highlight his son's innocence,
he challenged a journalist.
"Do you think if my son
had been the perpetrator,
the body would have been found?"
With the confidence
of those who feel they're untouchable.
Everybody said, "Well, that means
that these things happen in Catamarca
and that bodies have not been surfacing."
That was awful.
This meant that ngel Luque
was expelled from the National Congress.
The first time in Argentinean history
that a member of Congress was expelled
was actually ngel Luque.
Wasn't Luque's removal a little late?
Some say that the Catamarcan power
protected him as much as it could.
No way.
The provincial government
has never covered up
any type of activity,
not Mr Luque's or anyone else's.
I've suffered
the same consequences as my son.
Removing me from
the House of Representatives
was a political decision.
I'm still waiting to hear
what crime I committed.
And if I committed a crime
and no one complained,
they covered for me, for the crime.
CALL ATTRIBUTED
TO NGEL LUQUE AND VCTOR PINTO
This is awful.
I know. If the president
doesn't control it from there,
it'll get out of hand.
What do you mean,
"doesn't control it from there"?
Here is where Pinto
makes the serious mistake
of telling Luque,
"If the president doesn't control it
from there, it'll get out of hand."
"Control it from there."
"From there."
The president of the country.
Intervention!
We won't go!
We, the people, won't go away!
There are problems here.
It's a tough situation.
Menem is covering up!
There's a strong police presence.
Some things were just burned there.
There is a large police deployment.
Mara Soledad's classmates
and secondary school students in Catamarca
want to extend an invitation
to all the youth in this country.
Yes.
We want all young people
in the country to participate.
The adults too.
We wanted to do a national march.
"Everyone is in favor of this cause.
We have to do a national march."
"People from all over
should march for Sole."
"Join our cry for justice,
our silent cry,
at the well-known Marches of Silence."
JUSTICE
APRIL 18, 1991
That national march,
which I joined in Buenos Aires,
was held at the same time
in different parts of the country.
In different provinces.
222 DAYS AFTER THE CRIME
JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU
We had to march with human shields,
who were priests
who put themselves on the line
because we had been told
that from in between the buildings,
while we were marching,
there would be a stray bullet
heading towards us.
SOLE LIVES
It was dangerous,
but we had to go ahead anyway.
In the face of so much covering-up,
so much impunity,
so much abuse,
we have to come together.
The only thing
that should bring us together is our heart
and the desire
that the justice that we want so badly
finally prevails in this country.
Justice!
Let us hold hands
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER
I feel the certainty in my heart
That we will finally prevail
What moved me the most
was the support
from people all over the country.
We never thought it would get to that.
How did the national march end?
It ended in a provincial intervention.
The march had such a strong impact
that there was a provincial intervention.
As president of Argentina,
today I have decided
to expand the federal intervention
to the executive and legislative powers
of the province of Catamarca.
The appointed federal inspector
is Mr. Luis Prol.
LUIS PROL APPOINTED AS INSPECTOR
With all due respect to my dear friend,
who has made today
one of the biggest mistakes
a president can make,
which is to not respect
our way of governing.
Ramn was very close friends
with Menem, very close.
He relied on Menem.
And Menem betrayed him.
GOODBYE, CRUEL BROTHER
When the president, Menem, saw
he could not do anything else for Saadi,
and that his fall
could bring him down as well,
he let go of his hand.
FROM VICENTE TO RAMN SAADI
A WORN-OUT DYNASTY
The arrival of the federal inspector
for the province of Catamarca
is well-received.
But while all this was happening,
they lost sight of Mara Soledad.
She disappeared.
The files got lost.
Nobody thought about her anymore.
They were thinking about Saadi,
of who would defeat him,
of what Menem would do.
She got lost.
Inspector Luis Prol
has called an election in Catamarca.
It will probably be the most significant
in the history of this province.
Even though he had been removed,
Saadi's power was such
that he decided to run in the election.
VOTE FOR SAADI
Radicals and anti-Saadist Peronists
chose an old Catamarcan radical
as their candidate.
There is a bipolarization
in the Catamarcan election
between the former governor Ramn Saadi
and radical Arnoldo Castillo.
Saadi, is this
the trickiest election you've faced?
No, that is the belief of people
who have been shaken to their very core
due to this merciless campaign
that's been going on for over a year.
Catamarca will vote
to really eradicate corruption.
So, you can vote responsibly,
or you can vote to support Saadism.
This secular prayer, as it was called,
with Martha saying, "Don't be afraid,"
had an impact.
The Civic and Social Front has won.
This is how people are celebrating
in Catamarca's main square.
It's being said
that you are one of the key figures
behind this change in Catamarca.
Well, that's what Catamarca is saying.
Yes, I think there was some encouragement
because of my role as a nun
who was condemning what's wrong.
And I hope this commitment
that Catamarca has to accept today
becomes a reality in the future.
What do you expect
from the next government
and the Mara Soledad case?
Well, I hope the case is solved
and the killers end up
where they need to be.
We want a transparent government.
We don't have any disagreements
with anyone.
We want justice to serve as justice.
And all those who have committed crimes,
under any government, will pay.
I was transferred in December 1991.
Sister Martha Pelloni is here with us.
I am sure my transfer was a request
from Menem to the bishop,
and then from the bishop
to my congregation.
Catamarca needs to ask
to be cleared of its guilt
so that justice may flourish.
Menem went to see Monsignor Miani
and asked him to remove the nun.
They thought that if she was gone,
the marches would stop
and we would all fall silent.
The goal was to get me out of Catamarca.
For us, the support
of Sister Martha was very important.
When she left,
we felt like we'd been orphaned.
Our Mother of the Valley, pray for us.
It wasn't really the surprise that got us,
but the need to silence us somehow.
The whole political pressure at that time.
But despite it all, we carried on.
And she told us, "Don't stop. Keep going."
But sure...
Back then we really felt
the world was collapsing around us,
and we had to keep going.
Due to the federal intervention,
the government that followed
brought lawyers from Crdoba to fill
the judicial power seats in Catamarca.
Due to the political reality in Catamarca,
the government at the time,
the Civic Front,
needed to hold a trial.
They didn't have a state prosecutor.
Due to internal conflict,
and perhaps because society was split
between Saadists and anti-Saadists,
being involved in the process
meant that the prosecutor
would probably have had
to confront one of the sides.
So, it was very hard to choose
within Catamarca.
The main goal was to find
a prosecutor from the judiciary in Crdoba
to hold that position.
They finally chose me,
and I took power in Catamarca.
I'm Taranto. I was the prosecutor
in the Mara Soledad case,
and I lived in this hotel.
- How are you?
- How are you?
Hello. Do you remember me?
- Yes, from Crdoba.
- Yes, exactly.
- The Mara Soledad case.
- Exactly.
I was just telling her that.
Yes, I remember.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
This past February 26,
both the oral and the public trials began
to solve the murder
of student Mara Soledad Morales.
SIX YEARS AFTER THE CRIME
The trial took place
in Catamarca's criminal chamber two,
the court of which is comprised
by judge Rodolfo Ortiz Iraman,
the court president,
and, as board members,
Judge Juan Carlos Sampayo
and Judge Mara Alejandra Azar.
The Morales family has just arrived.
Be strong, Ada!
How are you feeling?
I'm fine, thankfully.
I'm here, strong, stronger than ever.
And I'm just waiting for justice.
That's all.
The courthouse agreed
to the public broadcast of the hearings,
which, with the help of Channel 6,
was distributed
to all national media outlets.
It was unheard of,
to have a criminal trial
broadcast live on TV.
- Not even the trial of the Juntas.
- Exactly.
I remember everyone was,
like with TV shows today,
ready for the trial to begin
during nap time.
We call witness Miguel ngel Ferreyra
to the stand.
Mr. Ferreyra, were any tactics used
to alter or derail
the investigation of this case?
Look, as chief of police
and in my capacity as witness here,
I don't know what you are referring to.
There were two narratives.
The narrative on file,
on the basis of which
the case was settled,
and the popular narrative.
On September 7, 1990,
Mara Soledad says goodbye to her mom
for the last time at their house
and went to the party
to pick the Spring Fling queen, held here.
Thirty years ago, this was Le Feu Rouge.
Some scenery is still here, what worked.
She didn't care about the queen,
but she wanted to meet up
with the person
she was in love with, Luis Tula.
Did you have a romantic relationship
with Mara Soledad?
I have to agree and admit, I actually did.
She asked him to come to the club.
She was deeply in love with Tula.
Luis went, but he didn't stay.
He shows up on a motorcycle
before the party is over
and says, "Look, I can't pick you up."
Mara Soledad, quite sad,
according to her classmates,
went to catch the bus home.
That's where she was seen alive
for the last time,
at the bus stop, three or four blocks away
from the club.
It was probably at this bus stop
that Mara Soledad's tragic end started.
I obviously had to go back
to Catamarca for the trial.
Sister Pelloni is probably
one of the most important witnesses
for this case.
Sister Pelloni,
what are your expectations?
We'll talk later.
Patricia de la Colina tells me
that a suitor she had,
a friend, Marcelo Coronel,
had told her
that five classmates at school,
who were in the third year
at Colegio Nacional,
had seen,
in the early hours of September 8,
at the stop on Salta Street,
how Mara Soledad got
into a car, a green Falcon,
driven by Guillermo Luque.
The girl got into the boy's car.
He was alone.
CLASSMATE
And they went down Repblica,
as if they were racing, like, really fast.
When he told you about the girl,
did you know who he was talking about?
Putting two and two together, as they say,
I guessed it was Mara Soledad.
He told me that on Monday.
The same Monday that Sole was found.
MARCELO CORONEL, WITNESS AT RISK
Then he said it wasn't true,
that I should say I had lied.
- I never told you that.
- Yes, you did.
I never said that.
With everything they did to me,
don't you think I'd tell?
- Do you know what they did to me?
- Yes.
They took me to the first police station,
and he was sitting there, all beaten up.
And the police said
they had brought him from the rugby field
because I was asking,
"Why is he like that?"
He asked me to please say that I had lied.
I don't know, Marcelo,
why you don't say it or didn't say it.
- You're making it all up.
- I'm not.
He said, "She approached it
as if she knew the guy in the first car,
the one who was alone."
I have no reason to make that up!
I never told you anything.
Never.
ACCUSATIONS OF PRESSURE, TORTURE,
AND BRIBES TO HIDE WHO TOOK HER TO A CLUB
What's relevant here
is that her friends knew,
and they said this during trial,
that Mara Soledad,
because of the kind of person she was,
would never have gotten into a car,
unless it was a car with Tula inside,
or unless she knew those people
would take her to where Tula was.
In the end,
she left voluntarily in a Falcon,
which was Guillermo Luque's Falcon.
She was taken to Clivus,
which was a club that girls didn't go to
because it was for adults.
And we don't know
exactly what happened there.
This used to be Clivus.
It has a different name now,
but it probably still serves
the same purpose,
providing a place to dance, a nightclub.
You said that at around 4:00 a.m.,
you ran into Mara Soledad.
Yes.
- You mean Mara Soledad Morales.
- Yes.
Rita Furln worked as a cashier at Clivus,
and she saw some shocking things there.
There, leaning against a column,
was Mara Soledad with a guy.
Miss Furln, did you know
Mara Soledad Morales?
Yes, ma'am.
How long had you known her?
I couldn't tell you
exactly when I met her,
but we chatted several times
in front of my house.
And also at church.
You saw her in Clivus that awful night.
Not only her, in fact,
but Guillermo Luque as well.
Who else did you see that night?
- Guillermo Luque and "Hueso" Ibez.
- Yes.
What were they wearing?
I don't remember exactly.
We're talking about five years ago.
I ran into them at the stairs,
coming from the upper floor,
"Hueso" Ibez with Guillermo
and two girls.
Some of the girls came
to talk to me about that night,
because they were working there at Clivus.
"They choose girls there on Saturday."
They would say,
"Girls are chosen on the weekend."
It's like some had a droit de seigneur,
which means that first
they had to go through someone powerful
so that the father could later get a job.
Some friends of the children of power,
who were sort of like acolytes,
who liked to mingle with the upper class
in order to have a different lifestyle.
Luis Tula was friends
with these children of power
because they had lots of money,
they went out and went to the clubs
that Tula couldn't afford.
So he was part of that group.
And his entrance fee was exactly that.
Recruiting girls.
There was one called
"el Hueso," "el Gordo," or "el Loco."
The court agreed to hear testimonies
of Hugo "Hueso" Ibez
and Luis "Loco" Mndez.
Ibez, 41 years old, a taxicab driver,
said he met Luque
in 1987, in a bar in Catamarca.
He stated he did not see him
in the province the weekend of the crime.
When it was his turn,
"Loco" Mndez, 35, a furniture seller,
said he saw Luque on some weekends
and that he has no proof
that Luque was in Catamarca
between September 7 and 9.
There are a lot of people who saw him,
that at some point said, "Yes, I saw him,"
and then said,
"No, I didn't see him. It wasn't him."
Witness Evangelina Sosa was testifying.
They wanted to see
if she confirmed or corrected
what she said during the investigation.
The night of the eighth in Clivus,
she said Evangelina Sosa
was tapped on the back,
and it was Mara Soledad, who greeted her.
You said you saw
Mara Soledad Morales at Clivus.
She was dressed in black
and she wore a sweatshirt, a turtleneck.
You pointed at your neck, like this.
No, ma'am.
You said she was going upstairs
and you were going down
because your dad was waiting for you.
So, all I'm saying is a lie?
Yes, ma'am, you are lying.
- I'm lying?
- Yes, ma'am.
I said, "Look, Evangelina. I'm a nun."
"I'm only interested in the truth."
I talked to her. We spoke.
"You should not feel pressured
or forced by anyone."
"Lay your conscience before God,
and may it all be to solve this crime."
"Because today it's Mara Soledad,
and tomorrow it's many others."
The girl started crying again,
and said, "Sister,
what I said this morning is true."
"But my parents won't let me testify."
EVANGELINA SOSA SAYS SHE LIED
AND REPORTED BEING PRESSURED
Ma'am, did you notice any fear
in these people
that were telling you the facts?
Because you said
they changed their stories a lot,
and that they'd tell you something,
and then they'd deny it.
- Were they scared at all?
- Yes, sir.
There were lots of threats.
Why do you think
something is being covered up,
which will be uncovered at some point?
Because, without a doubt,
a strictly police matter,
like a crime,
has been used to link it
to a political event... fact.
Ma'am, did you receive any threats?
Yes, many, even up
until the day before coming here.
And here in Catamarca,
these few days, I've received threats too.
What were the threats you just received?
That I should not testify
because they said, with expletives,
that they will beat me up.
They said that I should not come
and that they will kill me.
Sister Martha Pelloni,
principal of the Carmen School, testified
about what Sara Cuba,
Ramn Saadi's cousin, said to her,
which included Guillermo Luque
having killed a bumpkin.
Sara Cuba said
that around the day Mara Soledad died,
Mrs. De Lupiani showed up to exercise
and said, "Do you know what happened
to Beba Luque's son?"
They had been playing cards
at a tea party,
and she said he had killed a bumpkin.
She thought it had been a car accident.
They each went home
with that version of events.
It seems like they both talked
about it at home.
And that is what Mrs. De Lupiani did
with Sara Cuba de Boggio.
But the next day Mrs. Lupiani went back
and said to Sara Boggio at the gym,
"Don't mention anything
about what I said yesterday about Luque
because it wasn't an accident."
"Apparently, she was killed."
No, Sister. No...
Yes, ma'am. What I said is true.
- And I waited until...
- This is outrageous of you!
- And it's a lie.
- I accept the insult.
You should be dragged out here
by the hair and beaten up.
I went to defend my truth. What I knew.
Because I could not prove anything else.
What I knew were the conversations
I had with de Boggio.
She denied them.
No aggression!
The witness must be penalized, judge.
She has threatened another witness.
Sister Martha could have been hurt.
She's one of those unsung heroes.
1,128 KM FROM CATAMARCA
I started at 22 years of age,
here, in this house, shut in.
Back then, we didn't go out.
But I was already a rebel.
A rebel because I criticized,
not because I resisted,
because obedience was one of my vows.
We're talking about 1987.
Halfway through the year,
I was diagnosed with sudden breast cancer.
I felt death was close, honestly.
The day before my surgery,
I prayed to God, crying,
"You know I gave you my life
because of what you did
for so many people."
"And I want to keep working."
"I won't waste one minute of my life
if you give me the life that I want."
My surgery ended,
and at the end of that year,
the provincial authority
sent me to Catamarca.
That's where the odyssey started
with the Mara Soledad case.
During the process,
many things became difficult.
I mean, in Catamarca
and surrounding that trial,
there were threats, there were...
A lot of witnesses were afraid.
They spent lots of money
trying to throw a wrench in the works.
Lots and lots of money.
Actually, they tried
to make up things about Taranto,
and they couldn't do it.
I started to get visits,
visits from women,
and I quickly realized
that what they might try to do
was discredit me.
In fact, there was
this one woman who came once
to try to talk and propose things to me.
Then she came to the trial
and sat next to the mother
of one of the accused.
There have been many witnesses
who accuse your son.
Do you feel the situation
is getting complicated?
No, it isn't.
During the trial, there were theories
about where it all had happened,
where Mara Soledad was raped.
There was a history
of parties thrown
at a place called Los lamos,
a motel, a pay-as-you-go hotel,
which was referenced
by some of the witnesses.
Ms. Patricia Rodrguez testified,
and Prosecutor Gustavo Taranto
followed her testimony closely,
as it linked Guillermo Luque
to drugs and orgies.
Sister Martha Pelloni had also referred
to what the young lady had said.
I remember that Patricia Rodrguez
showed up one day
to tell me that at some point,
they left Clivus to go to Los lamos.
Patricia, another girl who was with her
and whose name I don't remember,
"El Gordo" Mndez and Luque, Guillermo.
Then they had sex together,
and then had sex with the girls.
At this type of trial,
the only in-person witness is the victim.
Their bodies speak to us
through the autopsy report.
"Based on the data
obtained during the autopsy,
the conclusion is that the deceased
had suffered severe trauma to the face,"
DETAILS FROM AUTOPSY
The day the body was found,
you went to the morgue
to identify your daughter.
And you also said that,
at first, you didn't recognize her.
Look, sir, I think...
at that moment I would have preferred
for someone to shoot me instead of seeing
my daughter's body like that.
I don't wish that
even on my daughter's killer,
to have to live
with the pain I've endured.
Not even my daughter's killer.
They tried to silence the body,
but the body has injuries
that were sustained before dying.
So, in a way,
the body is still talking to us.
What they were talking about
at first was rape.
The rape happened with another person
or persons who are unknown to date.
"Sexual intercourse took place."
"A posteriori,
there are signs of asphyxiation,
which would have led to her death."
Are there any substances
that can cause the effect of asphyxiation
in an organism, a human being?
Cocaine, which is a substance,
can also create circumstances
that lead to death by suffocation,
through cardiac arrest.
Guillermo Luque,
along with unnamed people,
gave her cocaine, against her will,
in a quantity that is inconsistent
with voluntary consumption,
to achieve a state of defenselessness
and then raped her repeatedly.
Mara Soledad died,
in the end, as a result of the drugs.
She was taken to the Pasteur Institute.
She had her stomach pumped,
but she was already dead.
Sister, we received an account
that, at the Pasteur Institute,
a nurse was called to help a young girl,
who might have been Mara Soledad Morales,
who was completely incapacitated.
She called me and said, "Look, Martha,
when Mara Soledad
was brought here that night
by those guys in one of their trucks,
she was already dead,
but they intubated her."
"I have that tube."
She said, "I hid it."
"Well, that tube was given
to the authorities, and they..."
"They lied to me."
"They made it disappear.
I had that evidence."
From the start of this trial,
the attitude of the presiding judge,
Alejandro Rodolfo Ortiz Iraman,
had generated controversy
and even doubts about his impartiality.
It was an embarrassment
because if a witness
said something he didn't like,
the jury would say, "Enough."
So, their mouths were shut.
We saw it on television.
And from the start,
we saw things we didn't like.
Some say he is tipping the scale
against Luis Tula
and in favor of Guillermo Luque.
You saw on television
that when someone pointed
at Guillermo Luque and accused him,
the court went wild.
I warn you that this type of behavior
will be penalized from now on.
Many people noticed what was happening.
Everything was shady and weird.
There may be reasons why
TV coverage is not beneficial.
But one advantage is that you can
monitor the integrity of the trial.
In this trial, there are
many suspects, even including the judges.
We all saw the suspicious negative gesture
of court member Sampayo
to his colleague Azar,
to vote against the motion of detention
for giving a false testimony.
One person signaled to the next,
like saying, "Dismiss it."
The image of justice, eyes covered,
was tainted by suspicions of bias.
The court's response was to ban
the live broadcast of the trial,
censoring the right
to information for the whole country
to watch the hearing processes freely.
By banning the broadcast of the trial,
secrecy and suspicions grow.
There was supposed to be justice,
but it was never served.
I WANT FREE, TRANSPARENT JUSTICE
The firm resignation
of Mr. Iraman, who said,
"Faced with the most aberrant behavior
of corrupt power,
that intends to force judges
in the Mara Soledad Morales murder trial
to issue a guilty verdict against
one of the perpetrators in this case."
This is about Guillermo Luque.
They want to save Luque at all costs!
Let me through.
JUSTICE WITHOUT TV, RADIO
Justice!
They follow orders!
They have children and grandchildren.
We're very sad about the court's decision.
We are with Mr. Gustavo Taranto,
chamber prosecutor in this case.
What is your assessment?
Finally, now the courthouse president
has resigned.
There's no admission,
but the trial is back to square one.
What is your assessment?
As you say, the trial basically restarts...
The whole process is nullified.
It's back to square one,
and we have to start
with a new courthouse.
The whole oral and public proceeding
has been nullified.
NOW WHAT?
More than six years
since the murder of Mara Soledad,
a new trial starts on Friday
with the same defendants,
witnesses, and prosecutor,
but with new judges.
The second trial began in August 1997
and lasted many months.
There were many hours of hearings,
and more than 300 witnesses appeared.
Mara Soledad's mother begged witnesses
that had seen something
to say what they knew.
To all of those
who didn't speak out because of threats,
I understand you
because I experienced that myself.
Police officers, instead of looking
for my daughter's killers,
came to my house
when my husband was at the courthouse.
They weren't looking for the killers,
they wanted to blame her.
They asked me terrible questions
to make me ashamed of my own daughter.
Or they pressured me to stay away
from the marches of silence,
because they'd harm me.
That is why I'm saying, "I understand
those who spoke ill of Mara Soledad
because of pressure they felt
in court and from the police,
and those who got death threats."
But this is their chance
to open their hearts.
Today, for the first time, a witness
in the Morales case broke down
and confirmed that Guillermo Luque,
Luis Tula, and Mara Soledad
were at Clivus that evening
and the early morning of Saturday,
September 8, 1990.
The prosecutor stopped the session
and announced that Muro had showed up
to expand on his testimony.
The silence in the room foreshadowed
a crucial moment.
Muro took a deep breath and said,
"I was afraid.
I received all sorts of threats."
"I didn't have anybody to turn to,
and now I will tell the truth."
Ms. Mara Soledad Morales was there.
CRIMINAL CHAMBER
Mr. Tula was there.
BARTENDER AT CLIVUS
Mr. Ibez was there.
Mr. Luque was there as well.
Tula and Luque claim
they did not know each other.
That should be taken with a grain of salt.
Mr. Ibez and Mr. Luque leave.
They basically leave
with this whole group of people.
And Mr. Tula leaves a little later.
What I could hear was...
"We'll leave with the girl.
You leave after," he said to Tula.
- Luque.
- Yes, to Flaco.
A witness sees Guillermo Luque
a few days later
with four scratches
on his face, on his cheek.
I saw that he had
two or three lines
on his face, like scratches,
as if they had been done
with a fairly forceful object.
Mara Soledad's mom, dad,
and friends say her nails were long.
When they came to ID the body,
Mara Soledad's mom
said her nails had been cut short.
And a doctor claimed he saw the biochemist
cutting Mara Soledad's nails.
And the biochemist denies it.
She says, "I didn't cut her nails."
The conclusion was that the mark
on Guillermo Luque's face was linked
to Mara Soledad's short nails.
THE COVER-UP THEORY IS REINFORCED
After many months of trial
and many witnesses,
finally came the closing statements.
I'm convinced
that the main witness in this process,
the main witness is, Your Honors,
Mara Soledad Morales.
I'm going to allow myself to...
and I apologize,
because it is almost symbolic
and a bit...
assessing the presence
of the victim in the process,
of a figure of speech, bringing
Mara Soledad Morales to this trial.
CRIME AGAINST MARA SOLEDAD
PROSECUTOR'S ARGUMENI placed a recent photo of Mara Soledad
at 17 years old back then, on the wall
and I tried to get her to say it.
It was a symbol.
But evidence showed
that she had been abused,
and I said symbolically,
"Mara Soledad tells us,
'I was raped, and I didn't want it.'"
"Mara Soledad tells us, 'I was drugged
against my will, and I didn't want it.'"
This...
Sorry.
Can we stop for a bit?
Looking at the photo of this young girl
around the time of her death,
17 years of age, dressed as a schoolgirl
with knee-high socks,
with the same shoes
she was killed in that night, Your Honors...
Mara Soledad Morales
also tells us, "I was drugged."
"I was drugged
against my will, and I didn't want it."
Your Honors, I believe
Mara Soledad Morales.
And what is
Mara Soledad Morales telling us?
She says, "I was raped."
"I was raped by two or more people,
and I didn't want that."
I also believe her, honorable courthouse.
Also, what does Mara Soledad Morales
tell us through her body?
"In that crazy violence against me,
that person who was inflicting
that violence directly on my body
held me with one hand,
forced me to swallow blood, and hit me
to inflict the violence
that made me defenseless."
And Mara Soledad Morales tells us,
that's why this is important,
she points with her finger,
"Look for the person who did this to me.
He'll have my blood on his hands."
"Look at his hands."
"It's a sexual crime."
"Search his clothes, his underwear."
Honorable courthouse,
this information, this report
brought about by the clear testimony
of Mara Soledad Morales,
who has no reason for lying,
and even if it is considered
a symbolic image,
this is the main testimony
that this prosecutor's office considers
for supporting the case
that we'll now build
against the perpetrators.
This is the senior year photo.
- Yes.
- And this one.
Look at this one. Wow.
Sister Martha.
What a nice memory.
471 KM FROM CATAMARCA
Look at the date, December 7, 1990.
That day, during the graduation ceremony,
we cried a lot
because we had someone who wasn't there.
Today I'm going to Catamarca,
and I know I'm going
to relive all of this.
But I also need
to be able to talk, you know?
To tell everyone what we went through
when we were 17.
EMAS SPIRITUAL RETREALook who's here!
Silvia!
Hi, Marcelita! How are you?
We had a very special bond
with Sister Martha.
I have very nice memories of it all.
If she hadn't been there,
it would've been different.
I think the sister loved young people.
We used to say, "Tell us, Sister."
"What did you like to do
when you were like us?"
And she said, "I'll tell you."
"I smoked and I liked Elvis.
That's all I'm saying."
I remember I took Mara Soledad
to a spiritual retreat during our course,
because I also gave those assignments
and did vocational orientation with them.
It's an uncertain age.
Many of them didn't know what they wanted.
What Sole wrote 32 years ago,
here, at the retreat...
They asked her, "A hobby?"
"Listening to music."
"Best friend?"
There is a name crossed off.
"I don't have one."
"A nice memory?"
"Falling in love."
"A dream?"
"To be loved."
What did she love?
"Life."
"An error?"
"Loving the impossible."
And "A wish?"
"Being somebody in life."
Finally, the court called us
to hear the sentence.
Well, here they come.
First, Mr. lvarez Morales,
Mr. Olmedo de Arzuaga in the center,
and the other judge.
We'll go directly to listening
what is going on in the hearing room.
Please read the verdict.
The court has ruled, unanimously.
First, Guillermo Daniel Luque
shall be found guilty
as a criminally liable co-perpetrator
of the crime of rape followed by murder,
aggravated by the use of narcotics,
and the participation
of two or more people,
sentencing him to 21 years in prison
and complete disqualification
for the same length of time.
Second, Luis Ral Tula
shall be found guilty
of personal conditions
already stated in this case
as a secondary participant,
therefore, sentencing him
to nine years in prison
and complete disqualification
for the same length of time.
As a mom,
I wanted them to get a life sentence,
especially Tula,
who is responsible
for our daughter's tragedy.
Nine years is nothing for him.
I tell both of them,
you apologized to everyone
but today, at least before the court,
you should have apologized to Sole
after all the harm you caused her.
Unfortunately, today I would have liked
to see all those who are liable go down,
because there are many missing.
But maybe one of them will apologize
and tell the truth about what happened.
THE CRIME AGAINST MARA SOLEDAD
There are some painful things
we'd like to forget.
But it's impossible.
It is now part of our lives.
These are memories that don't let me,
in my case, heal the wound yet.
Many people ask me who Mara Soledad was,
as the whole country was moved
and it was the first femicide case
that was tried as such.
Because up until that point,
it was always the woman's fault.
It was a man's violent emotion
because she had talked back or whatever.
I'd say that Mara Soledad
was a kid like any other.
Today, we are 50 years old,
and what could she have done up to today?
She could be showing us her kids' photos,
what she dreamed of becoming
and could not.
That hurts too.
It hurts a lot.
When I close my eyes,
I just imagine her
with the best thing she had.
A childlike smile.
We know we did what we had to do
and that we put our hearts
into this whole story.
That we didn't fail Sole.
We didn't fail her.
We advocated for her
as best we could, until the end.
And I hope...
that this huge loss,
this lost life,
helps raise awareness,
and keeps raising awareness.
Every 13 hours, a woman dies
because of gender-based violence.
So, Mara Soledad is the symbol
of what we women can do today
in the form of social justice.
WE ASK FOR JUSTICE
FOR OUR CLASSMATE MARA SOLEDAD
NOT ONE LESS
WE ARE THE CRY OF THOSE WHO HAVE LEFT US
IF TOMORROW IT'S MY TURN,
I WANT TO BE THE LASYOU ARE NOT ALONE
NOT ONE LESS
VALLE VIEJO MUNICIPAL CEMETERY
#ENOUGH
WE CRY OUT FOR THE VOICELESS
WHAT DO THEY KILL WHEN THEY KILL US?
LUCILA YACONIS
NOT ONE LESS
NOT ONE STEP BACKWARD
SISTER, IT WAS NOT YOUR FAULSTOP FEMICIDES
I DON'T WANT A COUNTRY WHERE THEY KILL US!
IF TOMORROW I DON'T COME BACK,
LOOK FOR ME IN THE STARS
NOT ONE LESS
Guillermo Luque was sentenced
to 21 years in prison
for rape followed by death
aggravated by the use of narcotics.
After 14 years in prison,
he was conditionally released
for good behavior.
Luis Tula was sentenced
to nine years in prison
as a secondary participant
for the crime of rape.
Like Luque, he was released early.
Nobody else was convicted
for participating in the events
or attempting to cover up the crime
and derail the investigation.
In 2011, Luis Patti was sentenced
to life in prison
for crimes against humanity
commited during the last
military dictatorship (1976 - 1983)
At 83 years of age, Sister Martha Pelloni
never quit her fight.
In 2008, she founded
the Stolen Baby Network
to assist victims of human trafficking,
abuse, and sexual exploitation.
That's Soledad there.
Mirian,
Mara Eugenia,
Mnica, Caizares,
Silvia, Nancy, Marcela.
I'm in fifth A!
Fifth A, I'm in fifth A
We were planning our
senior trip to Carlos Paz.
But, obviously, not everybody
could afford to go.
So we came up with
this idea to hold fundraising dances
so we could raise money
to pay for the girls
who couldn't afford to go.
I was one of those girls.
Spring Fling,
crowning the Spring Fling queen.
We had the party on Friday, September 7,
at a club downtown.
LE FEU ROUGE CLUB
We didn't live
in the city, so to get back home,
we needed to find someone to come
and pick us up.
Sole said, "Where am I going to sleep?
I have no way of getting back home."
I said, "Sole, you can stay at my house.
It's not a problem. You can stay with me."
It was called "The Night of Surprises."
SPRING FLING QUEEN
It's ironic, but I don't even know
why we called it that.
That evening, we were all really excited
to get to the club.
We each had something to do
and somewhere we had to be.
And Sole was in charge of the tickets.
There were lots of people.
Everybody was there.
Anything that could go wrong
did go wrong that night.
The bouquets of flowers that were meant
for the queen were missing.
It was a weird night.
I don't know.
Something just felt off.
I told Sole, "Let's go home."
She said, "No, hold on.
Give me a minute, Ro."
So I said, "Okay, fine."
After about 40 minutes,
I was like, "Come on. Let's go, Sole."
And she told me
she wasn't coming home with me.
I asked her why.
And she said,
"I'm getting a ride from someone else."
I asked her, "Who?"
And she said,
"You know who."
That's when I knew...
it was him.
The girls called me around 3:00 a.m.,
saying, "Marilyn, get over here now.
The power went out. It's total chaos."
So I left in a hurry,
and that was the last time I saw her.
By the time I got back, she was gone.
I should have put my foot down.
I should have stood my ground
and said, "No."
"You're coming home with me.
I already told my parents."
I should have stood my ground.
At two or three in the morning,
Mara Soledad left the party.
Did Tula pick her up?
Did she go to the bus stop?
Nobody knows what happened
to Mara Soledad after that point.
BREAKING THE SILENCE:
THE MARA SOLEDAD CASE
How do I stop time and come back to life?
Marilyn used to play the guitar,
and we'd all sing and dance.
But when Marilyn sang sentimental songs,
Soledad would start crying.
I asked her once, "What's wrong?"
CLASSMATE
She told me she was in love
with a man she couldn't be with.
She used to kind of hide it.
CLASSMATE
Like she was embarrassed
to say she was in love.
But I noticed.
DON'T SAY YOU'LL LEAVE ME
Soledad was a writer.
We all knew she liked
to write poems and things like that.
You could tell from the way she wrote
about him that he was her first love.
The age gap was hard on her.
He was 28.
She never introduced him to us.
She never said,
"Girls, this is my boyfriend." Never.
I saw him once.
CLASSMATE
One day, I was leaving school with Sole,
and he was just passing by.
She said, there goes "el Flaco."
She called him "el Flaco."
We were waiting at the bus stop,
and Sole said,
"Come on, Mirian.
My friend's gonna give us a ride."
I asked, "But who is he?"
And she said, "It's Luis."
I said, "No, count me out."
"I'm not allowed to get in cars
with people I don't know."
"You can go, but I'm not coming."
And she said, "Oh, Mirian.
I hate you. I wanted to go."
So, I didn't get in.
She ended up staying with me.
She didn't get in, and the car left.
Supposedly, the driver
was the guy she liked, Luis Tula.
I didn't know who he was, so I'd tell her,
"All that matters is that you're in love.
That's a beautiful thing."
I had no idea who she was talking about.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1990
That Monday, I got to school,
and one of the girls asked me, frightened,
"Mnica, have you heard from Sole?"
She told me, "She never made it home."
I was like, "What?"
On that Monday, I had a class
in a room facing the schoolyard.
I saw a man standing by the flagpole.
He shouted to me,
"Sister, my daughter never came home!"
I asked, "Who are you, sir?"
He said, "I'm Mr. Morales,
Mara Soledad's father."
I asked, "Where is she?"
He said, "She never came home
from the dance."
He told me they'd spent the weekend
looking for her.
And, without asking him anything else,
I brought him into the classroom.
MARA SOLEDAD'S FATHER
I remember seeing him there.
He said, "Girls, I just want
to know where my daughter is."
"Did she spent the night somewhere else?
Is she at someone's house?"
We said, "We don't know where she is.
If we knew, we'd tell you."
"We have no idea."
We didn't have any information
that could help Mr. Morales, so he left.
Nobody came to give us class that day.
We were nervous because we were wondering,
"Where are all the teachers?"
They left us alone in the classroom,
but we were told to stay put.
Our classroom faced the main entrance,
which was next to the principal's office.
One of us climbed the window
to see if she could hear anything.
And then, suddenly...
At around 11:00,
Elas Morales came back in,
and he cried out,
"They found my daughter!"
Patricia was listening in.
And she screamed, "She's dead!"
Those exact words.
That's when the chaos began.
Teachers and assistants
came running from all over,
trying to keep the girls inside.
Windows were broken. Some got hurt.
I felt so angry
and powerless that I punched a door.
I still have the scar to this day.
They had to give me sedatives
because I was having a breakdown.
It was horrible.
We were all distraught.
It was so sad.
We all had...
so much fun together that Saturday.
And then we received
such terrible news the following Monday.
I don't know
how my classmates and I made it
from the school to the bus stop.
Or how I got on the bus.
I just know as soon as I got home,
I told my family it was
my classmate Sole who had died.
She had been killed.
I'm sorry.
We were only 17 years old.
We had lived a sheltered life.
The innocent times of our senior trip
and our graduation dinner.
Before that point,
we had no idea that evil existed.
Early Monday morning,
a bus driver traveling
from Valle Viejo to the Capital Department
passed the bend at Villa Parque Chacabuco
and saw people standing next to a car.
He thought they had had an accident.
He got out and noticed something odd.
He noticed that the people
were behaving strangely.
They seemed suspicious.
A few hours later,
in that exact same place, two workers
came across Mara Soledad's body.
This is the road to Villa Chacabuco.
It's the place
where her body was found,
ditches very close to her parents' house.
The girl was found partially buried...
FEDERAL ARGENTINEAN POLICE
...very close to the city.
Mara Soledad Morales's body
was found disfigured.
Had you ever encountered
a body with so many injuries before?
SUPERINTENDENNo, never.
The police are hard at work.
There is no news yet.
Judicial sources
have said that the officers
that carried out the initial work
where the body was found were negligent.
I passed by at 8:30,
and there were cops everywhere.
NEIGHBOR
I walked right up to the girl.
Anybody could have done the same.
People were everywhere.
Nobody cordoned off the area
to keep people away from her.
The police were just walking around.
Even with the body faced down
and the majority not knowing
the victim was female,
some police officers
already knew it was Mara Soledad Morales.
The lack of preservation at the scene,
and the number of inconsistencies,
show that the goal was to prevent
the crime from being solved, right?
The police issued a warrant
for the detention of Luis Tula,
who was identified as the main suspect
due to his alleged romantic relationship
with Mara Soledad Morales.
The judge handling the case
will hear Luis Tula's testimony.
He's been detained as the sole suspect
in the death
of the young student from Catamarca.
POLICE STATION FOUR - REGIONAL UNICATAMARCA POLICE
This afternoon,
after a brief interrogation,
Tula was released
due to lack of evidence against him.
It seems as though this crime
won't be solved anytime soon.
The following day, at the burial,
we agreed that we'd all wear our uniforms.
To honor her,
because she loved her uniform.
May the Lord open the gates of paradise
to his daughter Mara Soledad,
so she can return to that land
where there is no more death.
We said our goodbyes to her
the day she would have turned 18.
Eighteen years.
I remember it was cloudy that day.
And while we were carrying the casket,
I saw all these little droplets on it.
And I thought, "It's raining."
Her casket was covered in tears.
They were our tears.
We had to accept that
we would cry without seeing her.
And the block was full of police officers.
Police officers and patrol cars.
They wanted to take the girls' statements.
I said, "Excuse me,
but the girls are underage."
"They'll only do it
with their parents present."
They were all scared.
There were rumors going around,
I think, in Catamarca.
But we knew...
that we wouldn't just leave it at that.
Soon after the body was found,
names of people that we never thought
would be involved, started popping up.
There were rumors that there were
sons of politicians, powerful people.
We didn't know
what we were getting involved in.
We just wanted justice.
We wanted them to pay.
We wanted the perpetrators to pay.
We will get an explanation.
They are going to tell us what happened,
why she was killed, and who killed her.
That's why we agreed
to take to the streets and demand justice.
At first, Sister Martha didn't agree
because it was very dangerous.
They sent us a letter asking our parents
for their permission to let us out.
I had issued an order
that every girl that went to that funeral
had to have her parents' permission.
Many parents were not okay with it.
They were afraid
something would happen to us.
That morning, Sister Martha told us
that we couldn't leave
because the police chief was there.
Ferreyra, the police chief, came early,
before the girls left, to visit me
and tell me the motives
behind Mara Soledad's murder
to keep me
from leaving the principal's office.
I arrived at the Carmen School,
and the sister received me,
and we had a conversation,
just the two of us, in her office
for about 30 or 40 minutes.
It was not a friendly chat.
They talked inside the office.
For a long time.
He had three theories.
That it had been a butcher relative
who was skilled at using knives
to have been able
to carve her up like that.
That it could have been people from a cult
who performed satanic rituals,
and that they had fulfilled a rite.
Or, if not, then it was something to do
with revenge or relationships
in which Mara Soledad was involved.
That was his goal.
To fill her head with different stuff,
that it had been a satanic cult.
The cover-up had begun, you know?
From the start.
At that moment, I didn't believe
any of the three theories.
I listened to him,
and every now and then,
the receptionist said, "Just a moment."
I'd go out,
and the whole school was ready to go.
Five hundred girls were waiting
in silence with their teachers.
Mr. Ferreyra, did you ever try
to prevent Carmen School
from carrying out the marches
or any Marches of Silence?
No, I did not try to prevent
any March of Silence from taking place.
He said, "Sister, you are responsible
for anything that might happen."
I asked, "What might happen?"
"We're trying to figure out
what happened to her."
"What's going to happen?
What could happen? Tell me."
It was a long wait.
Then Sister Martha came out.
She said, "I cannot let you go."
"What guarantees do I have
that you'll all be okay?"
And we said, "To make you feel better,
we'll all be silent."
"That will be our protest."
"We'll walk in silence.
We won't do anything."
So, she said, "Girls, get out there."
WE DEMAND JUSTICE
FOR OUR CLASSMATE MARA SOLEDAD
FIRST MARCH OF SILENCE
There wasn't a big crowd
because it was us
and the families,
basically, that marched with us.
We were very scared.
I remember we walked closely together
with our arms intertwined
because we felt that pressure
from the police
who had come
to try to prevent us from marching.
Catamarca stood still
as the march passed by.
I realized, in amazement,
that, as we marched by,
people who were driving on side streets
stopped their cars and got out,
as if we were singing the national anthem,
and they stood and watched us march,
joining us in that way.
And you could only hear
the sound of people's footsteps.
And that's how
"the Marches of Silence" began.
We arrived at the entrance
of the cathedral, and we prayed there.
We all prayed.
We asked the Virgin
to help us in our quest for justice.
We asked her for justice.
IN SILENCE, YOUNG PEOPLE
DEMANDED JUSTICE YESTERDAY
THE CRIES OF SILENCE
Sister Martha told us,
"Your behavior was exemplary,
so, from now on, girls,
I want you to know
that you have my full support."
The march of complete silence has begun.
SECOND MARCH OF SILENCE
It is being led by Sister Martha Pelloni,
principal of Carmen y San Jos School,
where Mara Soledad used to study.
The parents are by her side.
Move over, Cuqui.
1,128 KM FROM CATAMARCA
I worked for Telefe Noticias.
And suddenly, for three days in a row,
there was a news story
in the Clarn newspaper.
And Carlos Montero,
who was the editor in chief,
was curious about why the story
kept being published
and that it mentioned something
about the "children of power."
It was horrifying.
So, he decided to send a team to Catamarca
to find out what was happening.
He chose me, which was strange,
because they usually send men.
San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca,
a city of masses, naps, and silence.
A profoundly Christian city,
whose 90,000 inhabitants have been shaken
by the discovery
of the destroyed and desecrated body
of Mara Soledad Morales.
On the first week,
we went to the pedestrian area.
I approached people and asked,
"What do you think of the case?
What happened to Mara Soledad?"
"Who killed her?"
People did this, covering their faces,
and they wouldn't talk.
What are people saying
about the Morales case?
I can't tell you anything
because I wasn't here at the time.
That was the first thing that stood out.
We're also a little helpless
because people are afraid.
I don't know of what right now,
but we are afraid.
People are afraid.
I've missed two weeks of university
because I'm afraid
to be walking on the street.
The people we think are guilty
are out here,
and anything could happen to us.
And they said this to us,
"The thing is, you can leave,
but we have to stay here."
There is a lot of fear in Catamarca.
Who could be so powerful
to instill so much fear?
Power itself.
Nobody talked to me
about the Mara Soledad case.
So, we went to Carmen School,
where Mara Soledad used to study.
And the principal, Martha Pelloni,
welcomed me very kindly.
Do you think some people
know more than they're letting on,
saw more than what they say,
and are afraid to testify?
Yes, I am really convinced that's true.
I said, "Sister, you're bold as hell!"
And she covered the camera with her hand,
and said, "No, Fanny, not that."
So, I asked her if I could go
to Mara Soledad's class.
Fifth year A at Carmen y San Jos School.
Nothing will ever be the same
since September 8.
And the girls also told me many things.
All of us dreamed of graduating together
and making the most of this final year,
and going
on the end-of-year trip together.
All of a sudden, one of us was gone.
And the worst part
is the way in which she...
What was done to her.
So... that was very hard.
There's an empty chair behind yours.
It's Mara Soledad's.
Yes, there is an empty chair.
We cannot understand this massacre,
because not even animals kill
the way they killed her.
There's no explanation as to why
they would kill and end a life like that.
What was going on socially?
What was happening politically, Sergio?
I think the brutality of the crime,
and especially the circumstances
in which it happened,
caught the attention of media outlets.
That's why they came.
That's why they all paid attention
to this crime.
But also to the political situation.
Nobody can deny that there is
a lot of nepotism in Catamarca.
Going to Catamarca meant going
to Saadi's kingdom.
Ramn Saadi is sat on people's shoulders
at 6:20 p.m. here in Catamarca.
We'll try to reach him.
Ramn Saadi
had been elected as governor in 1983.
He was the son of a very powerful
national Peronist political leader,
Vicente Saadi,
who was the mentor of the man
who would later become president.
Carlos Sal Menem.
PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA (1989-1999)
Carlos Menem owed
his political career to Vicente Saadi.
Ramn inherited power
because his father had had it,
and he surrounded himself
with these sorts of thugs
that later became
congress members and senators.
So, he could sanction whatever he wanted.
They appointed judges
and police officers whenever they wanted.
They ran it like a fiefdom.
I mean, there was
a history of quiet, subdued people...
because he owned Catamarca.
Governor, may I ask you to do something?
Talk to your people.
He received us in a dimly lit office,
and the first thing that he asked was
if I wasn't afraid
of walking by myself outside.
It was explicit impunity.
Governor Ramn Saadi...
MARCH OF TRUTH
OCTOBER 25, 1990
...is leading the march.
THE GOVERNOR CALL THE WHOLE TOWN...
The government organizes
the so-called "March of Truth."
They brought supporters,
against what they said
was a political move
against the government.
I can assure you,
as a citizen, as a father,
and most importantly, as a governor,
that those who are responsible
will pay for it in court.
Catamarca!
THE MARCH OF TRUTH
A LACKLUSTER IMITATION
I want to say something
to all Argentinians.
Right from the start,
we've known who did it
and how they did it.
The crime is solved.
But since they have...
Since those who killed my daughter
belong to Catamarca's political elite,
they want to cover it up.
But that won't happen
because in Catamarca,
we all know who belongs to which side,
and this won't go unpunished.
The following week,
30,000 people joined the seventh march.
NOVEMBER 1, 1990
Seventh March of Silence.
Thirty thousand people marched.
One third of the population of Catamarca.
This was the first time there was
a big demand for justice in our province.
It had never happened before.
Let's hold hands
Let us hold hands
Let us finally hold hands
I feel confidence in my heart
That we will finally succeed
As governor of this province,
we have helped
to get this crime solved the whole time.
Unfortunately, some crimes
are solved quickly
and others take longer.
Media outlets all over the country
covered the marches.
So, the federal government felt pressured
and had no choice but to get involved.
President Menem told Governor Saadi
to appoint Deputy Commissioner Patti
to lead the investigation of the case.
They sent Patti, who was
a popular police officer with an iron fist
and who would supposedly solve the crime.
It's 10:00 a.m.,
and the Aerolneas plane
transporting Luis Patti
has just arrived.
Patti arrived in Catamarca
he could solve and resolve the crime.
Patti!
PATTI: YOU ARE OUR HOPE
BE STRONG, PATTI
WE LOVE YOU
He's the only one who will help
the people of Catamarca.
Defend Mara Soledad!
Why Patti? Because we have lots of faith.
Because he did lots of good things
in Buenos Aires as well.
Deputy Commissioner Patti
left to carry out a procedure.
Good!
By order of Deputy Commissioner Patti,
the land will be cleared out
and searched manually,
not with machines, but manually,
in order to try to identify any elements
that could help in the investigation.
Usually, when a body is found,
the site is searched thoroughly
for evidence.
In theory and in practice,
that's usually true.
Has that not been done
here since September 10?
No, that type of search
has not been carried out.
From the time you arrived until now,
has the investigation progressed at all?
Are you closer to your goal?
Well, it has progressed. That is clear.
And are you much closer to your goal?
There are no timelines
for homicide investigations,
so we just have to wait.
He asked if he could come talk to me
at my home.
He wanted me to go
to the Federal Justice Department.
I said, "If you want to come,
I'll see you at my house."
What I told him was that the names
we had given the president
were confirmed
so that they wouldn't alter
the investigation or waste time.
Is the investigation going off course,
or are Patti's statements diverting it?
I am not going to judge what he's doing
because I don't know him,
but if he's going after Tula,
he's diverting the investigation.
Apparently, it had been a crime of passion
because Mara Soledad was dating a man
who was ten years older than her.
That man was Luis Tula.
Tula was
poor.
He wanted a better life.
He was a traffic employee,
but he was studying.
He was married. Or maybe he wasn't.
JOURNALISTula is a strange character.
Did you read Patti's note?
Some of it.
I'll read you an excerpt.
It says, "It was a crime of passion."
They ask, "Why are you so sure, Patti?"
"Due to several circumstances."
"The only solid theory
among the three or four possible
is it was a crime of passion."
"For example, who drove Mara Soledad
in their car?"
"It all seems
to indicate it was Tula's car."
They wanted it to be Tula
because, later, there was
another request from higher up...
Another request.
That's what Menem wanted to avoid
by appointing Patti.
LUIS PATTI - WE HAVE A SUSPECTula was tortured,
and he was promised the world
if he accepted responsibility
for killing Mara Soledad.
- How much were you offered?
- Two million.
- And did you accept it?
- No.
None of it?
They wanted something quick
to close the case.
No politics.
But it was up to the judge.
Patti's theory
is limited
to some passion-related circumstances
in a simple love triangle situation.
My theory is a bit broader.
From the start,
people linked Mara Soledad's murder
to "the children of power,"
because, apparently,
the children of power had the habit
of taking "bumpkins," as they called them.
Since the children of power
are upper class,
they call humble girls "bumpkins."
Children or family members
of powerful politicians who had a habit
of going out on the weekends
and looking for girls to have fun with.
Obviously, they didn't rape
and kill a girl every weekend,
but it's like they were used to having
a certain level of impunity.
Guillermo Luque's name came up
because somebody recognized his car,
which was the car that picked up
Mara Soledad at the bus stop.
One of the government's wealthy ladies
held a tea party at home
and told her friends
that Guillermo Luque had killed a bumpkin.
Could Tula be in the same situation
and be linked to these people?
Of course, he could--
If not Tula or Luque, hypothetically,
could it be Tula and Luque?
And some other things.
I'm not being accused of anything,
so there's no evidence
that I committed that crime,
or that I was even
in the province of Catamarca.
He lived in Buenos Aires.
He worked
at the National Congress Library.
Did you see Guillermo Luque
on Friday, September 7, here in Catamarca?
Yes, I saw him
because of a special circumstance
on Repblica Street,
between Salta and Rivadavia.
INVESTIGATING COURT 1
Judge Ventimiglia ordered
Guillermo Luque's arrest.
What are the latest updates related
to the arrest of Congressman Luque's son?
There is a warrant for his arrest,
and we're figuring out how to arrest him,
so it could happen at any moment.
Some suggest Guillermo Luque
is not currently in the country.
- Is that true?
- I doubt it. He must be in Buenos Aires.
Deputy Commissioner Patti
is traveling to Buenos Aires,
but Guillermo Luque
manages to avoid police efforts.
The well-known police chief
is now the main target for criticism.
Will you replace Patti?
No, the Ministry of Justice
will replace him.
The disagreements with Judge Ventimiglia
made him return to Buenos Aires.
Did you fail in Catamarca?
No.
He left empty-handed.
He didn't achieve anything at all.
- Is Guillermo in the country?
- He's on vacation.
Well, he's on the coast.
He might have already gone,
or he'll be going soon, to Punta del Este.
But he's always in touch with us
for when the judge subpoenas him.
Guillermo Luque,
son of a national congressman
and a provincial congresswoman,
so he really was a child
of the Catamarcan political elite.
Menem, who was the president at the time,
was a close friend of Ramn Saadi
and Luque.
And flying to Catamarca,
on the same plane,
is Guillermo Luque.
But Mr. Guillermo Luque has told us
that he won't speak to the media today.
I won't speak to the media
until I've spoken with the judge.
I've come back from abroad.
If I had had
any concerns about my situation,
do you think I would've come back?
Wouldn't it have been easier,
since, as you said,
I'm so well-protected by political power,
to distance myself from the situation?
Since I am innocent, I came back.
A new witness
incriminates Guillermo Luque.
This time,
not only does he destroy the alibi
that he wasn't in Catamarca
when the crime took place,
but he also implicates him
in Mara Soledad's murder.
There is a group of people
that have come together to accuse me
because they want to alter the information
and divert attention
from the city of Catamarca,
and they want to divide
the Catamarcan family.
He left on Friday 7, at around 10:00 p.m.
and returned on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
Who left on Saturday... on Friday?
"El Hueso" came to pick him up on Friday.
GUILLERMO LUQUE'S FRIEND
Then he returned on Saturday by himself.
He met with his dad inside the room.
I heard his father yelling,
"What have you done?"
And then they left again immediately.
They returned at around 6:00 or 7:00 p.m.
Then they gave me the clothes to wash.
They were bloodstained,
both the pants and the underwear.
And the car was taken to La Merced,
where it has stayed ever since.
- But who washed the car? Moreno?
- Moreno washed it.
What is your role at the Luque home?
I'm the gardener.
I was intrigued by that red color it had.
And I peeked inside,
and Moreno told me it was blood.
Apparently, Guillermo had killed a girl.
My son Guillermo Daniel Luque
was not in Catamarca on the 7, 8, or 9.
Anybody who saw my son
on September 7, 8, 9, or 10,
should tell the police
and law enforcement.
Were you paid off?
They didn't offer me anything.
- Did they just threaten you?
- Yes.
Who threatened you, specifically?
ngel Luque.
The Luques had told him
that if he talked, they'd kill his mom.
Things won't end well for anyone who
comes here to give a false testimony.
It seems that Guillermo Luque's situation
is getting more difficult.
I think so.
There's progress in the investigation,
and, as it deepens,
the situation of the accused
gets more difficult.
Especially for Luque.
Good morning. Have you testified?
It was a farce, a sham.
- Why?
- Because it's a setup.
- Who set it up?
- Were you able to testify?
Who set it all up?
Luque was the straw...
that broke the camel's back.
ngel Luque.
When the suspicions about Luque increased,
the congressman showed off his power
in his area.
With impunity,
trying to highlight his son's innocence,
he challenged a journalist.
"Do you think if my son
had been the perpetrator,
the body would have been found?"
With the confidence
of those who feel they're untouchable.
Everybody said, "Well, that means
that these things happen in Catamarca
and that bodies have not been surfacing."
That was awful.
This meant that ngel Luque
was expelled from the National Congress.
The first time in Argentinean history
that a member of Congress was expelled
was actually ngel Luque.
Wasn't Luque's removal a little late?
Some say that the Catamarcan power
protected him as much as it could.
No way.
The provincial government
has never covered up
any type of activity,
not Mr Luque's or anyone else's.
I've suffered
the same consequences as my son.
Removing me from
the House of Representatives
was a political decision.
I'm still waiting to hear
what crime I committed.
And if I committed a crime
and no one complained,
they covered for me, for the crime.
CALL ATTRIBUTED
TO NGEL LUQUE AND VCTOR PINTO
This is awful.
I know. If the president
doesn't control it from there,
it'll get out of hand.
What do you mean,
"doesn't control it from there"?
Here is where Pinto
makes the serious mistake
of telling Luque,
"If the president doesn't control it
from there, it'll get out of hand."
"Control it from there."
"From there."
The president of the country.
Intervention!
We won't go!
We, the people, won't go away!
There are problems here.
It's a tough situation.
Menem is covering up!
There's a strong police presence.
Some things were just burned there.
There is a large police deployment.
Mara Soledad's classmates
and secondary school students in Catamarca
want to extend an invitation
to all the youth in this country.
Yes.
We want all young people
in the country to participate.
The adults too.
We wanted to do a national march.
"Everyone is in favor of this cause.
We have to do a national march."
"People from all over
should march for Sole."
"Join our cry for justice,
our silent cry,
at the well-known Marches of Silence."
JUSTICE
APRIL 18, 1991
That national march,
which I joined in Buenos Aires,
was held at the same time
in different parts of the country.
In different provinces.
222 DAYS AFTER THE CRIME
JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU
We had to march with human shields,
who were priests
who put themselves on the line
because we had been told
that from in between the buildings,
while we were marching,
there would be a stray bullet
heading towards us.
SOLE LIVES
It was dangerous,
but we had to go ahead anyway.
In the face of so much covering-up,
so much impunity,
so much abuse,
we have to come together.
The only thing
that should bring us together is our heart
and the desire
that the justice that we want so badly
finally prevails in this country.
Justice!
Let us hold hands
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER
I feel the certainty in my heart
That we will finally prevail
What moved me the most
was the support
from people all over the country.
We never thought it would get to that.
How did the national march end?
It ended in a provincial intervention.
The march had such a strong impact
that there was a provincial intervention.
As president of Argentina,
today I have decided
to expand the federal intervention
to the executive and legislative powers
of the province of Catamarca.
The appointed federal inspector
is Mr. Luis Prol.
LUIS PROL APPOINTED AS INSPECTOR
With all due respect to my dear friend,
who has made today
one of the biggest mistakes
a president can make,
which is to not respect
our way of governing.
Ramn was very close friends
with Menem, very close.
He relied on Menem.
And Menem betrayed him.
GOODBYE, CRUEL BROTHER
When the president, Menem, saw
he could not do anything else for Saadi,
and that his fall
could bring him down as well,
he let go of his hand.
FROM VICENTE TO RAMN SAADI
A WORN-OUT DYNASTY
The arrival of the federal inspector
for the province of Catamarca
is well-received.
But while all this was happening,
they lost sight of Mara Soledad.
She disappeared.
The files got lost.
Nobody thought about her anymore.
They were thinking about Saadi,
of who would defeat him,
of what Menem would do.
She got lost.
Inspector Luis Prol
has called an election in Catamarca.
It will probably be the most significant
in the history of this province.
Even though he had been removed,
Saadi's power was such
that he decided to run in the election.
VOTE FOR SAADI
Radicals and anti-Saadist Peronists
chose an old Catamarcan radical
as their candidate.
There is a bipolarization
in the Catamarcan election
between the former governor Ramn Saadi
and radical Arnoldo Castillo.
Saadi, is this
the trickiest election you've faced?
No, that is the belief of people
who have been shaken to their very core
due to this merciless campaign
that's been going on for over a year.
Catamarca will vote
to really eradicate corruption.
So, you can vote responsibly,
or you can vote to support Saadism.
This secular prayer, as it was called,
with Martha saying, "Don't be afraid,"
had an impact.
The Civic and Social Front has won.
This is how people are celebrating
in Catamarca's main square.
It's being said
that you are one of the key figures
behind this change in Catamarca.
Well, that's what Catamarca is saying.
Yes, I think there was some encouragement
because of my role as a nun
who was condemning what's wrong.
And I hope this commitment
that Catamarca has to accept today
becomes a reality in the future.
What do you expect
from the next government
and the Mara Soledad case?
Well, I hope the case is solved
and the killers end up
where they need to be.
We want a transparent government.
We don't have any disagreements
with anyone.
We want justice to serve as justice.
And all those who have committed crimes,
under any government, will pay.
I was transferred in December 1991.
Sister Martha Pelloni is here with us.
I am sure my transfer was a request
from Menem to the bishop,
and then from the bishop
to my congregation.
Catamarca needs to ask
to be cleared of its guilt
so that justice may flourish.
Menem went to see Monsignor Miani
and asked him to remove the nun.
They thought that if she was gone,
the marches would stop
and we would all fall silent.
The goal was to get me out of Catamarca.
For us, the support
of Sister Martha was very important.
When she left,
we felt like we'd been orphaned.
Our Mother of the Valley, pray for us.
It wasn't really the surprise that got us,
but the need to silence us somehow.
The whole political pressure at that time.
But despite it all, we carried on.
And she told us, "Don't stop. Keep going."
But sure...
Back then we really felt
the world was collapsing around us,
and we had to keep going.
Due to the federal intervention,
the government that followed
brought lawyers from Crdoba to fill
the judicial power seats in Catamarca.
Due to the political reality in Catamarca,
the government at the time,
the Civic Front,
needed to hold a trial.
They didn't have a state prosecutor.
Due to internal conflict,
and perhaps because society was split
between Saadists and anti-Saadists,
being involved in the process
meant that the prosecutor
would probably have had
to confront one of the sides.
So, it was very hard to choose
within Catamarca.
The main goal was to find
a prosecutor from the judiciary in Crdoba
to hold that position.
They finally chose me,
and I took power in Catamarca.
I'm Taranto. I was the prosecutor
in the Mara Soledad case,
and I lived in this hotel.
- How are you?
- How are you?
Hello. Do you remember me?
- Yes, from Crdoba.
- Yes, exactly.
- The Mara Soledad case.
- Exactly.
I was just telling her that.
Yes, I remember.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
This past February 26,
both the oral and the public trials began
to solve the murder
of student Mara Soledad Morales.
SIX YEARS AFTER THE CRIME
The trial took place
in Catamarca's criminal chamber two,
the court of which is comprised
by judge Rodolfo Ortiz Iraman,
the court president,
and, as board members,
Judge Juan Carlos Sampayo
and Judge Mara Alejandra Azar.
The Morales family has just arrived.
Be strong, Ada!
How are you feeling?
I'm fine, thankfully.
I'm here, strong, stronger than ever.
And I'm just waiting for justice.
That's all.
The courthouse agreed
to the public broadcast of the hearings,
which, with the help of Channel 6,
was distributed
to all national media outlets.
It was unheard of,
to have a criminal trial
broadcast live on TV.
- Not even the trial of the Juntas.
- Exactly.
I remember everyone was,
like with TV shows today,
ready for the trial to begin
during nap time.
We call witness Miguel ngel Ferreyra
to the stand.
Mr. Ferreyra, were any tactics used
to alter or derail
the investigation of this case?
Look, as chief of police
and in my capacity as witness here,
I don't know what you are referring to.
There were two narratives.
The narrative on file,
on the basis of which
the case was settled,
and the popular narrative.
On September 7, 1990,
Mara Soledad says goodbye to her mom
for the last time at their house
and went to the party
to pick the Spring Fling queen, held here.
Thirty years ago, this was Le Feu Rouge.
Some scenery is still here, what worked.
She didn't care about the queen,
but she wanted to meet up
with the person
she was in love with, Luis Tula.
Did you have a romantic relationship
with Mara Soledad?
I have to agree and admit, I actually did.
She asked him to come to the club.
She was deeply in love with Tula.
Luis went, but he didn't stay.
He shows up on a motorcycle
before the party is over
and says, "Look, I can't pick you up."
Mara Soledad, quite sad,
according to her classmates,
went to catch the bus home.
That's where she was seen alive
for the last time,
at the bus stop, three or four blocks away
from the club.
It was probably at this bus stop
that Mara Soledad's tragic end started.
I obviously had to go back
to Catamarca for the trial.
Sister Pelloni is probably
one of the most important witnesses
for this case.
Sister Pelloni,
what are your expectations?
We'll talk later.
Patricia de la Colina tells me
that a suitor she had,
a friend, Marcelo Coronel,
had told her
that five classmates at school,
who were in the third year
at Colegio Nacional,
had seen,
in the early hours of September 8,
at the stop on Salta Street,
how Mara Soledad got
into a car, a green Falcon,
driven by Guillermo Luque.
The girl got into the boy's car.
He was alone.
CLASSMATE
And they went down Repblica,
as if they were racing, like, really fast.
When he told you about the girl,
did you know who he was talking about?
Putting two and two together, as they say,
I guessed it was Mara Soledad.
He told me that on Monday.
The same Monday that Sole was found.
MARCELO CORONEL, WITNESS AT RISK
Then he said it wasn't true,
that I should say I had lied.
- I never told you that.
- Yes, you did.
I never said that.
With everything they did to me,
don't you think I'd tell?
- Do you know what they did to me?
- Yes.
They took me to the first police station,
and he was sitting there, all beaten up.
And the police said
they had brought him from the rugby field
because I was asking,
"Why is he like that?"
He asked me to please say that I had lied.
I don't know, Marcelo,
why you don't say it or didn't say it.
- You're making it all up.
- I'm not.
He said, "She approached it
as if she knew the guy in the first car,
the one who was alone."
I have no reason to make that up!
I never told you anything.
Never.
ACCUSATIONS OF PRESSURE, TORTURE,
AND BRIBES TO HIDE WHO TOOK HER TO A CLUB
What's relevant here
is that her friends knew,
and they said this during trial,
that Mara Soledad,
because of the kind of person she was,
would never have gotten into a car,
unless it was a car with Tula inside,
or unless she knew those people
would take her to where Tula was.
In the end,
she left voluntarily in a Falcon,
which was Guillermo Luque's Falcon.
She was taken to Clivus,
which was a club that girls didn't go to
because it was for adults.
And we don't know
exactly what happened there.
This used to be Clivus.
It has a different name now,
but it probably still serves
the same purpose,
providing a place to dance, a nightclub.
You said that at around 4:00 a.m.,
you ran into Mara Soledad.
Yes.
- You mean Mara Soledad Morales.
- Yes.
Rita Furln worked as a cashier at Clivus,
and she saw some shocking things there.
There, leaning against a column,
was Mara Soledad with a guy.
Miss Furln, did you know
Mara Soledad Morales?
Yes, ma'am.
How long had you known her?
I couldn't tell you
exactly when I met her,
but we chatted several times
in front of my house.
And also at church.
You saw her in Clivus that awful night.
Not only her, in fact,
but Guillermo Luque as well.
Who else did you see that night?
- Guillermo Luque and "Hueso" Ibez.
- Yes.
What were they wearing?
I don't remember exactly.
We're talking about five years ago.
I ran into them at the stairs,
coming from the upper floor,
"Hueso" Ibez with Guillermo
and two girls.
Some of the girls came
to talk to me about that night,
because they were working there at Clivus.
"They choose girls there on Saturday."
They would say,
"Girls are chosen on the weekend."
It's like some had a droit de seigneur,
which means that first
they had to go through someone powerful
so that the father could later get a job.
Some friends of the children of power,
who were sort of like acolytes,
who liked to mingle with the upper class
in order to have a different lifestyle.
Luis Tula was friends
with these children of power
because they had lots of money,
they went out and went to the clubs
that Tula couldn't afford.
So he was part of that group.
And his entrance fee was exactly that.
Recruiting girls.
There was one called
"el Hueso," "el Gordo," or "el Loco."
The court agreed to hear testimonies
of Hugo "Hueso" Ibez
and Luis "Loco" Mndez.
Ibez, 41 years old, a taxicab driver,
said he met Luque
in 1987, in a bar in Catamarca.
He stated he did not see him
in the province the weekend of the crime.
When it was his turn,
"Loco" Mndez, 35, a furniture seller,
said he saw Luque on some weekends
and that he has no proof
that Luque was in Catamarca
between September 7 and 9.
There are a lot of people who saw him,
that at some point said, "Yes, I saw him,"
and then said,
"No, I didn't see him. It wasn't him."
Witness Evangelina Sosa was testifying.
They wanted to see
if she confirmed or corrected
what she said during the investigation.
The night of the eighth in Clivus,
she said Evangelina Sosa
was tapped on the back,
and it was Mara Soledad, who greeted her.
You said you saw
Mara Soledad Morales at Clivus.
She was dressed in black
and she wore a sweatshirt, a turtleneck.
You pointed at your neck, like this.
No, ma'am.
You said she was going upstairs
and you were going down
because your dad was waiting for you.
So, all I'm saying is a lie?
Yes, ma'am, you are lying.
- I'm lying?
- Yes, ma'am.
I said, "Look, Evangelina. I'm a nun."
"I'm only interested in the truth."
I talked to her. We spoke.
"You should not feel pressured
or forced by anyone."
"Lay your conscience before God,
and may it all be to solve this crime."
"Because today it's Mara Soledad,
and tomorrow it's many others."
The girl started crying again,
and said, "Sister,
what I said this morning is true."
"But my parents won't let me testify."
EVANGELINA SOSA SAYS SHE LIED
AND REPORTED BEING PRESSURED
Ma'am, did you notice any fear
in these people
that were telling you the facts?
Because you said
they changed their stories a lot,
and that they'd tell you something,
and then they'd deny it.
- Were they scared at all?
- Yes, sir.
There were lots of threats.
Why do you think
something is being covered up,
which will be uncovered at some point?
Because, without a doubt,
a strictly police matter,
like a crime,
has been used to link it
to a political event... fact.
Ma'am, did you receive any threats?
Yes, many, even up
until the day before coming here.
And here in Catamarca,
these few days, I've received threats too.
What were the threats you just received?
That I should not testify
because they said, with expletives,
that they will beat me up.
They said that I should not come
and that they will kill me.
Sister Martha Pelloni,
principal of the Carmen School, testified
about what Sara Cuba,
Ramn Saadi's cousin, said to her,
which included Guillermo Luque
having killed a bumpkin.
Sara Cuba said
that around the day Mara Soledad died,
Mrs. De Lupiani showed up to exercise
and said, "Do you know what happened
to Beba Luque's son?"
They had been playing cards
at a tea party,
and she said he had killed a bumpkin.
She thought it had been a car accident.
They each went home
with that version of events.
It seems like they both talked
about it at home.
And that is what Mrs. De Lupiani did
with Sara Cuba de Boggio.
But the next day Mrs. Lupiani went back
and said to Sara Boggio at the gym,
"Don't mention anything
about what I said yesterday about Luque
because it wasn't an accident."
"Apparently, she was killed."
No, Sister. No...
Yes, ma'am. What I said is true.
- And I waited until...
- This is outrageous of you!
- And it's a lie.
- I accept the insult.
You should be dragged out here
by the hair and beaten up.
I went to defend my truth. What I knew.
Because I could not prove anything else.
What I knew were the conversations
I had with de Boggio.
She denied them.
No aggression!
The witness must be penalized, judge.
She has threatened another witness.
Sister Martha could have been hurt.
She's one of those unsung heroes.
1,128 KM FROM CATAMARCA
I started at 22 years of age,
here, in this house, shut in.
Back then, we didn't go out.
But I was already a rebel.
A rebel because I criticized,
not because I resisted,
because obedience was one of my vows.
We're talking about 1987.
Halfway through the year,
I was diagnosed with sudden breast cancer.
I felt death was close, honestly.
The day before my surgery,
I prayed to God, crying,
"You know I gave you my life
because of what you did
for so many people."
"And I want to keep working."
"I won't waste one minute of my life
if you give me the life that I want."
My surgery ended,
and at the end of that year,
the provincial authority
sent me to Catamarca.
That's where the odyssey started
with the Mara Soledad case.
During the process,
many things became difficult.
I mean, in Catamarca
and surrounding that trial,
there were threats, there were...
A lot of witnesses were afraid.
They spent lots of money
trying to throw a wrench in the works.
Lots and lots of money.
Actually, they tried
to make up things about Taranto,
and they couldn't do it.
I started to get visits,
visits from women,
and I quickly realized
that what they might try to do
was discredit me.
In fact, there was
this one woman who came once
to try to talk and propose things to me.
Then she came to the trial
and sat next to the mother
of one of the accused.
There have been many witnesses
who accuse your son.
Do you feel the situation
is getting complicated?
No, it isn't.
During the trial, there were theories
about where it all had happened,
where Mara Soledad was raped.
There was a history
of parties thrown
at a place called Los lamos,
a motel, a pay-as-you-go hotel,
which was referenced
by some of the witnesses.
Ms. Patricia Rodrguez testified,
and Prosecutor Gustavo Taranto
followed her testimony closely,
as it linked Guillermo Luque
to drugs and orgies.
Sister Martha Pelloni had also referred
to what the young lady had said.
I remember that Patricia Rodrguez
showed up one day
to tell me that at some point,
they left Clivus to go to Los lamos.
Patricia, another girl who was with her
and whose name I don't remember,
"El Gordo" Mndez and Luque, Guillermo.
Then they had sex together,
and then had sex with the girls.
At this type of trial,
the only in-person witness is the victim.
Their bodies speak to us
through the autopsy report.
"Based on the data
obtained during the autopsy,
the conclusion is that the deceased
had suffered severe trauma to the face,"
DETAILS FROM AUTOPSY
The day the body was found,
you went to the morgue
to identify your daughter.
And you also said that,
at first, you didn't recognize her.
Look, sir, I think...
at that moment I would have preferred
for someone to shoot me instead of seeing
my daughter's body like that.
I don't wish that
even on my daughter's killer,
to have to live
with the pain I've endured.
Not even my daughter's killer.
They tried to silence the body,
but the body has injuries
that were sustained before dying.
So, in a way,
the body is still talking to us.
What they were talking about
at first was rape.
The rape happened with another person
or persons who are unknown to date.
"Sexual intercourse took place."
"A posteriori,
there are signs of asphyxiation,
which would have led to her death."
Are there any substances
that can cause the effect of asphyxiation
in an organism, a human being?
Cocaine, which is a substance,
can also create circumstances
that lead to death by suffocation,
through cardiac arrest.
Guillermo Luque,
along with unnamed people,
gave her cocaine, against her will,
in a quantity that is inconsistent
with voluntary consumption,
to achieve a state of defenselessness
and then raped her repeatedly.
Mara Soledad died,
in the end, as a result of the drugs.
She was taken to the Pasteur Institute.
She had her stomach pumped,
but she was already dead.
Sister, we received an account
that, at the Pasteur Institute,
a nurse was called to help a young girl,
who might have been Mara Soledad Morales,
who was completely incapacitated.
She called me and said, "Look, Martha,
when Mara Soledad
was brought here that night
by those guys in one of their trucks,
she was already dead,
but they intubated her."
"I have that tube."
She said, "I hid it."
"Well, that tube was given
to the authorities, and they..."
"They lied to me."
"They made it disappear.
I had that evidence."
From the start of this trial,
the attitude of the presiding judge,
Alejandro Rodolfo Ortiz Iraman,
had generated controversy
and even doubts about his impartiality.
It was an embarrassment
because if a witness
said something he didn't like,
the jury would say, "Enough."
So, their mouths were shut.
We saw it on television.
And from the start,
we saw things we didn't like.
Some say he is tipping the scale
against Luis Tula
and in favor of Guillermo Luque.
You saw on television
that when someone pointed
at Guillermo Luque and accused him,
the court went wild.
I warn you that this type of behavior
will be penalized from now on.
Many people noticed what was happening.
Everything was shady and weird.
There may be reasons why
TV coverage is not beneficial.
But one advantage is that you can
monitor the integrity of the trial.
In this trial, there are
many suspects, even including the judges.
We all saw the suspicious negative gesture
of court member Sampayo
to his colleague Azar,
to vote against the motion of detention
for giving a false testimony.
One person signaled to the next,
like saying, "Dismiss it."
The image of justice, eyes covered,
was tainted by suspicions of bias.
The court's response was to ban
the live broadcast of the trial,
censoring the right
to information for the whole country
to watch the hearing processes freely.
By banning the broadcast of the trial,
secrecy and suspicions grow.
There was supposed to be justice,
but it was never served.
I WANT FREE, TRANSPARENT JUSTICE
The firm resignation
of Mr. Iraman, who said,
"Faced with the most aberrant behavior
of corrupt power,
that intends to force judges
in the Mara Soledad Morales murder trial
to issue a guilty verdict against
one of the perpetrators in this case."
This is about Guillermo Luque.
They want to save Luque at all costs!
Let me through.
JUSTICE WITHOUT TV, RADIO
Justice!
They follow orders!
They have children and grandchildren.
We're very sad about the court's decision.
We are with Mr. Gustavo Taranto,
chamber prosecutor in this case.
What is your assessment?
Finally, now the courthouse president
has resigned.
There's no admission,
but the trial is back to square one.
What is your assessment?
As you say, the trial basically restarts...
The whole process is nullified.
It's back to square one,
and we have to start
with a new courthouse.
The whole oral and public proceeding
has been nullified.
NOW WHAT?
More than six years
since the murder of Mara Soledad,
a new trial starts on Friday
with the same defendants,
witnesses, and prosecutor,
but with new judges.
The second trial began in August 1997
and lasted many months.
There were many hours of hearings,
and more than 300 witnesses appeared.
Mara Soledad's mother begged witnesses
that had seen something
to say what they knew.
To all of those
who didn't speak out because of threats,
I understand you
because I experienced that myself.
Police officers, instead of looking
for my daughter's killers,
came to my house
when my husband was at the courthouse.
They weren't looking for the killers,
they wanted to blame her.
They asked me terrible questions
to make me ashamed of my own daughter.
Or they pressured me to stay away
from the marches of silence,
because they'd harm me.
That is why I'm saying, "I understand
those who spoke ill of Mara Soledad
because of pressure they felt
in court and from the police,
and those who got death threats."
But this is their chance
to open their hearts.
Today, for the first time, a witness
in the Morales case broke down
and confirmed that Guillermo Luque,
Luis Tula, and Mara Soledad
were at Clivus that evening
and the early morning of Saturday,
September 8, 1990.
The prosecutor stopped the session
and announced that Muro had showed up
to expand on his testimony.
The silence in the room foreshadowed
a crucial moment.
Muro took a deep breath and said,
"I was afraid.
I received all sorts of threats."
"I didn't have anybody to turn to,
and now I will tell the truth."
Ms. Mara Soledad Morales was there.
CRIMINAL CHAMBER
Mr. Tula was there.
BARTENDER AT CLIVUS
Mr. Ibez was there.
Mr. Luque was there as well.
Tula and Luque claim
they did not know each other.
That should be taken with a grain of salt.
Mr. Ibez and Mr. Luque leave.
They basically leave
with this whole group of people.
And Mr. Tula leaves a little later.
What I could hear was...
"We'll leave with the girl.
You leave after," he said to Tula.
- Luque.
- Yes, to Flaco.
A witness sees Guillermo Luque
a few days later
with four scratches
on his face, on his cheek.
I saw that he had
two or three lines
on his face, like scratches,
as if they had been done
with a fairly forceful object.
Mara Soledad's mom, dad,
and friends say her nails were long.
When they came to ID the body,
Mara Soledad's mom
said her nails had been cut short.
And a doctor claimed he saw the biochemist
cutting Mara Soledad's nails.
And the biochemist denies it.
She says, "I didn't cut her nails."
The conclusion was that the mark
on Guillermo Luque's face was linked
to Mara Soledad's short nails.
THE COVER-UP THEORY IS REINFORCED
After many months of trial
and many witnesses,
finally came the closing statements.
I'm convinced
that the main witness in this process,
the main witness is, Your Honors,
Mara Soledad Morales.
I'm going to allow myself to...
and I apologize,
because it is almost symbolic
and a bit...
assessing the presence
of the victim in the process,
of a figure of speech, bringing
Mara Soledad Morales to this trial.
CRIME AGAINST MARA SOLEDAD
PROSECUTOR'S ARGUMENI placed a recent photo of Mara Soledad
at 17 years old back then, on the wall
and I tried to get her to say it.
It was a symbol.
But evidence showed
that she had been abused,
and I said symbolically,
"Mara Soledad tells us,
'I was raped, and I didn't want it.'"
"Mara Soledad tells us, 'I was drugged
against my will, and I didn't want it.'"
This...
Sorry.
Can we stop for a bit?
Looking at the photo of this young girl
around the time of her death,
17 years of age, dressed as a schoolgirl
with knee-high socks,
with the same shoes
she was killed in that night, Your Honors...
Mara Soledad Morales
also tells us, "I was drugged."
"I was drugged
against my will, and I didn't want it."
Your Honors, I believe
Mara Soledad Morales.
And what is
Mara Soledad Morales telling us?
She says, "I was raped."
"I was raped by two or more people,
and I didn't want that."
I also believe her, honorable courthouse.
Also, what does Mara Soledad Morales
tell us through her body?
"In that crazy violence against me,
that person who was inflicting
that violence directly on my body
held me with one hand,
forced me to swallow blood, and hit me
to inflict the violence
that made me defenseless."
And Mara Soledad Morales tells us,
that's why this is important,
she points with her finger,
"Look for the person who did this to me.
He'll have my blood on his hands."
"Look at his hands."
"It's a sexual crime."
"Search his clothes, his underwear."
Honorable courthouse,
this information, this report
brought about by the clear testimony
of Mara Soledad Morales,
who has no reason for lying,
and even if it is considered
a symbolic image,
this is the main testimony
that this prosecutor's office considers
for supporting the case
that we'll now build
against the perpetrators.
This is the senior year photo.
- Yes.
- And this one.
Look at this one. Wow.
Sister Martha.
What a nice memory.
471 KM FROM CATAMARCA
Look at the date, December 7, 1990.
That day, during the graduation ceremony,
we cried a lot
because we had someone who wasn't there.
Today I'm going to Catamarca,
and I know I'm going
to relive all of this.
But I also need
to be able to talk, you know?
To tell everyone what we went through
when we were 17.
EMAS SPIRITUAL RETREALook who's here!
Silvia!
Hi, Marcelita! How are you?
We had a very special bond
with Sister Martha.
I have very nice memories of it all.
If she hadn't been there,
it would've been different.
I think the sister loved young people.
We used to say, "Tell us, Sister."
"What did you like to do
when you were like us?"
And she said, "I'll tell you."
"I smoked and I liked Elvis.
That's all I'm saying."
I remember I took Mara Soledad
to a spiritual retreat during our course,
because I also gave those assignments
and did vocational orientation with them.
It's an uncertain age.
Many of them didn't know what they wanted.
What Sole wrote 32 years ago,
here, at the retreat...
They asked her, "A hobby?"
"Listening to music."
"Best friend?"
There is a name crossed off.
"I don't have one."
"A nice memory?"
"Falling in love."
"A dream?"
"To be loved."
What did she love?
"Life."
"An error?"
"Loving the impossible."
And "A wish?"
"Being somebody in life."
Finally, the court called us
to hear the sentence.
Well, here they come.
First, Mr. lvarez Morales,
Mr. Olmedo de Arzuaga in the center,
and the other judge.
We'll go directly to listening
what is going on in the hearing room.
Please read the verdict.
The court has ruled, unanimously.
First, Guillermo Daniel Luque
shall be found guilty
as a criminally liable co-perpetrator
of the crime of rape followed by murder,
aggravated by the use of narcotics,
and the participation
of two or more people,
sentencing him to 21 years in prison
and complete disqualification
for the same length of time.
Second, Luis Ral Tula
shall be found guilty
of personal conditions
already stated in this case
as a secondary participant,
therefore, sentencing him
to nine years in prison
and complete disqualification
for the same length of time.
As a mom,
I wanted them to get a life sentence,
especially Tula,
who is responsible
for our daughter's tragedy.
Nine years is nothing for him.
I tell both of them,
you apologized to everyone
but today, at least before the court,
you should have apologized to Sole
after all the harm you caused her.
Unfortunately, today I would have liked
to see all those who are liable go down,
because there are many missing.
But maybe one of them will apologize
and tell the truth about what happened.
THE CRIME AGAINST MARA SOLEDAD
There are some painful things
we'd like to forget.
But it's impossible.
It is now part of our lives.
These are memories that don't let me,
in my case, heal the wound yet.
Many people ask me who Mara Soledad was,
as the whole country was moved
and it was the first femicide case
that was tried as such.
Because up until that point,
it was always the woman's fault.
It was a man's violent emotion
because she had talked back or whatever.
I'd say that Mara Soledad
was a kid like any other.
Today, we are 50 years old,
and what could she have done up to today?
She could be showing us her kids' photos,
what she dreamed of becoming
and could not.
That hurts too.
It hurts a lot.
When I close my eyes,
I just imagine her
with the best thing she had.
A childlike smile.
We know we did what we had to do
and that we put our hearts
into this whole story.
That we didn't fail Sole.
We didn't fail her.
We advocated for her
as best we could, until the end.
And I hope...
that this huge loss,
this lost life,
helps raise awareness,
and keeps raising awareness.
Every 13 hours, a woman dies
because of gender-based violence.
So, Mara Soledad is the symbol
of what we women can do today
in the form of social justice.
WE ASK FOR JUSTICE
FOR OUR CLASSMATE MARA SOLEDAD
NOT ONE LESS
WE ARE THE CRY OF THOSE WHO HAVE LEFT US
IF TOMORROW IT'S MY TURN,
I WANT TO BE THE LASYOU ARE NOT ALONE
NOT ONE LESS
VALLE VIEJO MUNICIPAL CEMETERY
#ENOUGH
WE CRY OUT FOR THE VOICELESS
WHAT DO THEY KILL WHEN THEY KILL US?
LUCILA YACONIS
NOT ONE LESS
NOT ONE STEP BACKWARD
SISTER, IT WAS NOT YOUR FAULSTOP FEMICIDES
I DON'T WANT A COUNTRY WHERE THEY KILL US!
IF TOMORROW I DON'T COME BACK,
LOOK FOR ME IN THE STARS
NOT ONE LESS
Guillermo Luque was sentenced
to 21 years in prison
for rape followed by death
aggravated by the use of narcotics.
After 14 years in prison,
he was conditionally released
for good behavior.
Luis Tula was sentenced
to nine years in prison
as a secondary participant
for the crime of rape.
Like Luque, he was released early.
Nobody else was convicted
for participating in the events
or attempting to cover up the crime
and derail the investigation.
In 2011, Luis Patti was sentenced
to life in prison
for crimes against humanity
commited during the last
military dictatorship (1976 - 1983)
At 83 years of age, Sister Martha Pelloni
never quit her fight.
In 2008, she founded
the Stolen Baby Network
to assist victims of human trafficking,
abuse, and sexual exploitation.