Three years after the crime of Valentino Blas Correas, the 17-year-old teenager who died after being shot in the city of Córdoba, and for which 11 police officers from the province were sentenced, two of them to life imprisonment, the victim’s mother , Soledad Laciar, promoted a bill to modify the Penal Code and introduce more severe penalties in cases of crimes committed by members of the security forces and the military.
The so-called “Blas Law” consists of three points: “Aggravate the illegal possession and carrying of weapons by members of the security, police and prison forces”; “incorporate a specific sanction for members of the security, police and prison forces who plant weapons or other elements to hinder or alter an investigation”; and, “to the new criminal type, the application of the figure of the Repentant” is incorporated, in accordance with what is established by law 27,304 “.
Correas was assassinated in the early morning of August 6, 2020 when he was traveling with four friends, also teenagers, in a car and when evading a police checkpoint in the southern area of the Cordoba capital, two officers fired at the vehicle and one of the projectiles it hit Blas’s back and caused his death.
On March 31 of this year, the 8th Crime Chamber, with a popular jury, sentenced 11 of the 13 police officers on trial for that act, of which the first corporals Lucas Gómez (37) and Javier were sentenced to life imprisonment. Alarcón (35), those responsible for firing the shots with his service weapon.
In addition to Gómez and Alarcón, nine other policemen received sentences, such is the case of inspector Walter Soria (43), who was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison; and Deputy Commissioner Enzo Quiroga (34) and Inspector Jorge Galleguillo, who received four years and eight months in prison.
Meanwhile, the assistant officer Yamila Martínez (25) was sentenced to 4 years and three months in prison; Deputy Commissioner Sergio González (44) to four years and ten months; while Commissioner Juan Antonio Gatica (46) and Corporal Alexis Quevedo (29) to four years.
On the other hand, the agent Wanda Esquivel (32), the one who “planted” the weapon to simulate a confrontation and then apologized for that “mistake”, received a sentence of three years and ten months in prison, while the assistant officer Ezequiel Vélez (23) to two years and six months in prison.
Finally, Agent Rodrigo Toloza (27) and Corporal Leonardo Martínez (29) were acquitted, accused of “covering up and false testimony.”
In the sentence, it was also resolved to send the information to the José Mana Investigation Prosecutor’s Office so that a criminal investigation can be initiated against the political leaders who were in charge of different security areas at the time of the event.
Among them who was Minister of Security Alfonso Mosquera; the Secretary of Security Sebastián Mezzano; the current chief of the Provincial Police Liliana Rita Zárate Belletti; and the southern zone chief of the police, commissioner Gonzalo Cumplido.
