In the early morning of January 25, 1997, the criminal gang composed of criminals and police murdered the NOTICIAS photojournalist Jose Luis Cabezas. The hitmen responded to orders from the then mysterious and powerful businessman Alfredo Yabranand his security chief, Gregorio Ríos.
They shot Cabezas in the back of the head, twice, and then set fire to his body, inside the Ford Fiesta that NOTICIAS had rented so that the photographer could cover the summer season that year. However, despite the fact that this event became a milestone in Argentine history and one of the most emblematic events in the history of journalism, 28 years after the murder of Cabezas, his murderers are free, after serving sentences. .
On a new anniversary of the brutal crime, not only does everyone enjoy their freedom but controversial names from that moment have returned to the scene. For example, the name Wenceslao Bunge. The son of Yabrán’s spokesperson, with the same name, will be ambassador to Spain.
Diplomacy.
During the months after the crime, while Yabrán was cornered by public opinion, his spokesperson became his main defender. Bunge Sr. was the businessman’s spokesperson and continued to defend his innocence even after the postal businessman took his own life.
After the suicide, Bunge disappeared from the public eye. In his few statements he always insisted that Yabrán was innocent and reaffirmed that the businessman had been the victim of an internal assault.
However, The name Wenceslao Bunge has suddenly returned to the scene. Days before a new anniversary of the Cabezas crime, fSources close to the Foreign Ministry affirm that it will be the spokesperson’s son, Wenceslao Bunge (h), who will take over as head of the Argentine Embassy in Spain.
Wenceslao Junior is unknown in Argentina, but he has a solid business career in Spain. Between 1993 and 2022 he was part of Credit Suisse, where he became CEO, before leaving the company in the midst of the crisis that almost led the firm to bankruptcy. Following this, Bunge signed on as global co-president of JLL Investment Banking, a giant dedicated to real estate investment.
With well-oiled links with the Spanish financial sectors, Bunge usually surrounds himself with powerful friends in Spain and this has its benefits. In 2023 he was granted Spanish nationality by decree, a benefit that very few can access.
Last December, the Government leaned toward diplomat Alejandro Alonso Sainz as ambassador to Spain, but in January it backed down and the appointment did not materialize. The position has been vacant since the end of November, after the departure of Roberto Bosch and, unless unforeseen, Bunge will be the successor.
Free.
The reappearance of the surname Bunge was not the only one, since Horacio Braga also returned to the scenedue to a terrible encounter with a relative of Cabezas. From the rest of the criminal gang, Sergio Gustavo González had been released in 2005, but returned to prison in 2015 for a drug trafficking case and Héctor Retana died in prison in 2001.
José Auge, the fourth member, re-emerged in 2023, along with Fernando Burlando in a spot that nominated the media lawyer for governor of the province of Buenos Aires.who had been one of the defenders of that gang in the trial that investigated Cabezas’ death. After the scandal, Burlando decided to download the video from his networks.
For its part, Gustavo Prellezo, the former commissioner of the Buenos Aires Police and author of the two shots that killed Cabezas, is also free. From 2010 onwards, the Chamber of Appeals and Guarantees in Criminal Matters, Chamber No. 1, granted him various prison sentences. He graduated as a lawyer and enrolled in the professional college of Quilmes, although the rejection of his colleagues caused his enrollment to be vetoed. He then managed to get accepted into the Federal Capital, despite the fact that a formal complaint was filed.
Alberto “La Liebre” Gómez, the commissioner responsible for freeing the area for the crime to occur, was arrested in 2020. He was captured by the police in possession of war rifles, knives, ammunition and telescopic sights, all without a carrying permit. The case did not advance, and he was released despite the fact that it is a non-releaseable crime. According to a source consulted by NOTICIAS at that time, this would have been possible thanks to the power and contacts that he still maintains. Despite his sentence to life imprisonment, he spent less than 15 years in prison.
Aníbal Luna, another of the police officers convicted of the Cabezas crime, put his life back together in General Madariagaalthough his movements raise many suspicions and the Buenos Aires municipality itself declared him persona “non grata.” Sergio Camaratta was released in 2006, but returned to prison in 2012, after his sentence was revoked. He died three years later.
Finally, Gregorio Ríos, Yabrán’s security chief, obtained house arrest in 2006 and was released seven years later.
