«The only thing I ask of the mother is that she forgive me; I arrived when he was dead”, the hard story of one of the detainees

THE NATION/Mariela Arias.-

EL CALAFATE.- A little after two years since the murder of Fabián Gutiérrez, the provincial justice prepares the oral trial that will be in this city. The mother of the former presidential secretary will be in the room and for the first time will come across the three young people prosecuted for the crime. “To this day, the only thing I have to say is to forgive me for not having had the opportunity to do something for her son. When I entered, he was already lifeless, ”Pedro Monzón assures LA NACION today in an interview conducted at his place of detention.

Monzón is one of the three young people who was in the house of the former presidential secretary, on July 2, 2020, Gutiérrez’s last night alive. The first to arrive was Facundo Zaeta, who was in charge of seducing Gutiérrez to trick him, reduce him and rob him, according to his own statement in court. After fulfilling his part, he called Facundo Gómez, who arrived with Monzón. From here the three young people differ in their version.

The heinous crime of Gutiérrez, who was a close associate of the Kirchner family for two decades, shocked the country. At the time of the crime, he no longer worked with the Kirchners, but he had already declared that he had repented in the cause of the bribery notebooks and was being prosecuted for money laundering. While economics is the strongest motive in the case, there are still unanswered questions about what happened on the fateful night of the murder and the hours that followed until the lifeless body was found.

Monzón is 20 years old, speaks softly and slowly. His face lights up when the subject is judo, a sport that he embraced as a child and in which he reached high performance. He finished high school in prison, and dreams of being a physical education teacher. He is a deep believer, but he has not yet obtained permission to go to the distant church 100 meters from the police station. He feels infinite gratitude towards his parents. He exercises, writes, prays. He spends the hours.

He reviews in his mind what happened that night and knows what he should have done to not be behind bars today, charged as a co-author of a crime. “The first thing I had to do was go there, seek help, so as not to find myself currently in this situation that has hurt me a lot. I have lost people, I have lost time, the most valuable thing a person possesses.

With the proximity of the oral trial that is estimated to arrive before the end of the year, the Criminal Chamber agreed to the request for an interview pending since last year requested by LA NACION, marking restrictions that prevent the accused from mentioning explicit details of the case. This took place in the presence of his lawyer Carolina Scamperti and a police officer in a brief office inside the First Police Station of this city where the young man is serving preventive detention.

Pedro Monzón, with the title of the Secondary level that concluded being in a confinement situation.
Pedro Monzón, with the title of the Secondary level that concluded being in a confinement situation.
It is the same police station where the three youths were detained the night after Gutiérrez’s murder. Monzón is the only one who stays here for his safety. The other defendants are being held in the city penitentiary. Monzón’s testimony before the judge made it possible to find the remains of the businessman and find the elements that were discarded from the crime scene.

The three young people are prosecuted as co-authors. Monzón’s defense, headed by Scamperti, a lawyer who provides her services ad honorem, works so that this figure changes during the trial and then will try to be considered as a “forced secondary participant” in the event. She believes in her innocence, contains him, brings him books, advocates so that she can continue studying.

-How is your life in lockdown?

I am always training. Functional, push-ups, the truth is I don’t have a place but we look for a way, we throw an old blanket, I have a treadmill, I do weights with bottles of water. When I’m out, the first thing I’m going to do is be with my family and go back to the gym.

-Were Facundo Monzón and Facundo Zaeta friends of yours?

-At that time, the person who involved me, the first one you named, was my employer. With whom he had a close relationship through work, because we spent many hours together. If at some point the word friendship existed, it no longer exists, for two years. With the other boy, zero relationship, zero friendship. Not the concept of friend that I have now, which is something else.

-What was your worst moment?

-Beyond my cause, I have had to experience other quite strong events, such as seeing an inmate suffer who caused his death with fire. It affected me a lot psychologically and emotionally. That’s why today I bet to be very calm.

-How do you carry it forward?

-In this time I was locked up with psychological assistance that has helped me to know myself, and has relieved me of many things. Force out of nowhere, you don’t get. You need motivation and understanding, and it is given to me by the people who are with me all the time: my family and my lawyer. I have a friend, I had a girlfriend, she accompanied me and well… things in life

-What is your priority?

-First I am well, that my family is well, that my lawyer is given the necessary tools to be able to work, and to be able to prepare for the trial, which is my most important objective today. May everything be given in the best possible way. It is something that I set out to do and I owe it to myself and to my family and to my lawyer who accompanies me.

What would you change if you went back in time?

-The first thing I had to have done is to have left the fact, seek help, so as not to find myself currently in this situation that has harmed me a lot. I have lost people, time, the most valuable thing a person possesses. I think that in the pandemic stage without classes I began to detach myself from the educational system, I trained at home but I couldn’t go to the gym anymore, everything became nonsense. I think I got a little sidetracked there and stopped listening to advice… from my parents.

-What would you say to Pedro Monzón from before?

-‘Don’t be so good’, because I’m too good and I think that’s why I’ve been involved in this. There is a level of tiredness quite advanced in me, in my family. This tiredness is very advanced, because especially they are accusing me of something that I am not. That makes me sad, but I believe that time will clarify all things. I trust in time and justice

-What did you reflect this time?

-Forcibly I reflected. At the beginning, dimensioning everything, and beyond the fact that I am thinking that my freedom is immediate, dimensioning well the death of a person, is very strong; that a mother loses her son is very strong, I am fully aware of that. I believe that before a mother loses a child, she prefers to give her life for him, that’s what I feel with my parents. I’ve thought a lot about this, about what happened.

-In the trial you could see Gutiérrez’s mother…

-I am aware, surely the victim’s mother will be present. To this day, the only thing I have to say to her is to forgive me for not having had the opportunity to do something for her son. When I entered, he was already lifeless.

Mariela Arias