Argentina protests after killings of 15-year-old and two young women
Thousands march in Buenos Aires as authorities pursue several suspects in a case linked to a drug-trafficking gang that officials say was livestreamed as a warning
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Thousands of people marched in Buenos Aires on Saturday to demand justice for a 15-year-old girl and two young women whose killings have shocked the country.
Authorities say Lara Gutierrez, 15; Morena Verdi, 20; and Brenda del Castillo, 20, were tortured and murdered and that the killings were livestreamed on social media. Investigators say the victims were lured into a van on Sept. 19 under the pretense of going to a party, then killed as part of a plan to punish them for violating gang codes. Their bodies were found last Wednesday buried in the yard of a house in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires, five days after they disappeared.
Five suspects — three men and two women — had been arrested by Friday, according to National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, but a 20-year-old Peruvian man described by police as the group's leader remained at large.
Investigators recovered a video after one detainee cooperated, in which the leader is heard issuing a warning about stealing drugs, according to Javier Alonso, security minister for Buenos Aires province.
Relatives and rights groups joined the demonstration near Parliament under a banner stating that there are no good or bad victims, only femicide. Brenda del Castillo's father, Leonel, told reporters that it had been impossible to identify his daughter's body because of the abuse, and Antonio del Castillo, Brenda's grandfather, cried as he described the killers as bloodthirsty.
Argentina has one of the region's highest femicide rates. A femicide monitoring group cited by Agence France-Presse says one woman is killed by a man every 36 hours in the country.