The Appeals Court reopened the case against three senior officers of the Federal Police and five senior officers and 24 agents of the former Metropolitan Police in connection with homicides committed during the 2010 eviction of Parque Indoamericano, in the south of the city of Buenos Aires. The court revoked the prior dismissals on grounds that the proceedings were marked by undue delays and that lower-court judges failed to carry out evidentiary measures they themselves had deemed essential to establish the facts.
One of the outstanding measures is a crucial audiovisual forensic analysis to determine the role and conduct of each of the accused officers. The Court put the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in charge of this expert analysis and ordered that the remaining witness testimony be collected.
In its ruling, the Court emphasized the timeline of procedural delays that obstructed the investigation, including months-long delays in conducting fundamental forensic examinations and years-long delays in taking witness statements, among others.
On December 7, 2010, a joint operation by the Federal Police and the Metropolitan Police forcibly evicted families occupying land in the Villa Soldati neighborhood who were seeking access to housing. The police repression resulted in the deaths of Rossemary Chura Puña and Bernardo Salgueiro, as well as numerous injuries to others.
In March 2018, Judge Mónica Berdión de Crudo dismissed the charges against three Federal Police chiefs and five Metropolitan Police chiefs, as well as 24 Metropolitan Police officers, in relation to the homicides of Rossemary and Bernardo and the injuries inflicted on five other people during the operation. At the same time, the judge indicted Ricardo Picart, an officer of the former Metropolitan Police, for those same crimes.
In May of that year, the National Criminal and Correctional Appeals Court overturned the dismissals of the police officers and senior commanders and ordered that the investigation into their roles continue. It also upheld the indictment of Picart. The evidentiary measures ordered by the Court in 2018 began to move forward slowly after three years of inactivity. Nevertheless, on May 28, 2025 the charges were dismissed once again.
Following a new appeal, the Appeals Court has now ordered the reopening of the case. While this decision represents a significant step forward, the proceedings continue to illustrate the State’s persistent challenges to effectively investigate serious human rights violations involving members of the security forces.
In the case, CELS represents the parents of Rossemary Chura Puña—Sabina Puña Chambi and Galo Chura Paco—who live in Oruro, Bolivia. Rossemary was 28 years old at the time of her death and lived in the Los Piletones neighborhood with her two children, aged 7 and 9.
Photo: Telam / Archive