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[tires rolling over dirt road]
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[Eduardo Duhalde] That morning,
like every summer morning,
I went out to go fishing.
I took the same route every day.
At one point,
I saw four or five people around a smoking car.
[brooding music playing]
I thought it was normal, the car had a problem,
so I kept going.
I stopped for a second but didn't ask anyone, and I kept going.
JANUARY 25, 1997
Around 6:00 p.m.,
I was on my way back.
But it was no longer just three people,
there were helicopters, lots of police cars.
[indistinct chattering]
So I asked what happened.
GOVERNOR OF BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE 1991-1999
They came and told me someone had died,
and they said,
Cabezas had been killed.
A journalist had been killed.
And I immediately realized the magnitude.
The magnitude of what had happened.
[reporter] It's an event shrouded in mystery.
A Ford Fiesta was set on fire.
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY
Apparently there was a body in the car,
in a ditch.
The Inter American Press Association has condemned
the murder of a journalist working for the Argentine magazine Noticias.
The photographer José Luis Cabezas was murdered this weekend,
and his Argentine colleagues suspect that the murder has political implications.
[dramatic string music playing]
[clapping]
[reporter] The national government
is being asked to clarify what happened to José Luis Cabezas.
It's unbelievable. This is such a horrible event.
[crowd] Justice!
-[protester 1] Cabezas! -[protester 2] Here!
Cabezas! Here!
[clamoring]
[reporter] Ríos, if asked to testify, what will you tell the judge?
[Duhalde] Nothing says this cannot happen again,
that this was unique.
It's one of the darkest periods in Argentine history.
Yabrán, what do you think about being linked to the murder?
Yabrán is just another businessman.
Mr. Yabrán leads a mafia.
They are criminals.
This is a gangster flick.
[dramatic music continues]
[man] The car is totally burned up.
It was deliberately put there and then burned.
[Gabriel Michi] I always think back to that summer of 1997.
Its something that stays with you for your whole life.
GABRIEL MICHI JOURNALIST
Honestly, you're never prepared for something like that.
I worked with José Luis Cabezas at Noticias magazine.
We covered summertime in Pinamar.
And working that story together made us closer, we became friends.
[upbeat pop music playing]
[woman] Pinamar is more than just the mixture of green, sand and ocean.
Pinamar is like the fashion mecca of the Argentine coast.
[cheering]
[Michi] Pinamar in the '90s was a synthesis
of what was going on in national politics.
There was this frivolity
being promoted by president Carlos Menem.
A system of space flights will go up to the stratosphere
and from there, in an hour and a half, we can go from Argentina
to Japan, Korea or anywhere in the world.
[upbeat music continues]
[camera shutter clicks]
Being in politics was showing off
with a Ferrari, dancing with escorts.
It was showing off power
and a fascination for consumption and ostentation.
[Michi] The jet set mixed precisely with politics.
[laughs]
[Michi] Pinamar was this place where
every summer, we said,
there was a thread, there was political negotiation.
The main participants in "Menemism" of the time, all went there.
Between reports and negotiations, if there is time for the beach,
the politicians choose the exclusive CR resort.
Pinamar was one of the most beautiful seaside resorts on the coast.
We journalists liked going.
[Óscar Andreani] Pinamar was the soundtrack to life.
OSCAR ANDREANI BUSINESSMAN
We really enjoyed the beach, the whole place.
We had a group of great friends who were in Pinamar.
[Michi] On January 24, 1997…
Hi. How are you?
…Oscar Andreani had a party, which was a very important party,
very characteristic of Pinamar,
because he really liked setting off fireworks.
[upbeat music playing]
[Andreani] Since we had so many friends, we said,
"Let's throw a party." A little, let's say, more extravagant.
I started to realize that the party had grown much larger than I thought.
It had become a Pinamar party.
[Michi] And we covered it, you could say, with José Luis taking photos,
me seeing who was there.
We spent the whole time together.
Around 4:00 a.m., I tell José Luis,
"Look, I want to go." I ask him what he wants to do.
José Luis tells me, "No, I want to stay."
It was just so much fun there.
[cheering]
So I give him the car keys
and that was the last contact I had with José Luis.
[cheering continues]
[Andreani] I remember at the time, it was about 5:00 in the morning,
I ran into José Luis Cabezas.
I was going upstairs and he was going down, to leave.
There was no need to say anything, we were just crossing paths,
and he said to me, "Incredible. Incredible."
[fireworks popping]
JANUARY 25, 1997
[Michi] On January 25th,
we planned to go out to do our tour around 2:00 p.m.
So, I send him a message, because he didn't arrive at 2:00 p.m.
José Luis was very punctual. I called his home.
José Luis's mother-in-law tells me not only that José wasn't there,
but that, "Actually, he hasn't come back since you picked him up last night."
I thought, "How could he not have come back?"
That's where I started to worry. I thought, "What happened?"
[tense music playing]
[Michi] The first thing I do is call our colleagues,
and I find out that José Luis had left Andreani's house at 5:10 a.m.
[tires rolling over dirt road]
I call the hotel, where we had our office.
Nobody knew anything.
So I tell my friends there, I tell them, "Hey, let's go to the hospital,
see if there was an accident or something."
To the Pinamar hospital, right?
We go inside and before reaching the hospital,
we swing by the police station.
MAP OF PINAMAR
PINAMAR POLICE STATION
I see him, the Pinamar commissioner, Alberto Gómez.
POLICE
So I went downstairs and asked him, "Gómez, do you know anything?"
"I'm looking for José Luis Cabezas, the photographer from Noticias."
And he told me, "No, I don't know anything."
"What car do you guys drive?" And I tell him, "A white Ford Fiesta."
He tells me, "I think I have some bad news for you."
I thought, "What happened here?"
I thought of an accident, I thought the car might have been stolen,
Something like that.
He goes to his office, I'm behind him,
and on his walkie-talkie he talks to the team
where the car had appeared.
[dramatic music playing]
[Michi] And I hear him tell the police officer there,
"I think we have identified the body."
"It is José Luis Cabezas, from Noticias magazine."
[mysterious music playing]
[Michi] And I tell him, "But you have to know whether or not it is José Luis."
And he tells me,
"There is no way to identify him, because the body is completely burned."
We're going to try to film this site.
Yes.
Here you can see the place where the car is.
It's almost impossible to see it.
Yes, what we have here is a car that is burnt out.
Totally burnt out, containing a body with male features,
and the CSI is coming to work on it.
My name is Mariano Cazeaux.
My role during the Cabezas case was
secretary of the Criminal and Correctional Court No. 2 of Dolores,
under the leadership of Dr. José Luis Macchi.
COURTHOUSE DOLORES
The judicial department of Dolores has a very wide jurisdiction,
and that means that it reaches the coastal municipalities.
ATLANTIC COAST DOWNTOWN DOLORES
JANUARY 25, 1997
On January 25th, a police report arrives,
detailing the discovery of a vehicle on fire with a corpse inside.
COMPLETELY BURNT
The initial police report
was so unclear, so short,
that it could be read as an accident.
TO SALADA GRANDE LAGOON
[brooding music playing]
[Michi] They take me to the ditch in General Madariaga.
A policeman comes, they tell him, "This is Cabezas's partner."
They let me in.
I get to the ditch.
I see that terrible image,
which is an image
that comes to mind so clearly,
I will never forget.
I couldn't believe that what I saw there was José Luis.
It's… it was, it was terrible.
[suspenseful music playing]
So, I ask him if they had found a camera.
And they tell me, "No, no camera."
And I ask if they had found film rolls, they show me some burnt rolls.
And they start showing me a series of objects.
They show me a piece of a cowboy boot, they show me a watch,
some handcuffs.
That's when I found out that he had been handcuffed.
[clang echoing]
[music continues]
[Michi] And they show me a set of keys.
I see a key that seems to be the one for the office we had in Pinamar.
And since I had another set of keys,
I go to my backpack, I get my set of keys,
and we compared them and they were the same.
[music continues]
[Michi] And we went to Pinamar.
We went to the office.
We tried the keys.
The keys fit and opened the office.
That's when it hit me.
That's when I knew that the person who had been murdered and burned
was really José Luis.
JOURNALIST MURDERED AND BURNT ON THE COAST
JOURNALIST'S BODY FOUND IN GENERAL MADARIAGA
The first moment was one of enormous confusion.
EDI ZUNINO JOURNALIST, NOTICIAS MAGAZINE
I didn't really understand what was going on.
NOTICIAS MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHER HANDCUFFED AND BURNT IN CAR
A crime in times of democracy
was unexpected, unthinkable and absolutely shocking.
JOURNALIST, NOTICIAS MAGAZINE
We wonder what sector is capable of such barbarism.
And I believe that there are not too many sectors capable of this barbarism.
[Lorena Maciel] I was a radio journalist. I was just starting out.
At that time, there was a lot of confusion.
But I do remember I called the station and said that I wanted to go.
Menem already had a negative image. Pretty negative.
There were a lot of accusations of corruption,
and at that time the accusations came from journalists.
Until they finish the investigation…
[Michi] The first press conference given by Carlos Menem,
he gets very uncomfortable and says,
"It's an issue for the province of Buenos Aires,
but it's not a political crime."
Please don't politicize the issue.
This fact is an outlier.
There is no previous event with these characteristics,
since the return of democracy.
And nothing tells us that this cannot be repeated.
Dr. Alfonsín, the former Argentine president,
he said, "The murder was meant to implicate Duhalde."
Duhalde, when José Luis's crime occurred, was frightened.
I really think he freaked out.
[reporter] José Luis Cabeza's body was transferred on Sunday,
from Pinamar to La Plata.
An autopsy was performed in the morgue,
where it was found that the journalist died from a gunshot to the head.
The autopsy determined that it had been a violent death,
the result of a bullet shot from a firearm.
They had the direction of entry and exit of the projectile.
-[reporter] Was he handcuffed? -[Fogelman] He was handcuffed.
[reporter] Do the handcuffs belong to your department?
POLICE CHIEF
I don't know that.
We are planning to take statements from some people.
And then the rest will come from the investigations that we are conducting.
-[reporter] Has anyone been arrested? -No one arrested or detained as of yet.
[laughter]
[indistinct chatter]
Cabezas was a very, very funny guy.
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR NOTICIAS MAGAZINE - 1989-1997
But as funny as he was, he was arrogant.
He was a very arrogant guy.
Ah!
[man] No, cheater.
A cheerful guy, a nice guy. A real ball buster.
Whoever finds the treasure.
The couple that finds the treasure makes dinner.
[Ropero] At first, I didn't really like him.
Then things changed.
Then we became friends.
We were putting together Noticias.
I get a call. They tell me, "Find five photographers."
And the rest is history.
And among the five photographers,
I chose Cabezas, because he cared about framing.
[Gustavo González] Noticias magazine was a news magazine.
Most of their covers were political.
FANBOYS AND CHEAP DOLLARS
There were journalistic investigations, the photos were very important.
[Ropero] We had the most important journalistic photography staff
in Latin America.
Cabezas didn't take pictures of a guy sitting.
He took a picture of a guy sitting, but from up there, you know?
With a unique perspective.
[Baratucci] He was looking for his own style.
And I think he was finding it.
[Ropero] He shot a lot of interviews like that,
where he would get on the desk and I would spot him.
[Michi] But he was obsessive, he always wanted more.
[Zunino] He drew his inspiration from the environment in which he was working.
I've never seen another photographer shoot so many rolls.
[chuckles] His ability to convince.
He was a guy who could talk you into doing anything.
[Michi] Stubborn, very hard-headed.
When he got something into his head,
it was very difficult to make him change his mind.
He had a special way about him,
and, to a certain extent, this party of the '90s ran through him.
PLÉYADE AWARD BEST PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
CRISTINA ROBLEDO JOSÉ LUIS CABEZAS' WIDOW
At 11:00 he tells me,
"I'm going to be late."
"Don't wait up for me, I'm going to a party."
I knew about the party.
Knowing him and knowing his character,
he was… fun.
He went to the party.
[interviewer] And then?
And then…
it ended, right?
[poignant music playing]
AGAINST IMPUNITY
[indistinct chatter]
[Michi] After leaving the coffin,
the photographers went to the Obelisco.
They made a circle
and put all their cameras on the ground.
But they quickly realized
they had to do something different, because that was like a kind of defeat.
So they raised their cameras to the sky
and that's how the famous "camera shot" came to be.
[Julio Menajovsky] José Luis is kidnapped, killed, his body burned
in such a way that it took me back to darker situations
that I have experienced in our country's history.
[Michi] It was an extemporaneous crime,
a throwback to the days of military dictatorship.
[González] It was a message to us.
There was a state of national shock.
Imagine the alarm in our newsroom, trying to cope with that anxiety.
[Zunino] Bewilderment, panic attacks.
Threats, of all sorts, about how they were going to take care of us.
And from that moment on, well, a barrage of threats began.
Phone calls. "We're going to take you out."
Bullets, which were left at my front door.
It was like going out in the time of the dictatorship,
against traffic, so that they wouldn't kidnap you.
Living in terror.
[somber music playing]
[clapping]
It's outrageous. It's unbelievable.
It is unbelievable that,
in this country, something like this can happen. Such a tragedy.
SANTO BIASATTI JOURNALIST
We do not ask for revenge.
What we want is justice, because this is not a corporate claim.
It is not just from journalists, don't get confused.
We were going to fight so that this crime would not go unpunished.
If that could happen to a photojournalist,
from the most widely read magazine at the time, what else could society expect?
[Miguel Gaya] This is going to be forgotten.
Another event is going to take place that draws away people's attention
and nobody is going to remember Cabezas.
So let's ask for that.
The first thing we are going to ask is, "Don't forget about Cabezas."
GRANDMOTHERS OF PLAZA DE MAYO
[Menajovsky] With "Don't forget about Cabezas"
there is an unspoken voice,
who is someone who carries on the memory
and says, "Don't forget about Cabezas,
or else it will be too late
when new crimes may arise."
ALL THE TRUTH - ALL THE JUSTICE
DUHALDE OFFERS A REWARD
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS OFFERED BY THE GOVERNOR
[man] The superior government of the province of Buenos Aires
has offered a reward for any citizen
who provides concrete, precise information.
Rewards weren't used much in Argentina,
but they were an incentive that, in many parts of the world,
especially in the United States, were used.
And, well, they work.
The reward can push many people to decide to report what they know.
[reporter] Commissioner, is there no fear of false information being sold?
Of lies being told in this case?
Unfortunately, yes. I receive them daily.
Pretty much all those statements led us to dead ends.
Some even seemed to be distractions from the investigation.
CABEZAS JOSÉ LUIS VICTIM OF UNLAWFUL DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY
[Cazeaux] At one point, a witness appears,
who is introduced to the investigation through the police headquarters…
APPEAR BEFORE THE WITNESS
…and who came to say that he knew who had committed the crime
and that they were from Mar del Plata.
And he names them, describes them.
Mar del Plata, in relation to Pinamar,
has a very clear difference, geographically and socially.
MAR DEL PLATA BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE
Mar del Plata is a much bigger city
with a different way of life.
The truth is that this group of people from Mar del Plata,
were people, all of them, linked to the underworld.
LOWLIFES
Margarita Di Tulio, famous for her nickname "Pepita the Gunslinger,"
was one of them.
She was known to be the manager of some cabarets
and prostitution joints, in general, within the port area.
[indistinct chatter]
My nickname came from earlier journalists,
when I was very young, because I liked,
uh, and I still like guns.
I always carried a .38.
[woman] "Pepita the Gunslinger" and the names of the other four men
came from a witness named Carlos,
who said he had heard Margarita Di Tulio say, days before the crime,
"There is a journalist from Noticias who is screwing us over."
"Let's get him out of the way."
He said all this because he had heard them.
HEAD INSTRUCTOR OF POLICE INVESTIGATION
Supposedly he had infiltrated them.
[Pombo] He provided information that led to the arrest of the so-called "Pepitos."
[Cazeaux] Finally, they requested a search of everyone's homes.
And, as a result of the findings, a weapon is discovered
that turns out to coincide with the bullet that had been found in the skull.
[dramatic music playing]
One of them had the gun.
There was a connection.
[Pombo] There were ambiguities, but later, when the gun turned up,
we said, "Well, there's a real link here."
[reporter] Here, one of the detainees in this case
the woman Margarita Graciana Di Tulio, 48,
is transferred to one of the mobile police stations.
They've gotta be kidding with this.
[reporter 1] Why did they bring you in? What about the gun?
[reporter 2] Of course, they said they were innocent
and that the truth will come out.
-[reporter 3] What do you have to say? -This is a lie. A farce.
[reporter 4] Why did they drag you into this?
My name is Alejandro Vecchi. I'm a lawyer.
ATTORNEY FOR THE CABEZAS FAMILY
And I was lucky enough to be called by Mauro Viale,
who had a program on ATC.
Every time I had a police case, he had me on.
First statement says, "There are no politicians, no police involved in this."
-How curious, right? -Yes.
He looks more like the defense attorney than a witness.
At that moment, when I arrived on that program,
the tension from the crime against José Luis Cabezas
was overshadowing everything.
No issue was more important.
And I had seen on TV that some people had been arrested in the Cabezas case.
So, it occurred to me to say something very simple.
"I find it striking that the detainees have lawyers
and the family does not have a lawyer."
My only suggestion was to the family:
"Find someone you trust and start working on Dolores's file,
because the truth is there."
"What is in that file is going to be the end of the story."
[gentle piano music playing]
When the program ends, all of Cabezas' relatives come over to me and say,
"Doctor, we just want you to..."
I was with my daughters, they were young.
I wanted to leave. I wanted to get out of there.
I didn't want to participate in that, because for me it was a case...
It was a UFO that had fallen. I mean, it was this huge deal.
At first I said, "No, I'm not going to accept it."
At home, I said no.
And then they called me.
And the truth is that I went to see the Cabezas family.
And there I met José,
Norma, Gladys…
Well, I met a family that… I don't know, it could be mine.
I loved him very much. I loved him so much.
NORMA THE MOTHER
You can't imagine how much I loved my--
I felt so proud of my children. And José Luis was my eyes.
The only thing a person like José Luis deserved was to be hugged and kissed,
because I haven't seen anyone better than that boy.
[Vecchi] When I arrived at the Dolores court,
I found the judge was completely disoriented.
And I found myself arguing a case that was already contaminated.
The star witness was Carlos Alberto Redruello,
a swindler with a record in several provinces.
He ends up in the Bahía Blanca prison.
Evidence in his favor comes to light,
and he gets out six or seven months before the murder.
On instructions from the police headquarters
of the province of Buenos Aires,
this man had received a car,
a cell phone,
and had transformed from an ex-convict into a police informant.
That is, a police spy,
who was going to investigate some drug trafficking lines in Mar del Plata.
He even saw the group's phone messages, saying that these people were very upset
because Cabezas had been making inquiries about drug deals at the port.
But there were also some suspicions
that Cabezas might have wanted to blackmail them,
that he might have had something on them.
INVESTIGATING THE LIFE OF THE MURDERED JOURNALIST
The story was that José Luis Cabezas was a blackmailer,
who made a living taking photos and trying to get money from people.
[suspenseful music playing]
Any investigation manual, any criminology manual,
highlights the importance of investigating the victim.
[Vecchi] It's not that you can't investigate.
Sure, you can investigate,
but you can't make accusations in a case that started 15 minutes ago.
First off, it was Mar del Plata.
We were in another universe,
which was Pinamar.
And we had no contact with that world.
We hadn't even investigated it, that's what I'm saying.
I don't know what's happening in this country,
but they are… doing it to my son.
What are they doing? What more do you want?
What do they want, beyond what they have done to us?
When I went to the Cabezas' house for the first time,
they asked me if I could accompany them to a meeting
with the governor, Eduardo Duhalde.
[imperceptible]
And before we left, he asked me if he could talk to me alone.
And, well, he told me that he was available,
that this was a very important case for him,
that he wanted to know who was responsible for killing José Luis Cabezas.
[Duhalde] I have a commitment to Cabezas's parents,
in the sense that one day, I will come here, to this neighborhood,
to tell them, before anyone else, who murdered their son.
I remember that I had a very strange feeling.
A mixture of fear, mistrust and respect.
There was also a kind of mafia atmosphere from the police, from the government.
What if it's the police? What if he represents the police too?
DOLORES BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE
[Cazeaux] Dolores is the town where I was born,
the town I know, where they know me.
There aren't many of us, we all know each other.
I live in a very quiet place.
The town itself was transformed.
[Maciel] A small city was suddenly invaded by the largest case in Argentina,
and in the region.
The city was flooded with an influx of journalistic media,
that overwhelmed it.
[Cazeaux] The town was full of news vans, cables lining the streets,
people running, cafeterias full of journalists.
It shocked the town for a long time.
[Maciel] Judge Macchi and his court clerk had no experience speaking to the media.
[reporter] What certainty can you provide then, doctor?
[Maciel] The case was hot.
[Cazeaux] When I heard people talk about the town judge,
and he liked to be referred to as the town judge,
I would say, "You don't know the town judge."
Because he really was an extremely capable person
but he was referred to disparagingly as "the town judge."
JUDICIAL AUTHORITY
[Maciel] We journalists were totally malleable.
We could be manipulated from anywhere, and we didn't know where the truth was.
[reporter] Carlos Menem sent the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Córach,
and the Secretary General of the Presidency, Alberto Kohan,
to Dolores to speak to the judge.
A very routine visit, in which they made themselves available
and offered all the resources that were necessary to clarify the facts.
When they left Dr. Macchi's office and met with the press,
they provided verification that the expert's report
had yielded a positive result,
which, in some way, concluded or clarified the facts, right?
MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA, 1995 - 1999
The judge has confirmed, conclusively,
that the recovered weapon, one of the weapons that was recovered,
according to the forensic analysis,
is undoubtedly the weapon
with which the murder of Mr. José Luis Cabezas was committed.
That drew a lot of attention,
because the official report was not out yet.
The stance of the judge, in those days,
after crimes committed by top-level officials,
was to stand at the door of the courthouse and say that the case had been resolved.
That was already ugly.
[Corach] This investigation is the responsibility
of the provincial justice system of Buenos Aires
and the Buenos Aires provincial police.
I am convinced
that those responsible for these serious events happening in the province
are clearly coming from here.
I never overlooked my responsibility.
[intriguing music playing]
[Michi] Duhalde was a very important figure at that time
because he was governor of the province of Buenos Aires
and he wanted to be a presidential nominee.
And that caused him to fight with his former political partner, Carlos Menem.
[Zunino] Eduardo Duhalde was the vice president in Menem's first term.
He later became governor of the province
and was the one who was running to be Carlos Menem's successor.
[Raul Aragon] There were mutual accusations, textbook politics.
"First of all, I had nothing to do with it,"
the president says, the governor says.
Because they were the two people with the greatest power,
the national power and the power of the province of Buenos Aires,
which was 40% of the country.
Everyone saw the news, how political darts were being thrown between the two.
[reporter] The murder of José Luis Cabezas,
which Governor Duhalde could interpret
as a warning against his attempt to reach the presidential office,
is a campaign issue.
That week, the week after the assassination,
we had rented a club in General Madariaga,
where I was going to launch my presidential campaign.
The murder, obviously,
caused me to stop, in the midst of everything that happened.
I was absolutely shocked.
JOURNALIST
Duhalde was convinced, at first, that the body was meant for him,
as a mafia message.
That, let's say, was the death certificate of his presidential aspirations.
PINAMAR BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE
[Gaya] It is impossible to kidnap a person and remove them from Pinamar
without being noticed.
Every block there was a politician, a businessman.
Pinamar, at the time, was the place in the Argentine Republic
with the highest concentration of police per square foot.
That shows us that there was a pattern,
that there was complicity on behalf of the police.
The handcuffs.
The handcuffs pointed me to the police.
[Cazeaux] It is natural that one might suspect police intervention
in a crime where fire is used to destroy evidence.
[indistinct chatter]
[Gaya] Everything that could've been done early on in the case was not done,
or was done poorly.
Reconstruction of the murder,
everything that could have been found at the crime scene.
Such clumsiness does not exist in a police investigation,
unless it's deliberate.
One of the clues
had to do with the possible participation of police officers,
due to the publication of that photo
with the title "Damn Police" in the Noticias magazine.
If there was someone we were going after, it was the Buenos Aires police.
We'd done a magazine cover titled "Damn Police."
THE DEVIL'S SOLDIERS
[Zunino] A police officer had been questioned for different reasons,
and Eduardo Duhalde defended the police with the catchphrase,
"I have the best police force in the world."
THE ARMY OF THE NIGHT
[Ropero] We were going after the Buenos Aires police.
We were photographing the houses of the commissioners.
[Ragendorfer] These guys had fleets of high-end cars.
One of them even had a yacht.
Another had a house in Beverly Hills.
The main photo from all this was taken by Cabezas.
It's a photo of Commissioner Klodczyk.
[Michi] José Luis had no qualms
about standing before the desk of the Buenos Aires chief of police,
Pedro Klodczyck, who was an all-powerful man
who commanded the most dangerous forces in Argentina at the time.
José Luis photographed him from above, as if from another place of power.
Klodczyck with his hat on, his uniform, his light blue shirt,
his tie, was looking at us as if he's intimidating.
It is the photo with the title "Damn Police."
It is very strong to say that, to show it on the cover.
[Ragendorfer] After interviewing Klodczyck we left the headquarters in La Plata.
Cabezas said, "One of the satisfactions that this job gives you
is being able to step on these sons of bitches' desks."
When that cover came out, I ordered an investigation.
The investigation confirmed that there was corruption.
I, myself, when in doubt, fired officials.
Even if I'm not sure.
[Cazeaux] We thought this could have hurt feelings
and that it could have led someone to take revenge.
The truth is, I didn't trust the Buenos Aires police,
because I had worked on the famous "Damn Police" article.
And I knew how they worked, so…
so they didn't inspire any confidence in me.
My first statement was from January 25th, at 11:00 p.m.,
the same day of the crime.
That was before the General Madariaga police,
and then they took me to an adjoining room,
where the Dolores Investigation Brigade took my statement.
That night, we are talking about the night of January 25th,
they begin to ask me what investigations we had done.
So I start to tell him, and towards the end,
he says, "Don't be afraid. You don't have to be afraid."
"Why are you so afraid? We are here to take care of you."
"Give us something, even just one thing,"
so they start looking for the first article I mentioned.
And what was it? The one at the Ara Pacis Hotel.
And he asks, "Who does the Ara Pacis belong to?"
And the other policeman says, "Yabrán."
The commissioner turns pale,
he looks at me and says,
"Oh, kid, now I understand why you're afraid."
[Zunino] Talking about Alfredo Yabrán, in the Argentine Republic,
was almost something that was…
forbidden.
He was someone we were advised not to investigate.
"Don't mess with him."
Saying "stay away" was almost a provocation.
Let us try to know what cannot be known.
[tense music playing]
[Manuel Lazo] Yabrán was from a Syrian family,
one of the many immigrant families who arrived in Entre Ríos.
A family dedicated to business, to commerce, mainly.
He was a native of Larroque.
LARROQUE ENTRE RÍOS PROVINCE
He emigrated to Buenos Aires at a very young age,
and started doing business.
First with the military dictatorship.
Then later, with the democratic governments.
The first time I heard the name Yabrán was in September 1991.
That's when I found out that he had, for years,
been involved with the governments of the day,
especially the national government
and with the Catholic Church and the air force.
But I didn't know him because I had never seen Yabrán's name in any media.
[Michi] Everything that had to do with Yabrán had to do with secrets.
You know? Hidden secrets.
When Noticias started the first investigation into Yabrán,
different sources of power tried to stop it.
It even resulted in a police incident,
because the journalist and the photographer
who went to take the photo of the fortress that Yabrán had in Martínez,
ended up being driven out of the place with gunfire.
[gunshots]
We wrote an article several pages long about the incident,
of Yabrán's background, from Entre Ríos to the present,
and, well, for the first time,
we put the Yabrán issue before public opinion.
The Yabrán enigma.
[Michi] For many, he was
the most important businessman in Argentina in the 1990s.
They said Yabrán's fortune reached four billion dollars.
But he also had control over management
of the most sensitive sectors of the country.
He had private mail through OCA,
bank clearing through OCASA.
[Zunino] All the business at the Ezeiza airport
and the other airports in the country,
in addition to the tax warehouses with the company EDCADASSA.
The loading and unloading of planes with the company Intercargo,
the free shops, the duty free.
[Michi] In other words, if a product arrived in Argentina,
everything went through Yabrán, without anyone intervening.
CUSTOMS
That gave him absolute power.
SECRETARY OF COMMUNICATIONS
[reporter] The government will pass a bill to privatize the post office.
During the last years, the controversy over the execution of the privatization
was ignited by Domingo Cavallo,
who warned that Alfredo Yabrán should not be privileged.
The plan is to raise this issue as a dispute of interests.
On the one hand, there is Mr. Yabrán,
representing the interest of his post office,
and on the other hand, myself.
[suspenseful music playing]
[González] President Menem had found a key economic ally in Domingo Cavallo.
[camera shutter clicking]
Doctor Domingo Felipe Cavallo, do you swear to God…
[González] Cavallo had a personality and a political future
that he considered to be at the level of Menem.
If he does not do so, may God and the nation find him out.
[González] A prominent character in economic policy.
Champion of the idea of convertibility.
They found a way to attack an endemic problem in Argentina,
which was inflation.
They tied the peso to the dollar by law.
CAVALLO'S COMPLAINT BEFORE CONGRESS AUGUST 23, 1995
All this hypothesis and this presumption,
almost a conviction, that Mr. Yabrán leads a mafia.
I have been building this case with the accumulation of information.
Mr. Yabrán wanted to destroy the official mail.
Mr. Yabrán wanted to monopolize the post office.
[Zunino] After Cavallo's announcement,
the Yabrán case became, among other things,
an extreme political issue in Argentina.
Was it the mail or was it all these ranges of businesses?
Where, if you manage the fiscal warehouses of goods coming in and out,
the loading and unloading of planes,
the mail vans that circulate through all the routes of the country,
it's more than mail.
It is a state within a state.
It's a fight for power, not for the mail.
Menem said that he did not know the activities
to which his economic minister was referring.
He said to ask Cavallo.
Clearly, there was an internal dispute.
Domingo Cavallo left the government.
[Zunino] It was after the split between Menem and Cavallo.
Nothing was the same after that happened.
Cavallo approaches Carlos Menem's rival, Eduardo Duhalde.
And, clearly after that, Domingo Cavallo became not only an accuser of Yabrán,
but also a political opponent of Menem.
[Michi] When the economic minister, Domingo Cavallo,
made the accusation of an existing mafia, entrenched in power,
and that the head of that mafia was Alfredo Yabrán,
it was as if the lights of all journalism were turned on
to see who this previously unknown character was.
[Cavallo] To me, they are mafias.
Why are they mafias?
They hide, they don't show their faces.
There aren't even any known photos.
I was attempting an interview with Alfredo Yabrán.
[González] I told the director of the magazine,
who at that time was Héctor D'Amico,
and he told me that he remembered a journalist who thought he knew Yabrán.
He answered a day or two later that Yabrán wanted to see us.
[tense music playing]
[González] We arrived at Yabrán's mansion.
He welcomed us with open arms on the sidewalk.
And he made us enter the chalet, a guest chalet.
He was trying to appear very empathetic with us.
He was very sympathetic,
but denied not only all of our investigations,
but Cavallo's claims.
Over and over we tried setting up an interview,
trying to convince him that he had to come out of the darkness.
If he had nothing to hide, it would serve him well.
He told us no, that he was not going to give any interviews.
Finally, we convinced him to answer five questions.
And then, we tried to do the photo.
And he told us,
"Having my picture taken is like shooting myself in the head."
And he pressed his finger to his temple.
We returned to the newsroom with more than just a story,
with some words that gave voice to Yabrán.
But without a photo.
[intriguing music playing]
[Michi] In the summer of 1996,
we already had information that this businessman had investments in Pinamar.
GOLF TERRACES
[Zunino] After Cavallo's accusations,
getting the image of Alfredo Yabrán in a photo
was one of the central objectives.
[Michi] Yabrán's house had been covered,
which, since he liked to play this mystery thing,
he had named "Narbay,"
which is "Yabrán" backwards.
In mid-February,
we were about to close up shop and return with José Luis.
One of my sources calls me and says, "Uncle is coming tomorrow."
"Uncle" was Yabrán,
who generated so much fear that no one dared say his name.
We agreed with José Luis to stakeout Yabrán's house at 7:00 a.m.
Suddenly, we saw him arriving.
And José Luis takes a photo of Yabrán entering the house,
but from behind.
The image wasn't good.
A source told me which cabanas Yabrán had reserved,
in Pinamar, that summer of '96.
One other thing that they told me about Yabrán's habits
was that he had a routine.
He didn't like going to the beach in the morning,
he went out at 4:00 p.m.
We went with José Luis's wife, some friends.
And, at one point,
a person comes and puts a beach chair in front of us.
And my wife asks me, "Does he look like this guy?"
And I say, "He is this guy."
We stood there looking.
We saw Yabrán.
Yabrán was very identifiable.
He was a very big, corpulent, gray-haired guy.
But José Luis said, "I don't have an angle,"
because there were a lot of people. It was summer.
There were lots of people on the beach.
After a while, we see Yabrán walking north with his wife, to where we were.
José Luis tells me, "I don't have an angle for the shot."
I tell him, "Look, if he leaves, he's going to have to come back."
And then like 40 minutes later, which was an eternity,
we saw him coming back.
And Cristina, José Luis' wife, is posing.
But actually, they were taking pictures of Yabrán.
When José Luis lined up the shot,
at that moment, we knew that it was going to be an impactful photo.
That adrenaline of achieving something different,
from a journalistic point of view,
moved us to get what everyone was looking for.
But maybe we didn't consider the consequences.
My part of that article had to do with Yabrán's business in Pinamar
and the plans for a marina that he wanted to build, that would be very striking.
But the numbers didn't add up.
In Pinamar there was talk of money laundering or drug trafficking.
We went back to the office we had in Pinamar,
and José Luis calls his boss who asks, "What do you have?"
"Well, I have Yabrán, walking on the beach with his wife."
[dings]
[Michi] Noticias is revolutionized.
The roll is sent to Buenos Aires to be developed.
The films rolls arrived. I was the first one to see them.
I saw the photo, I looked at it and said, "Great shot."
Because it was, you know?
Clear, clean, with the background out of focus.
[Michi] Two weeks later, Noticias came out with the title, "Yabrán Attacks Again"
and Yabrán's image on the cover.
That was revolution in journalism.
You could say it was the photo that everyone was waiting for.
[dramatic music playing]
[music fades]
[Zunino] Next summer, the summer of '96-'97,
obviously Yabrán was the subject.
It's still a hot topic.
[Michi] And we returned to Pinamar with a goal that we had set for ourselves,
which was to maximize the chance
of getting an interview with Yabrán,
All-inclusive, as we used to say.
That is, with photos, notes, and more.
José Luis arrives around December 15th, 1996,
and I arrive around December 20th.
When I arrive, José Luis tells me,
"Hey, a source told me that Yabrán's people
were trying to find out my address in Buenos Aires."
For me it was like a joke, you know?
I do not have José Luis on record telling me specifically
that they were threatening him.
I do know that he wasn't entirely comfortable
with how things had turned out after the last summer's photo.
An event occurs.
During some coverage that José Luis and Gabriel go out to do…
one of the tires on their car gets slashed.
We went to get it patched,
and when we removed the tire, the mechanic told me,
"Look, this was on purpose."
[González] Gabriel Michi had information that Yabrán was going to a cookout.
We had heard Yabrán traveled with a security detail
and Gabriel also verified this when he was going to try to interview him.
And the guards came out at the intersection.
[Zunino] And that, well, could have given us a clue
that this was something serious.
I mean, there could be something serious
amassing around the work of the Noticias team in Pinamar.
It was known that Yabrán's guards were somewhat aggressive,
but there was an adrenaline rush at the idea of doing this.
To a certain extent, unmasking Yabrán took precedence over fear,
although perhaps it was irrational, you know?
And maybe, looking back, you would think we were crazy.
But what happened to José Luis had not happened yet.
[Vecchi] Yabrán had military guards,
hundreds of soldiers who provided services in different companies Yabrán owned.
But there were always 20 or 30 people available
for Yabrán's personal security.
The highest-ranking members were oppressors in the military dictatorship.
[tense music playing]
Good evening.
HORA CLAVE SHOW MARCH 20, 1997
Good evening, doctor.
Mr. Yabrán, you, for years, kept a…
I wouldn't say a low profile, but almost no profile.
The Yabrán enigma.
And, suddenly now, you are reversing that strategy.
Why right now?
[Zunino] It became inevitable that he would be talked about.
And surely, that is why
he decides to start building his own story about himself,
to counteract the one from Domingo Cavallo.
Domingo Felipe Cavallo,
he wants us to believe, we Argentines…
that we are living in an American gangster movie,
where there is a… a fortress, where a mobster lives.
Where there is…
an army of private security.
Where there are government contacts.
[clears throat]
In short, a state within the state.
And Yabrán, of course, started going out in public.
No, I will not make any statements. I am very sorry about the Cabezas case.
[reporter] Yabrán, why are your guards involved in the Cabezas murder case?
I don't have guards, miss. Do you see me with guards?
Interestingly, in trying to cover things up,
he ended up saying and doing things that complicated the situation more and more.
And then he gives a note to Clarín.
[news anchor] At one point you were asked, "What is power?"
TO HIM, BEING POWERFUL IS HAVING IMPUNITY
And you answered, "Power is having impunity."
Yes, doctor.
I have always said, "That phrase embodies Yabrán."
If there is a phrase that defines him, that's it.
First, undoubtedly for me, as I told you,
I am not a man prepared to give answers to five journalists.
And secondly, I confess, in all honesty,
when they asked me about a powerful man and I said what I said,
I was thinking of Cavallo.
He's the one with impunity.
[phone ringing]
-[phone ringing] -[beep]
[Michi] On April 9th, 1997,
I received a call in the morning from the magazine.
And they tell me, "They seem to have found a clue."
Well, I don't know if it was two or three months after the event happened.
Senator Martínez contacted me.
And he told me, "I can't sleep."
"I have to talk to you urgently. Come over."
And he came to visit me in San Vicente. I had a country house and we met there.
And he told me, the day after they killed Cabezas,
my driver told me…
He told me he knew who had done it.
And I was… I was shocked.
That's when I told him, "Carlos, let's do this."
"If your driver told you that, bring the driver to me."
"There's a $600,000 reward." And he said,
"He doesn't want anything, he's terrified."
"He said that he'd like to leave the position he has here in the province,
but obviously he does not want any part of this,
because he is very afraid."
That's when we started to see how we could make him talk.
[commentator] Penalty kick for Argentina…
[Duhalde] And that day, Argentina and Bolivia were playing soccer,
so I told Carlos, "Bring him to me. Come with him, he is your driver."
And so they came over, and we started to watch the game,
have a few drinks and chat, and then we had dinner.
We were having dinner and this guy was loosening up.
And he ended up telling me that he didn't want anything to do with this,
but he told me everything.
What he didn't know was that we were filming him.
[tense music playing]
[Vecchi] Duhalde calls the family
and he says that he is going to go to Dolores,
and he is going to bring the file with those he believes are responsible.
DUHALDE WILL REVEAL THE KILLERS' NAMES TO THE PARENTS
[Duhalde] There he was, linking everything with the lawyer, of course. With Vecchi.
I struggled over the idea of dropping the Pepitos lead.
CABEZAS' PARENTS SPEAK OUT FOR FIRST TIME ABOUT MURDER
Duhalde told me, "I can't bring José Luis back."
"But those who killed him, I'm going to tell you who they are."
And he did.
And the governor was the main person interested in solving the crime.
You could see his sense of urgency, typical of a politician,
especially when starting a presidential campaign.
So, it was double the pressure, I imagine.
[Cazeaux] His performance was transcendent,
especially regarding the arrival of the defendants from Los Hornos.
I contacted an informant and the person who accompanied her.
They told me what had happened.
The information was on four people, who apparently were the "Los Hornos" gang.
Made up of Auge,
Retana,
González,
and Braga.
And these individuals had participated in the crime,
and they had never been involved or called.
HORNOS IT GAVE ITS HEART IN TERRACOTTA
The Los Hornos neighborhood is about 10 minutes from the center of La Plata.
It's a poor neighborhood.
[Cazeaux] They were people from a impoverished area.
who participated in a hooligan gang, exclusively from La Plata,
Even the fans boasted that it had been the gang.
There was already more than one witness
who said they had heard the gang perpetrated the crime.
These witness statements were essential when ordering the arrest.
[reporter] Retana, do you trust in your freedom?
González, are you being pressured by the police?
[Cazeaux] At the time of giving an investigative statement,
to everyone's surprise, all the young people from Los Hornos
confessed to having participated in the act.
[indistinct chatter]
[Cazeaux] Confessions are not common. Confession to a crime is even less common.
It is an extremely strange thing.
CONFESSION FROM ONE OF THE DETAINED IN THE CABEZAS CASE
THEY FOLLOWED THE JOURNALIST'S CAR
They confessed to having been involved
and being under the command of Deputy Prellezo.
Prellezo was a police officer who lived in La Plata.
And he had recruited them. He had sent them.
GUSTAVO PRELLEZO BUENOS AIRES POLICE
[Michi] Gustavo Prellezo had been deputy chief of the Pinamar Police.
They said, "Prellezo brought us to Pinamar to put some pressure on a journalist."
[reporter 1] Why did you take the Los Hornos gang to the coast?
[Prellezo] I can't hear anything.
[reporter 2] Why did you take the Los Hornos gang to the coast?
[Prellezo] I didn't take them as a gang, I took them on vacation.
[reporter 1] If you took them for vacation why'd they end up killing Cabezas?
-[Prellezo] Ask them. -[reporter 1] But you were there.
[Prellezo] No, I wasn't there.
[reporter 2] Why did they say you're the murderer, then?
The accusations were extended to other police officers
who collaborated with Prellezo.
SERGIO RUBÉN CAMARATA BUENOS AIRES POLICE
There was Camarata, who was the head of the Valeria del Mar unit,
which is close to Pinamar,
who was the one who had given Prellezo lodging, rented him an apartment.
Then the connection with Luna appears.
He was working at the Pinamar police station
And that he is the one who participated
and collaborated with the follow-up and identification, these tasks.
MORE POLICE OFFICERS ARE EXPECTED TO BE ARRESTED
[news anchor] The police also arrested Silvia Belawsky De Prellezo,
who is also a detective with the provincial police of Buenos Aires.
Silvia Belawsky was Prellezo's ex-wife.
They had a daughter together.
She was also a police officer
and was living in Los Hornos.
SILVIA BELAWSKY BUENOS AIRES POLICE
She had asked a colleague to look for dirt on José Luis Cabezas,
in the database of the provincial police of Buenos Aires,
which is extremely suspicious.
And it was a fact that the Los Hornos gang was directly linked to the police.
[Gamarnik] José Luis Cabezas took two very symbolic photos.
Klodczyk's photo, the face of the "Damn Police"
and the photo of Yabrán on the beach, walking with his wife.
Those two photos became symbols.
Each of those photos corresponded to different spheres of power.
That's why the confusion, at first.
"Is it Yabrán or is it the 'Damn police'?"
The handcuffs seemed to answer the question "Who was it?"
They suggested the police were involved.
On the one hand, there was the issue featuring Yabrán
and, on the other hand, the issue featuring the "Damn Police."
The location of the murder effectively placed it within Duhalde's jurisdiction.
They called me from the newsroom, from Noticias, very late at night,
and they told me, "Duhalde wants to talk, but he only wants to talk to you."
So I go and he asks me,
"So what do you think? Who is behind this crime?"
And I tell him, "For me, it was either the Buenos Aires police
or it was Alfredo Yabrán."
And he tells me, "No, no, no. I think it was Yabrán."
RICARDO RAGENDORFER JOURNALIST
Duhalde urgently needed to inflate the Yabrán possibility,
among other things, because of his relationship with Menem.
I hope that this is not a scapegoat
so that the governor of the province of Buenos Aires can clear up the murder
and thus continue his presidential career.
Nothing that is said or how it's said is gonna be believed. I don't think so.
They do this to distract people, to entertain.
That's it, that's it, but I don't think it's like this.
[Cazeaux] By then, the appeals court was releasing the suspects from Mar del Plata,
when suddenly, another group appeared claiming to be responsible for the event.
[reporter] Your first words as a free woman, Margarita.
Why did Redruello involve you in this plot, Margarita?
-[reporter] Why did he do it? -How could I know?
I've never known any journalist or photographer in my life.
[Di Tullio] We were innocent and we said as much,
we shouted it and now the whole world knows that we are innocent.
And I hope that, I don't know, that they get to the truth, in this case.
This is how the puzzle was being put together.
The real involvement of this gang from Los Hornos was becoming clear.
They began to provide details that they could only know about
if they were there.
"PRELLEZO SHOT HIM TWICE"
The Los Hornos gang said that Prellezo had shot him twice.
Until that moment, it was not known
that José Luis Cabezas had been shot twice in the head.
The first autopsy had shown only one shot.
JUDGE ORDERS NEW AUTOPSY REPORT
So, what they said was, "Do a new autopsy."
And in the second autopsy, the other hole was found.
SECOND HOLE
[Vecchi] What the Los Hornos gang claimed was verified.
They said that, on the way back, they had taken Cabezas's camera
and thrown it into one of the many water crossings along the road.
That morning, we found out that there might be some news regarding the camera.
I was going live, recounting the work done by the tactical divers,
the provincial police of Buenos Aires.
It was an impressive display in that lagoon.
[Pombo] And after having made countless searches,
it finally showed up and they immediately identified it by the stickers on it.
[man] We could see the stickers. You can see in the photocopy
and here on the camera, which was just found.
[Maciel] They turned the camera around
and I saw the stickers from José Luis's children.
And up until that moment, we had described the camera, but we had not yet seen it.
It gave me a lot of anguish.
It was like a movie, and I realized that this was not a case,
this was a life story.
This was a human being who was killed doing his job, in democratic times.
They killed him like that. They took a father from his children.
And about the Cabezas case, well, it's…
the case, isn't it?
Not a case.
It's him.
You could say that the cause of death
is almost definitively pointing to some undeniable facts.
[reporter] Including the mastermind?
The facts seemed relatively clear.
But what was Prellezo's motive?
[unsettling music playing]
His home was raided, a series of items seized,
including his personal agenda.
And the links between Prellezo and Yabrán began to appear.
Those links were even encrypted, which increased suspicion.
Why hide the relationship, right?
And Yabrán's card appears among Prellezo's personal effects,
with the numbers written in Alfredo Yabrán's handwriting.
We had a secret weapon against them, I'll admit it. We had a smoking gun.
They would never have imagined we would have such a thing.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Cazeaux] I think it was first instance of a subpoena being made
by the Dolores Investigation Department
in which inquiries were made into telephone communications.
And perhaps that led the suspects to be careless.
CABEZAS INVESTIGATION HOW THE DOLORES BUNKER OPERATES
This is the famous bunker, in Castelli,
where Excalibur detectives, led by Victor Fogelman,
are housed and work every day.
[doors squeaking]
[Vecchi] The Excalibur program had been successfully tested
in several FBI investigations.
[Cazeaux] They managed to delineate and visualize
the telephone communications in a different way.
This allowed for the linking of the suspects' phones
within the computer system.
OUTGOING TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS
And that's when Gustavo Prellezo's first contacts began to appear,
with different people from the Pinamar Police Station and others.
And a number begins to appear repeatedly, which was an unidentified cell phone.
It was discovered that the phone was registered to Bridess.
Bridess was a security company
which was the mother of all security companies in the Yabrán group.
BRIDESS S.R.L. - PARANÁ FLOOR 6 - FEDERAL CAPITAL
It turned out that the phone, this famous phone,
in the name of Bridess, was the one used by Gregorio Rios,
Yabrán's head of domestic security.
[Pombo] Gregorio Rios was a retired army officer.
Alfredo Yabrán's trusted right-hand man.
[phones dialing, ringing]
[Vecchi] The exchange of calls made it possible to verify
that Gregorio Ríos had more communications with the Pinamar police station
than any of the police officers.
[Cazeaux] And, as the date of the crime approached, communications increased.
And they kept increasing.
[Vecchi] The last few days leading up to the murder,
the number of linked calls was huge,
reporting the movement of Michi and Cabezas,
who were trying to take some photos.
They were shooting around the house.
[Michi] The day we approached Yabrán,
the phones began to explode from Yabrán's security,
who were watching us from an apartment,
along with the Pinamar police, Yabrán,
Prellezo and the Los Hornos gang.
[Santo Biasatti] It was a kind of cat and mouse game,
just as they followed them, they were followed.
[suspenseful music building]
That didn't happen when we were writing the police article,
it happened when we approached Yabrán.
And after the murder, all calls stop.
[music crescendos, stops]
[phone calling]
[Michi] After the murder, no one talks.
[line beeping]
[reporter] 3:45, the businessman Alfredo Yabrán is arriving
at the federal court in Dolores.
An impressive crowd.
YABRÁN'S MOMENT OF TRUTH HAS COME
For us, there was no choice but to call Yabrán, to ask him why.
So he could defend himself.
In other words, so he could explain himself to us
what his dealings were with Prellezo.
[clamoring]
[Cazeaux] His first statement was an informative one.
And it caused a great commotion.
It was one of the few times that Yabrán appeared in court to testify.
-[reporter 1] Alfredo Yabrán. -[reporter 2] Yabrán.
[clamoring]
[Ragendorfer] Yabrán obviously had to defend himself.
He had to show he had nothing to do with the murder.
[clamoring continues]
[reporter 1] What will you say to Macchi, Yabrán?
-[reporter 2] Talk to the camera! -[reporter 3] Going in.
[clamoring]
[Cazeaux] I remember his statement perfectly,
which was very long.
And he introduced himself in a very polite, respectful way.
He was a man who, on the surface, was very folksy, very kind.
He addressed everyone with a great deal of respect.
His statement, uh, it didn't really have many holes.
He answered everything that was asked of him.
He seemed willing to submit to criminal proceedings.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Zunino] The contribution of the Excalibur probe
ends up being one of the main factors of the investigation,
because it proves everything that was denied.
And much more.
MORE CONTACT BETWEEN YABRÁN AND THE GOVERNMENT
We asked for phone records from everyone.
Especially the phones linked to Alfredo Yabrán.
Some records came in.
From those that arrived,
we deduced that there had been countless calls with the Ministry of Justice.
[Michi] It was discovered that practically the entire cabinet
was in contact with Yabrán.
EXCALIBUR REVEALS 202 PHONE CALLS BETWEEN YABRÁN AND EXECUTIVE BRANCH
[Vecchi] He had communications with prosecutors,
with officials, with ministers, with the Presidential Palace.
It was no longer a case
where a businessman had an issue with a journalist.
There were ties to political power.
THE GOVERNMENT COMES CLEAN ABOUT ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH YABRÁN
He was known by everyone, because he was close to Menem,
who was the president,
and there were visits to the Presidential Palace.
In fact, within the context of the investigation,
there was also a visit to the palace.
[Vecchi] We asked for records on June 20th,
and a few days later, the highest-ranking minister of the administration,
the chief of staff, invited Yabrán to the Presidential Palace.
Yabrán arrived,
posing with one of those little signs that said, "Don't forget about Cabezas."
[honking]
Meanwhile, protesters were taking to the streets to ask for justice.
What they are doing seems like a slap in the face to the people.
-It's embarrassing. -[reporter] Are you here to honk?
-Of course, man. -Honk, honk, go ahead.
[Vecchi] These politicians were in a bubble.
They invited a person to the Presidential Palace
who was accused of a crime that was very damaging to Argentine democracy,
thus endorsing the innocence of someone who was under investigation,
and with a lot of presumption of guilt.
Clearly, there was no other reason for that meeting
than to point out to the public
that this character had protective ties with the national government.
[man] Murderer!
[clamoring]
[banging]
[man] Son of a bitch!
-[woman] Murderer! -[man] Murderer!
[woman] Murderer!
[indistinct chanting]
RÍOS TESTIFIED AND IS UNDER ARREST
The truth is that, until September, when Ríos was found,
there wasn't enough for us to make it official
that the main conclusion drawn from the trail coincided with ours,
that it was a gang with which Yabrán had some relationship,
whether direct or indirect.
[brooding music playing]
The permanent presence of Gregorio Ríos, Alfredo Yabrán's chief of security,
linking Yabrán and Prellezo, combined with Yabrán's background,
was pivotal.
YABRÁN ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HE SPOKE TO PRELLEZO
Yabrán admitted that he met with Prellezo.
They asked him, "Why did you two meet up?"
"Oh, because this man wanted to sell me an alarm system, for Pinamar,
so I told him to talk to Ríos about it,
and he wanted to say hello to me by the end of the year," etc., etc…
[Cazeaux] Prellezo acknowledges having a link with Yabrán.
[man] Who murdered Cabezas?
[Cazeaux] In a meeting that he held with Alfredo Yabrán,
he told him that he wanted to have a quiet summer.
Obviously in reference to what, for him, was press harassment,
which he'd suffered the previous summer.
-[imperceptible] -[music continues]
[Cazeaux] A collection of evidence had already been amassed,
suggesting the participation of Yabrán as the mastermind behind the crime.
And, as these elements accumulated,
I became impatient, perhaps typical of youth.
I wanted to tell him, "Macchi, we have a lot."
"I mean, we can order an arrest. Don't you think?" But he told us,
"There is always time to make an arrest."
[Vecchi] We lived through many moments of anxiety.
The case had many, many plateaus.
It seemed that it wasn't going to advance any further.
[atmospheric music playing]
[reporter] Do you think someone wants to cover up the truth?
It goes back and forth.
Looks like someone's covering this up. Do you think so?
Yes, yes, yes. Yes, I've told you several times.
[reporter] Someone doesn't want truth to come out.
The instigators, the masterminds are working to keep it under wraps.
[reporter] Must be a powerful man.
What I am waiting for is the arrest of José Luis's murderers.
And when I say murderers, I mean everyone, you know?
The ones who devised the plan, the ones who executed it,
those who participated. All of them.
People say it, everyone says it,
because I go out on the street and everyone tells me, "It was Yabrán."
We constantly asked for action,
pressing for Yabrán's arrest, for investigation,
and, well, it didn't happen, until Silvia Belawsky came along.
[footsteps running]
[Vecchi] Silvia Belawsky was the wife, at the time,
of the main defendant, Gustavo Prellezo.
On May 15th, 1998, she made a decision,
for which the motivation is completely unknown,
but it must have been terrible.
[Cazeaux] To our surprise, as the investigation progressed,
his defense asks that she be able to expand on his preliminary statement.
[Maciel] And, at the moment she was going to testify, I remember perfectly,
the anticipation of whether she was going to speak or not,
what she was going to say and how much information she had.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Cazeaux] Being Prellezo's wife,
with his involvement in the task of investigating Cabezas,
we assumed that this witness, especially, had much more to say.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
SILVIA BELAWSKY BUENOS AIRES POLICE OFFICER
[Belawsky] I was going to explain a few things.
And, well, a lot of things crossed my mind.
And well, what happened happened, and I told him everything I knew.
And nothing more.
YABRÁN IS BEHIND EVERYTHING
[Vecchi] She claimed that her husband had said that to her…
RÍOS AND I WORKED FOR HIM
…that this had been an order from Yabrán,
that Gregorio Ríos had asked him to do this job,
and they had to do that job.
DON'T YOU EVER THINK OF OPENING YOUR MOUTH
SHE FELT TERRIFIED
Very clearly, she showed Prellezo's relationship with Yabrán.
And with very strong words, she implied that the order to kill Cabezas
had come from the businessman.
And this is perhaps the statement of greater weight,
which leads to the issuance of the arrest warrant for Yabrán.
Her testimony was so compelling
that the judge finally ordered Yabrán's arrest.
He finally ordered the arrest.
WARRANT FOR YABRÁN'S ARREST ORDERED
[ticking]
[Pombo] The raids were carried out, but Yabrán was not found.
They told me, "This man ran away."
"That's impossible," I said, "How could he? He has to testify."
YABRÁN'S HOUSE RAIDED BUT HE COULDN'T BE ARRESTED
We wanted to know what happened.
Why did they do that to José Luis? Why had they done such a thing?
NEW FAILURES IN THE SEARCH FOR YABRÁN
And Duhalde called me at that moment, and he says, "What happened?"
[laughs]
"I don't know."
"What happens next?"
"The police have to find him, so…"
"You're in charge of the police."
"Send them to find him with the FBI, with whoever."
YABRÁN STILL ON THE RUN AND INTERPOL IS SEARCHING FOR HIM
INTERPOL SEARCHES FOR YABRÁN
[Lazo] With an entire country looking, Yabrán was never going to be found
in the places where the raids were ordered.
[ticking continues]
[Cazeaux] Anyone could have guessed that, with his ability, his power,
his connections,
he could hide out in a country without an extradition agreement.
[suspenseful music playing]
[ticking continues]
[Vecchi] In small towns, not much time goes by without getting some information.
We checked all the necessary sources until we found out that Yabrán
was at the San Ignacio ranch, probably planning an escape.
[ticking continues]
I saw the movements that confirmed the presence of Yabrán.
I stayed there all night.
Then, the next day, I waited for the police.
[helicopter blades whirring]
Next, I began to describe what happened.
[Lazo] Reporting directly from San Ignacio Ranch.
They're looking for the businessman Alfredo Yabrán.
[police siren blaring]
[Lazo] I noticed lots of cell phones being taken out,
and I began to see the anxiety among the police.
So far, some searches have been carried out
in our view of the ranch,
where Judge Macchi believes that the businessman is hiding.
It seemed evident that Yabrán was at the ranch, but the police didn't see him.
[ticking continues]
They checked everywhere. Yabrán's suite was locked.
[suspenseful music continues]
[Lazo] All they knew about that door was that it was locked.
They called out to see who was behind it.
[ticking]
[Lazo] The police didn't get an answer, they tried to open the door.
And while they were doing so…
[loud gunshot]
[device dings]
[Lazo] Yabrán's shot was heard.
[suspenseful music continues]
[reporter] At that exact time,
and as an exclusive first for the entire country,
we are able to state that…
Alfredo Yabrán shot himself in the mouth with a shotgun.
[helicopter blades whirring]
YABRÁN SHOT HIMSELF
YABRÁN COMMITTED SUICIDE
ALFREDO YABRÁN FOUND DEAD WIDESPREAD AMAZEMENT AND DISBELIEF
WAS YABRÁN REALLY THE ONE WHO DIED?
SUICIDE CALLED INTO QUESTION
First, the doubt of the suicide.
Doubt because many media outlets, they didn't believe it was Yabrán.
They didn't believe anything.
I think he's alive.
-[reporter] Hidden somewhere? -For sure.
Many miles away from here, on some Caribbean island somewhere.
Under the bed.
In a hole.
Behind a stack of-- a stack of money.
It's hard to think
that a person with so much money could have killed himself.
Half of society said, "It's a lie. Yabrán is alive."
PEOPLE STILL SPECULATE ABOUT THE SUICIDE
[Lazo] A myth was created around Yabrán's death.
WHAT HAPPENED TO YABRÁN?
That someone shot himself in Yabrán's place,
that Yabrán is enjoying some beach paradise who knows where,
far from his family who he loved the most.
DOES ANYONE BELIEVE YABRÁN KILLED HIMSELF?
You come across people, you say, "Do you think that Yabrán is dead?"
They'd say, "No, no, he is-- he is sunbathing."
I didn't think it would end like that.
I didn't think it would end that way, but that is how it ended.
The choice was made because he was surrounded. Trapped.
[atmospheric music playing]
[reporter] Barely 50 people surrounded the coffin
that contained the remains of the businessman.
[woman screaming] Hey! A little respect for the dead!
This is journalism?
They want respect for Cabezas.
-Yellow press! -[man] We have earned respect for Cabezas.
[woman 1] Respect him away from here. We earned respect for him.
[woman 2] You killed him!
-[woman 3] Cover their cameras! -[man] Could you turn off the camera?
[reporter 1] Another stage of the news story
with the greatest impact in recent times has ended.
The disappearance of a powerful man who decided not to face earthly justice.
YABRÁN WROTE THE ACCUSING LETTERS A DAY BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF
[reporter 2] In one of the two letters that he left,
he incriminated two politicians.
Your Honor, in the face of the condemnation
led by Director Cavallo,
in association with the unscrupulous politicians
committed to making Duhalde owner of the truth and the country,
I want to express my decision to take my life
before continuing to suffer.
[Pablo Argibay] The letter had the prior day's date and his signature,
so that there were no doubts.
He makes some political references to two of the people
that-- that he had ongoing problems with.
And he ends by saying he is completely innocent
of the crime against José Luis Cabezas.
[reporter] Can you imagine Yabrán making a decision like that?
Because he had dignity. They cornered him.
He had children, a family, just like the Cabezas.
He did not allow himself to be handcuffed by that son of a bitch governor.
Because he put all this together.
But we want to know who killed your colleague,
Mr. José Luis Cabezas.
And what were the reasons that led Mr. Yabrán to commit suicide.
All of this is under investigation.
NATIONAL CONGRESSWOMAN 1997-2001
It is something that is going to turn into…
I think it's one of the darkest periods in Argentine history.
[somber music playing]
[Michi] The truth is that I had a lot of skepticism at first.
Everyone said, "A guy like Yabrán doesn't kill himself."
Investigating the subject, speaking with witnesses,
seeing and investigating the movements of his surroundings after the murder,
I ended up convincing myself that he had committed suicide.
And the question was, "Why?"
[Ragendorfer] And Yabrán commits suicide because they were about to arrest him.
It doesn't necessarily mean that he killed himself because he was guilty.
[Zunino] Until the last possible moment,
the Menem government defended Alfredo Yabrán's innocence.
It seems obvious that someone got to them.
Someone told him, "It's time."
There was no way to make people understand that the rich could also shoot themselves.
The powerful also, at some point, they are cornered.
[Michi] Imagining him entering handcuffed before everyone's eyes,
in a prison in the province of Buenos Aires,
a province governed by Eduardo Duhalde,
had to have been humiliating and dangerous.
I lean towards the hypothesis that this suicide
could be linked to a particular psychology such as that of Yabrán's.
[indistinct chatter]
DECEMBER 14, 1999
[reporter] Dolores seemed to go back in time.
The city was once again filled with patrol cars and prison service agents,
like in the beginning of the case, three years ago.
How many thoughts have crossed Norma and José's minds,
sitting in the same small room
where their son's murderers are also waiting for a conviction?
[Cazeaux] Everyone knew that all of society
was waiting for this to be clarified,
to be made as clear as possible.
TRIAL FOR CABEZAS CRIME
[man] Please, I ask to have the floor because you just spoke about me.
-Yes, now-- Yes. -[man] Saying I could…
[Michi] The feeling was very shocking
because we had these guys in the courtroom.
And some of them even looked at me defiantly, I remember.
[woman] General Madariaga, province of Buenos Aires,
on January 25th, 1997, at 8:20 a.m.
[Vecchi] And there was an empty chair,
because, unfortunately, we didn't have the mastermind,
the person who had ordered his head of security
to get rid of the journalists that summer.
It was Alfredo Yabrán.
[woman] It was found that inside the ditch with the rear facing the highway,
there was a vehicle, which was completely incinerated.
FAMILY MEMBERS
[Vecchi] We were looking for explanations
and those responsible for the filthy murder of José Luis Cabezas.
[woman] And the smell of fuel was present.
What they did to him in the process, how they used him, how they burned him…
That's why we wanted explanations.
CHAMBER OF APPEALS
[tragic string music building]
[judge] Let the statement of the witness Michi be recorded.
[Michi] In the early hours of January 25th we were covering Andreani's party.
The logical thing would've been to leave the party together with José Luis.
The thought that always bounced around in my head
was that if we had been together, we would have both suffered the same fate.
I have no doubt about it.
[Cazeaux] They described spending half the day at the party,
but they didn't take Cabezas from there,
which was what we all assumed had happened.
Rather they followed him.
[Vecchi] They went to José Luis's house.
When José Luis arrived home, they intercepted him.
They grabbed him from behind with weapons, obviously.
[Michi] They beat him up and put him inside our car, the white Ford Fiesta.
[Vecchi] He was no more than 20 or 25 feet…
from his wife.
That is, if he'd given the slightest cry, if he had given the slightest alarm,
if he had given even the slightest hint that he was in danger,
the woman would have seen him.
[Lazo] They took him along the path that leads to the General Madariaga ditch.
It was reported that José Luis's body had many injuries,
suggesting that they tortured him on the way.
They beat him, they hit him.
Prellezo, the leader of the entire operation,
gets out, then they make José Luis get out.
[gunshots]
[Michi] Prellezo puts José Luis against the back wall of the ditch
and shoots him twice in the head.
[music intensifies]
[Cazeaux] After shooting him, they also decided to burn the car,
leaving it in the ditch, where Cabezas was finally found.
[music continues]
[Michi] Gustavo Prellezo coordinated the operation to kidnap José Luis.
He did it by order of Gregorio Ríos, the head of Yabrán's security,
and Alfredo Yabrán.
[Vecchi] When they left the ditch,
the Los Hornos gang mention a call made by Prellezo.
Prellezo apparently called Luna on the phone
and told him, "Happy Birthday."
[gloomy music playing]
But curiously, it wasn't Luna's birthday.
I guess it was "mission accomplished."
[music crescendos]
[music fades]
Good day.
[Michi] On February 2, 2000, the conviction finally came.
The verdict for all the murderers.
[woman] Defendant Gustavo Daniel Prellezo will serve sentence of life imprisonment.
For Gregorio Ríos, as instigator in the crimes…
[Michi] They were life sentences.
Life imprisonment for all those who were policemen
and life for those who were civilians.
[reporter] The maximum punishment provided by the criminal code
was for the former police officers, Gustavo Prellezo,
Sergio Camaratta, and Aníbal Luna.
[Maciel] The three judges didn't care who did what.
What mattered to them was that they had all been there,
they were all participants in the crime.
LIFE SENTENCE FOR CABEZAS' KILLERS
[Norma] And I started crying. It hurt a lot.
Because my anger turned into sadness.
But I have a lot of anger and I hate them.
[protesters] Murderers!
[man] You got what you deserved!
[protesters clapping and chanting]
[crowd] Argentina!
DECEMBER 1999
[Maciel] In December 1999, the elections were held
and neither Duhalde nor Menem won.
De la Rúa won.
[woman] Dr. Don Fernando de la Rúa.
That truth,what was known of how Cabezas was killed,
I think it changed the political direction of what was to come.
[chanting]
[Cazeaux] Although it was a criminal act,
the murder of Cabezas became a political turning point.
[Vecchi] It was the political end of the governor.
Not only did he lose the election, but he also lost himself.
And he couldn't achieve what he wanted, the height of his political career.
[car horns honking]
[Maciel] It was a society that began to see
the corruption and the depths of the impurity
that political power could have on the one hand.
And on the other hand, a society that realized how defenseless it was.
[protesters chanting] Justice!
-Cabezas! -Here!
[Gaya] The murder of José Luis exposed other issues.
What it rose from the crime were a whole range of injustices
that Argentine society was experiencing.
[people clapping]
[Gamarnik] Prior to the assassination of Cabezas,
terrible things had happened like the murder of María Soledad Morales.
The attack on the Israeli embassy and the attack on AMIA…
the assassination of the soldier Carrasco,
the Río Tercero explosion,
the death of Carlos Menem Jr. under very dark circumstances.
All that it's like a drop came and overflowed a great putrid glass
and the population said, "Enough."
[Lazo] After Cabezas, there were many other occasions
where society took to the streets to be heard,
to change the course of some events on more than one occasion.
-[chanting] -[metal cookware rattling]
DECEMBER 2001
[clamoring]
DON'T FORGET CABEZAS
[Michi] The murder of José Luis Cabezas
was a culmination of all the evils of Argentina.
[poignant music playing]
Given the facts, the sentencing was not light,
however, the enforcement of the sentences was weak
because the murderers ended up getting out early.
A few years later, a shameful ruling by the Buenos Aires Court of Appeals
reduced their sentences,
and in a short time, seven, eight years, they began to go free.
Today, they are all free.
And they're a danger to society.
DON'T FORGET CABEZAS
[gentle piano music playing]
[José Cabezas] Never again.
Should more parents mourn their children, as we have?
[Norma] I get that feeling that he is going to open the door and say,
"Mommy! It wasn't me who was burned, I'm here."
[Robledo] I would like José Luis to be known
for… for who he was.
And not because of what happened to him.
Not because of that.
[Ropero] He would never have imagined in his life
all that he caused after his death.
He was a regular guy who did the work we asked of him,
and he tried his best.
He did his job and did the best he could.
That's my memory of him.
The memory of José Luis Cabezas is like a kind of background music
that accompanies me in life, you know?
[Zunino] Every day of my life, I remember José Luis Cabezas
for at least one minute.
He is not a hero, he is not a saint,
he's a lesson.
A sense of what is fair and what is not fair.
A sense of what it means to do journalism and why.
[Michi] As journalists, we move in and out of people's lives.
When there is an anniversary of an event,
that's one thing.
When you are there, close to a family that suffers,
you realize that what is news for us is daily tragedy for them.
It's the plate missing from the table.
[poignant music playing]
[Michi] The clothes that his parents keep for years to remember him.
It is that absence, so terrible, that permeates their day-to-day lives.
It's not just news.
It's people. It's their stories.
It could be any of us.
For those of us who loved José Luis,
obviously his absence hurts us a lot.
But for his murderers,
his presence will hurt forever.
MONUMENT TO JOSÉ LUIS CABEZAS PIT IN GENERAL MADARIAGA
The Los Hornos gang, Sergio González, José Luis Auge,
Horacio Braga, and Héctor Retana, were sentenced to life in prison.
They got out between 2004 and 2007,
taking advantage of the sentence-reduction law known as "2x1".
Retana died in jail in 2001.
Gregorio Ríos, Police Chief Alberto Gómez,
and officers Gustavo Prellezo, Aníbal Luna, and Sergio Camaratta
got life without parole.
They received different criminal benefits and all were eventually released.
Officer Sergio Camaratta died in Dolores Prison in 2015.
Former police officer Silvia Belawsky was exonerated,
but was sentenced to four years in prison
for fraud linked to the vehicle used in the crime.
She served her sentence and was released in February 2000.
While serving time, Prellezo got a law degree.
In 2017, he was released on parole.
The Cabezas family's persistent complaints
have prevented him from working professionally
until his sentence has been fully served.
Twenty-five years after the crime against José Luis Cabezas,
none of those involved in the murder are in prison.
His family continues to fight for his memory and against impunity.
IN MEMORY OF JOSÉ LUIS CABEZAS 1961-1997
[heartfelt music playing]
Subtitle translation by: