Where Are Jose Auge, Hector Retana, Sergio Gonzalez, Horacio Braga Now? – Jose Luis Cabezas’ death in January 1997 caused shockwaves throughout Argentina. Jose worked as a photographer for Noticias, a newsmagazine noted for its investigative reporting at the time. ‘The Photographer: Murder in Pinamar,’ a Netflix original film, follows the investigation into the murder and the many persons who were finally found guilty.
Jose Luis Auge, Hector Miguel Retana, Sergio Gustavo Gonzalez, and Horacio Anselmo Braga are four criminals from Argentina’s Los Hornos neighbourhood. So, if you’re wondering what happened to them and how they’re related to the case, we’ve got you covered.
Recommended:Â Jose Luis Cabezas Murder Case: Who Killed Him and Why?
Who Are the Los Hornos Gang’s Members?
According to the documentary, multiple witnesses said that the Los Hornos gang was involved in Jose’s death. The four were recruited by Gustavo Prellezo, a police officer acting on the directions of Alfredo Yabran, a powerful businessman, according to the inquiry. According to Gustavo’s wife, Silvia, Alfredo was dissatisfied with Jose’s decision to publish his images in Noticia in March 1996.
Gustavo summoned Hector and the other three to Pinamar, Argentina, near the end of 1996, according to Hector, who eventually cooperated with the authorities. It was planned to rob houses in the area. While Gustavo paid the rent, the party stayed in housing furnished by another police officer, Sergio Camaratta. Gustavo then told them in January 1997 that he had a journalist killed and that he needed the four men to help him.
Jose was covering a party at a businessman’s house in Pinamar the night before he was murdered. They followed Jose to his home after Hector admitted to being about the house. Horacio and Sergio arrived to Jose’s residence before heading to his house, according to some reports.
Gustavo, Auge, and Hector were waiting in another car nearby when they grabbed him at gunpoint. Jose was handcuffed and abused on the way to General Madariaga, Argentina.
Gustavo shot Jose in a ditch in General Madariaga, where the group then set fire to him and his car. Hector, on the other hand, claimed not to have seen the murder since Gustavo had asked to go somewhere else at the time. However, he said that another member of the gang informed him of the incident. Jose was discovered dead on January 25, 1997, only hours after the murder.
Los Hornos Gang Members: Where Are They Now?
All four of them, as well as Gustavo and the others involved, were sentenced to life in prison for the murder in February 2000. Let’s take a look at where they are currently.
Gustavo Prellezo, the former Buenos Aires Province police officer who fired the two rounds that killed Cabezas, has been out of prison for some time. Since 2010, the Gustavo Prellezo appeals court and court has modified his jail sentence multiple times, allowing him to serve much of his sentence under house arrest and even giving him conditional release before completing his sentence in 2017. He now resides in the Los Hornos neighbourhood of La Plata.
Alberto ‘La Liebre’ Gómez, the crime scene investigator at the time, now resides in Valeria del Mar and is only seen by his neighbours when he goes out to collect his police pension check. He spent fewer than 15 years in prison despite his life sentence.
Another member of the Buenos Aires Province police force sent to trail Cabezas, Anbal Luna, had similar success. He was the last of the killers to be released and now lives near the crime scene in General Madariaga, whereas Sergio Camaratta, the fourth officer sentenced, died in 2015.
The ‘Los Horneros’ gang also benefited from the 2×1 statute, which reduces the ultimate sentence by two days for every day spent in pre-trial incarceration, as well as other prison term commutations.
Horacio Braga has returned to Los Hornos, where he works for the Kirchnerite textile cooperative Kbrones and the NGO “Reinserción social y dirigida,” which assists ex-convicts in reorganising their lives after prison. The government has also awarded him a social plan so that he can study law.
José Luis Auge, like Braga, has returned to his life in Los Hornos. He recently worked as a market porter, but his name made the news again after his son and nephews were jailed for crimes in La Plata.
Sergio Gustavo González was released from jail in 2005, but was re-incarcerated in 2015 for drug-trafficking offences.
The gang’s fourth member, Héctor Retana, died in prison in 2001.
During the trial, Prellezo’s ex-wife, Silvia Belawsky, was also found guilty. She was acquitted of murder but jailed for falsely reporting the theft of the car that was later used by her then-husband to conduct the killing. She completed her term and has since resided in La Plata. Her testimony was vital in proving the killers’ connection to Yabrán.
The businessman’s chief security, Gregorio Ros, was the tenth defendant to be punished. According to the court, his duty was to plan the crime. He was granted home detention in 2006, and the Buenos Aires Province Cassation Court determined that his sentence had been served in 2013.
Alfredo Yabrán was never brought to trial because he committed suicide in one of his raches in Entre Ros Province five days after Belawsky’s testimony, prompting a warrant for his arrest to be issued by Dolores federal judge José Luis Macchi. When confronted, the once-powerful businessman chose to shoot himself in the mouth with a 12.70 calibre shotgun rather than face justice.
