Scandal in Chaco! Three Police Officers Sought for Arrest in Disappearance of Axel González

María Inés Gómez cannot forget the last words she said to her son Axel Alejandro González before he left home: «Bundle up, son, it’s cold.» It was the night of Saturday, May 16, in the Takay neighborhood of Puerto Tirol, Chaco. Since then, the 21-year-old has been missing, and the case, now over a month old, points directly to the provincial police.

According to the prosecution’s reconstruction, Axel left around eight in the evening to meet his girlfriend, Ludmila Villordo. He brought meat and chorizos for dinner. But the night stretched on, and along with his childhood friend Ariel Lázaro, he ended up on the streets until dawn. It was then, according to Ludmila’s testimony, that Axel sent her an audio message saying a patrol car had intercepted him and the officers were accusing him of stealing a motorcycle. «They’re harassing me,» he reportedly said.

Friend Ariel confirmed the account: he stated he saw Axel run into a wooded area to escape the patrol car from the 2nd police station in Fontana. That vehicle, identified as N-156, was crewed by Deputy Officer Roberto Barrios and Officers Antonello Méndez and Claudio Tropez. The three are now the focus of the arrest request filed by the young man’s parents.

«I don’t know why they aren’t arrested if they were the ones who chased him that night; they were the ones who made my son disappear,» cries María, who from the start distrusted the Fontana police. When she went to the station to report the disappearance, the officer on duty refused to take her report, arguing it fell under another jurisdiction. She had to go to the Metropolitan Police Station in Resistencia to be attended to.

The case had a turbulent start. Human Rights Prosecutor Luciano Santos declared himself incompetent after just eleven days of investigation, during which he took only six statements, four of them from family members. «He was just going through the motions; he did absolutely nothing,» said Gabriela Tomljenovic, the prosecution’s lawyer. «He sent the police to investigate themselves,» she added. Before leaving, Santos ordered the arrest of seven civilians, four of whom have already been released. «They’re all small-time drug dealers from the neighborhood, not big narcos. It’s clear the case was too big for him,» the lawyer quipped.

Now, the Special Prosecution Team, led by prosecutor Julieta Arolfo, is holding Antonio Omar Íñiguez and Leonardo Nicolás Silva on charges of concealment, and Ramón Antonio «Cuno» Gómez, Axel’s former father-in-law, on charges of threats. But the prosecution insists the real culprits are the police officers. «There is a wealth of testimony pointing to a pursuit. There is even a witness who saw him inside the patrol car and shouted at him to tell his mother,» said Celeste Segovia, the father’s lawyer.

The mother recalls that Axel had been detained before by the same officers: «They took him to the woods near the airport, along with another boy. They took off his handcuffs and forced him to hit the other boy under threat. That’s the cruelty of these officers; for them, our children’s lives have no value.»

The request for the arrest of the three officers is based on the fact that, due to their role, they have access to documents and the ability to influence key evidence. Barrios has already admitted to having been involved in a procedure with «two individuals» that early morning, and a police chief acknowledged being aware. The prosecution demands they be arrested before they can hinder the investigation. Meanwhile, Axel’s family continues to wait for answers, convinced that the Chaco state has blood on its hands.

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