“These are very emotional days,” he tells TimeAlberto Lebbos via phone. He comments that both the statement of Virginia Mercado, his daughter Paulina’s former friend who admitted having falsified her testimony during the cover-up trial in 2018, and the upcoming start of the trial against César Soto, have him mobilized.
The strength of Alberto Lebbos is incalculable. His life changed completely that February 26, 2006. Not only did he lose his daughter but he also had to undertake a titanic fight against political power to obtain justice. He still hasn’t made it. But their fight did have other results: the creation of Law 27,372 on the Rights and Guarantees of Victims of Crimes, which has not yet been implemented, the Witness Protection Law and also the creation of the Homicide Division in the province, in addition to the organization of victims of impunity.
The last time he spoke with Paulina was on Saturday, February 25 at 11:45 p.m. They were happy because I had passed a subject. Together with her then friend from Aguaribay, Virgina Mercado, the Salta woman’s cousin and sister were going out to celebrate. On Sunday, when Paulina did not arrive or communicate, he knew something had happened. It was not common for him not to return, so that same night he filed a complaint.
The next day, she took Mercado to testify at the police station and there she told the known story: that they left an Abasto bar in Tucumán, got into a burgundy Fiat Duna SUV, she got out and Paulina continued. Lebbos recalls that of the 80 bodies of the case, made up of 400 files, page 1 is his complaint and page 2 is Mercado’s statement. The complaint for false testimony was filed by Lebbos himself when, in the 2018 trial, the woman had some contradictions during her statement. There was even a confrontation with his own sister. Lebbos did not think that he would go to an abbreviated trial, much less that justice would approve that modality in a case of this magnitude. “Here in Tucumán they generalize it because the only thing they are interested in is not getting to the truth, but statistics,” says Lebbos.
How did you take Mercado’s statement about his false testimony?
–When Judge Patricio Prado called me in December to attend the abbreviated trial hearing for false testimony, I was surprised. Since December 29, I hardly slept waiting for February 2 because I had the illusion that she would tell the truth. He didn’t do it. He only said three words, that he did recognize the false testimony and that he had nothing to add. You have no idea the way Paulina protected Virginia, sheltered her. Here, she was helped in any way and this woman betrayed in the most brutal way.
–There were trials for cover-up but never for the person responsible for the crime, why?
–Three trials have been held, one against the Raco police officers who have been convicted and are now all free. Another against the police chiefs and the Secretary of Security. The police chiefs are now free. Because the maximum sentence for aggravated concealment is only six years. And a third trial was held against prosecutor Carlos Albahaca, who spent seven years facing the case. Now he is detained but at home. Everyone, those who are free and those who are detained, remain silent. They continue to commit the crime of cover-up because they have not told the truth. They are in continuous crime. And that is an invitation to impunity. Look what happened now
-From the moment Paulina disappeared to now, did anything change in Tucumán?
-No not at all. I refer to the evidence. At the beginning of the year, there were five homicides in one week. Today even Tafí del Valle, which was a peaceful, quiet tourist area, has now practically been transformed into a battlefield and all as a result of impunity. The crime rates are terrible and the most terrible thing is that the governor of Tucumán happily comes out to say that there is no impunity and then goes out to say “we are not going to allow another Lebbos case to occur. So what are we left with? Is there impunity or is there no impunity? Or the legislator Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse comes out very concerned to present a bill to censor social media. How can you not take care of seeing why there are 26 paralyzed criminal cases that are not complied with and reach a final sentence in 2019? How much budget does the Crime Victim Assistance Law have? How much budget does the Witness Protection Law have? Is the Crime Victims Law and the Witness Protection Law disseminated? Is it known? Do you know how it is applied so that all the people of Tucumán know of their rights? No. He is more concerned about legislating so that you cannot say anything. Then the situation continues to get worse. The condemnation of impunity is that serious crimes continue and continue.
-At that time there were a series of measures that were taken by the province, what did they contribute to the case?
-Not at all. For example, the 4AM Law was an aberration like everything Alperovich has done. These little dictators, because deep down they have the soul of prohibitors, introduce these measures that go against what should be. With that law (4AM) arose the after parties, the prohibited parties, the absolute lack of control that continues to this day. Look what happened with the case of Erika Alvarez (a woman murdered in January in Tucumán), at parties where there is free sale of ecstasy, of all types of drugs. Isn’t that known? And where is the Police Intelligence department? So there is a high degree of hypocrisy. I hope 10% of what is spent on propaganda is spent on all these issues.
–What did Alperovich’s conviction in 2024 generate for you?
-When I saw that complaint, I thought about the note I sent to the senators when Michetti was president of the Senate. He asked that a commission be formed to investigate Alperovich’s moral conduct. I don’t even know if they have read it. The case of the niece had not yet occurred because my request was after the sentence of February 25, 2019. There it is requested that José Alperovich be investigated for the crimes of cover-up. There is a file, 36,469 for concealment, false testimony, abuse of authority that never progressed. So, I made that claim before the Senate but they did absolutely nothing. That’s why when I saw the complaint I thought that perhaps that situation with the niece could have been avoided. Then the consequences of those actions lead to these serious crimes being caused. If Alperovich was tried in Tucumán, he was not convicted.
Lebbos says that the same situation occurred in the provincial Legislature. «I have presented notes in the Legislature so that article 67 of the Constitution of the Province is applied, where it says that they have to guarantee the human rights of Tucumán citizens. I presented it when Jaldo was president of that organization, denouncing the paralysis and the lack of compliance with the sentence that is mandatory. They never answered anything. Now I presented it to Miguel Acevedo, the current president of the Legislature and he did not answer either. “They are diligent students of Machiavelli.”
-On the one hand, political impunity, and on the other, Tucumán society. How with Paulina’s case?
-Tucuman society has a great sense of solidarity. A solidarity mobilization of such magnitude was not seen in Tucumán as when Paulina disappeared. We held 1,500 marches in Plaza Independencia and I was never alone. When we started the marches, many cases of victims of impunity appeared, most of them from very vulnerable families. But we must not forget that Tucumán society is a society crossed by fear. Fear is a great tool of power. So, people become paralyzed emotionally, psychologically, physically. Millions of attacks of all kinds have been made on me.
The cause remains visible thanks to many social actors and many people who on the street tell you “strength Lebbos, don’t let up.” The family that accompanies you. Because These fights are terrible. And they are very unfair, very unequal and very uneven. Therefore, people accept this tool of the abbreviated trial because they say “I’m going to spend ten years in a trial.” Many also do not have resources. So they accept anything. But “some justice” is not justice. Either justice or injustice. An alms of justice. Here, with honorable exceptions, the entire political system in general and the judicial system is as if anesthetized. They do not feel what happens in a family that is a victim of injustice.
–What expectations do you have for the trial against Soto?
–The greatest expectation. With the premise that all witnesses tell the truth. That same Sunday the 26th, Virginia Mercado told me an episode in which Paulina came to her apartment crying and told her that Soto had wanted to hang her. That’s why, on Monday the 27th, I took Soto to the investigation team and told them, “this is the main suspect.” They kept him for an hour and released him. Of course, he did not know about the meeting that Sunday in Raco between the former Police Chief, Sánchez, and Di Lella, former Secretary of Security, to plot the cover-up. There was a link marked by drug trafficking between Soto and Sergio Kaleñuk who had more than 200 in the early hours of the 26th.
-Have you ever been able to speak with Soto?
-You can’t talk to Soto. When the convicted former prosecutor Albaca takes charge of the case, the first thing he does is remove me as the plaintiff and puts him in Soto. They make him recognize Paulina’s daughter, who had not recognized her until then to do the performance. Soto has two lawsuits because he came to my house drugged or drunk to cause trouble. Paulina met Soto at Commerce school when they were classmates. When she became pregnant with him, she had the full support of the entire family, but he was not in charge of raising her.
And Paulina was an ambulance girl. Instead of thinking about herself, she was always thinking about others. I was always rescuing people and I wanted to rescue this guy who was getting worse and worse. He got into Atlético’s brave beard, he had to be looking for him. But she was already in another stage of separation. Because she was doing very well, she has always been a good student, she was already in her third year of studying in the second class of the Communication degree.
And the guy was undoubtedly violent, with a bad record. After Paulina, former legislator Eduardo “Pinky” Rojas hires him in the Legislature, and there are lawyers who assist him when he assumes the role of plaintiff and who were lawyers for the Alperovich government. And he was linked to Sergio Kaleñuk, son of Alperovich’s private secretary. An official of the governor’s most intimate confidence. So The expectation is that there is truth. Every time an oral trial was held, new contacts arose that led to clarifying part of the truth.
–How do you remember those days?
–They are memories of a day of joy, a Saturday, February 25, when we were all happy. And suddenly, as they told me in Salta, an atomic bomb falls on the house and nothing will be the same again. One has to keep fighting, but what happens is terrible and you are left with infinite sadness, of such an unfair loss. Paulina dreamed of being a journalist. What harm did he do for his life to be diverted in this brutal, cruel, horrible way. And these guys walk calmly through the streets: cover-ups, false witnesses and, of course, the murderers. «
