Flores massacre: Convict, who vowed to kill lone survivor if released from prison, was placed on ‘pre-release’ program

Fruitful Alvarez Gonzalez (62), the author of the so-called “Massacre of Flores”, where four members of the same family and a friend died after the intentional burning of a house, fhas been included in a “pre-launch” program although he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The decision was made by National Criminal Enforcement 1 judge María Jimena Monsalve when granting a request made by the defense because He has already served more than two decades behind bars.

In this context, the magistrate asked the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF) to prepare a series of socio-environmental reports assess whether the inmate is fit for release.

“It is specified that the social report must include the corresponding up-to-date police verification of the address and the certificate of compliance of the proposed referent. Likewise, in order to support the convict in his progressiveness within the prison regime, as well as in his (possible) return to the free environment, it is appropriate to require his integration into the pre-release program, having to submit all the relevant reports “, he said Judge Monsalve in a letter in which she informed the parties of the start of the probation process of Álvarez González, as indicated telam.

For the fivefold homicide, Fructuoso Álvarez González was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1995 by Oral Criminal Court (TOC) 12, although nine years later, he managed to be extradited to Spain to finish serving his sentence theresince he had the nationality of that country.

Several years later, He was released in the Iberian country, but was eventually recaptured in Argentina in 2011 after threatening to kill Matías Bagnato, sole survivor of that tragic night, and his grandmother; and he is currently still imprisoned in the Federal Penitentiary Complex 1 of the city of Ezeiza in Buenos Aires.

“When he was free, the first thing he did was look for me and my grandmother. He threatened me for a year. The guy was in Spain, free, with money. However, he returned to Argentina, located me and started threatening me with death,” Bagnato told reporters at the time.

Today, the nightmare and the terror are repeated for Bagnato: “I was very upset when I learned. Justice gives him the opportunity to ask for his freedom every 6 months and he has been doing it for 11 years. So far the orders have turned in my favor, but going through this instance every year is destructive,” the victim said. telam.

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Unlike previous years in which the murderer had asked for his release, this time the judge of the execution is the aforementioned Monsalve, who replaced his peer José Pérez Arias, who had refused the release of the author of the “Massacre of Flores” several times.

In this regard, Bagnato pointed out: “I don’t know her. I’ll wait until the criminal and interdisciplinary studies are finished. After that, I will ask her for an audience to speak with her”.

In turn, the survivor explained his fear that Álvarez González will not regain his freedom since “Previous reports say he has psychopathic traits” and that he “is not sorry for what he did.”

“If he saw that the relationship was going well, at least he would be calmer. But reading the reports I’ve read, I can’t be. He said he was mad at me. After going through what I’ve been through, I believe he’s capable of anything,” said Matías, who anticipated: “If he gets out, I’ll have to be kept in custody 24 hours a day and that’s a boy. I feel that I will be imprisoned and he is free”.

Bagnato expressed his disagreement with the judiciary, allowing the convict to apply for parole every six months. “It annoys me that this is allowed. I don’t understand how a psychopath can change his situation in 6 months. It hasn’t changed for 29 years and it will change now?… I feel like It never ends. Killing one person and killing ten are the same thing here. No common sense matches what any citizen of our country thinks. It’s crazy,” he exclaimed.

For her part, lawyer Patricia Croitoru indicated that his defendant “has passed the term” which indicates his sentence and he again asked for sentencing; measure which was rejected last June by the criminal cassation chamber.

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The lawyer assured that this was not possible due to the “media coverage” of the case and warned that it is very likely that international courts will have to be seized. “I have been involved in cases in which a life sentence with recidivism had a fixed sentence. In a case like this, with a less severe penalty, the same thing should happen”, justified Croitoru.

The “Flores massacre” occurred on February 17, 1994, when a fire broke out in a house on Baldomero Fernández Moreno and Pumacahua streets, in the Flores neighborhood, killing José Bagnato (42); his wife Alicia Plaza (40); his sons Fernando (14) and Alejandro (9) and Nicolás Borda (11), a friend of the youngest of them who had stayed the night.

Investigators determined that the fire was intentionally started by Álvarez González, a former partner of José Bagnato, who threw two drums of fuel and started the fire.

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