Original subtitles

FEBRUARY 17, 1994

FLORES NEIGHBORHOOD, BUENOS AIRES

That day, in the early hours of the morning,

around 3:30 or four, they received the call

about a fire at a family home.

There was a huge crowd.

All the neighbors were out in the street.

That's when we realized it was already

a full and violent fire.

Flames and tongues of fire

from the ground floor to the first floor

and a glow coming from the back of the house.

Someone told me a child had gotten out.

And how is that child?

He's hospitalized at Piñeiro Hospital.

He's fine, so there are no injuries.

RETIRED FIREFIGHTER

I can't talk to him because he was...

he seemed to be in shock, poor kid,

and I can't get in touch with him,

but they told me, I remember they told me

that his parents had left the house.

And then, when we managed to get inside,

we saw the garage on the left,

and we saw a car.

PHOTOGRAPH NO. 4 FAMILY CAR

That's when we suspected we were going to find

a pretty disturbing scene.

A NIGHT OF HORROR IN FLORES

And this is a tragic morning...

FLORES: FIVE BURNED TO DEATH

...for the only member of this family who survived.

THE ONLY SURVIVOR

It happened so fast. There was no time to do anything.

The incident took place on February 17, 1994.

It is remembered as the Flores Massacre.

MASSACRE IN FLORES THE ONLY SURVIVOR SPEAKS

I'm here, and I want justice to be served.

Once again, I'm afraid to go out on the street.

I've had police protection for a year and a half.

I was terrified of him.

I had to live with the worst word in the world for 30 years, which is fear.

THE FLORES MASSACRE

- Sound. Is it working? - Rolling.

Thank you for telling us this story,

and let's try to forget everything.

Everything that's there. Yes, yes.

DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER

- Let's talk like we always have. - Like we always have.

Exactly.

Why do you want to tell the story?

Why are we here?

SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE

I think I needed to do this, to tell this story,

from another perspective.

There were days, days when... I felt like I couldn't go on.

To this day, I have trouble sleeping.

To this day, I have trouble sleeping.

FEBRUARY 17, 1994, 7 A.M.

The firefighters are still working.

Almost an entire family met their death here

because they couldn't escape the flames.

What was the name of the couple who lived in this house,

who died? And the children's names?

- Bagnato. - Bagnato?

Bagnato. The woman's name was Alicia.

The husband's name was José.

The children?

Should I give their names? Sure...

Fernando, Alejandro and Matías.

One of the boys managed to survive,

the 16-year-old. How did it happen?

The Bagnato couple and two of their children,

along with a friend who had stayed over for the night.

What was the house like? Describe the house first.

The house was a two-story chalet.

Downstairs there was the dining room,

the kitchen, the garage, a small bathroom,

and in the back there was sort of a barbecue area,

a backyard and upstairs, we each had a room.

There was my room and Fernando's,

who was 14 years old.

They faced the front of the house.

There was a sort of hall in the middle,

with a bathroom and the staircase,

and on the other side was my little brother

Alejandro's room and my parents' room.

The two rooms, mine and Fernando's,

which were the two rooms facing the front on the upper floor,

were the only two rooms that didn't have bars on the windows.

The entire back part had bars everywhere.

We reached the first floor...

PHOTOGRAPH NO. 17 MASTER BEDROOM

...and that's when I found myself in a room

with two bodies of a married couple.

One on the floor and one on the bed,

completely burned to a crisp.

In the other room, while the firefighters

continued putting out small pockets of fire...

CHILDREN'S BEDROOM

...we found two burned bodies,

and then word came

that there was a third body, that of a boy.

The fire had spread with tremendous violence,

tremendous violence.

It's very unusual for a fire to develop that way.

There are accidental fires that don't go beyond a bedroom,

but with that much violence, there was surely

some liquid that accelerated the process.

Right away, when I saw how violent the fire was,

I realized it wasn't accidental.

It all started around three in the morning,

and this is what was left.

As a reporter...

REPORTER

...I was the first to arrive at the scene...

and I thought I had gone to cover a fire.

You're the cousin of the boys, who lived here in this house.

- What's your name? - Martín.

Martín. How did you find out

what happened here at this family's house?

They called my house at 4:30 in the morning.

Matías called, the one who survived,

asking if we could come here immediately.

- How old is Matías? - Sixteen.

I was only 21 years old, just a little older than Matías.

What did Matías tell you? How did this start, Martín?

I don't know. He's in the hospital now.

I don't know.

It's being said that the fire could have been intentional.

Were you able to determine that?

Well, once the investigations are completed,

we'll know for certain, whether the fire was intentional

or whether it was caused

by some electrical problem in the house.

I heard a noise, like a...

Well, I thought it was a door in my house that had moved.

And then I heard a car speeding away.

According to what they say,

a man came, got out of a car and threw a bomb.

I don't know what he threw.

Could anyone have had a motive, based on what you know,

to do something like this?

I don't know anything.

Who could have been the one who did...

I don't have the slightest idea.

Did the family have any enemies?

Not that I know of. Nothing out of the ordinary.

In fact, he was with me until nine last night.

And then it started this rumor.

"It looks like it was revenge.

It looks like it was a settling of scores."

REVENGE: A FAMILY BURNED ALIVE

A relative had threatened to kill them.

He threatened to kill the children, said he was going to kill all of them.

OUT OF REVENGE, HE SET HOUSE ON FIRE: 5 DEAD

- A relative threatened them? - A relative. Yes.

And why, ma'am?

Well... Family matters, I don't know.

Those are their affairs. You have to find out...

Neighbors and relatives

sometimes provide journalists with information

that usually doesn't reach the police station.

We're questioning everyone and taking their statements.

Officers with cameras

are beginning the initial investigation

to determine how this tragedy started.

There are many things that... that I think, in order to...

to keep myself together, I didn't do.

Most of the photos that survived the fire at my house

were from when we were very little.

And if you ask me,

what always happened was that I wanted more photos

- from more recent times. - From that time, of course.

PHOTOS

When we had to empty the house,

we kept what little had survived.

And there are many things I couldn't even pick up.

I don't even have them organized.

And there are so many things that you know even the smell...

The smell of a fire is very particular.

I think only people who have lived through a fire

will understand what I'm saying.

It's a very, very particular smell

that stays with you,

and you never forget it.

Look at everything that's here.

I didn't even remember all this was here.

- Oh, how nice. - Look, Miguel's things.

I'm gonna show this to my aunt. I once told her I had it,

that I'd found it,

and she thought it hadn't survived.

- Oh, really? - No.

And they were in their thirties when I started working for them.

I was 19, and I saw them as grown-ups.

NANNY FOR THE BAGNATO FAMILY

Berta was very young when she started working for us,

and we were very close, and...

We laughed a lot

because we were very close in age, you know?

She would often spend the night at our house.

Many times, and I'm not going to lie,

I felt like another daughter of theirs

because that's how they made you feel.

My dad was the kind of person everyone liked right away.

Exactly.

He was always... always in a good mood.

Do you want some?

Mom was very sweet,

one of those affectionate moms, you know?

Look how good the boy is. He's an angel. He behaves...

She was very close to me.

- We talked a lot. - Oh, really?

A lot, a lot.

Here, take it. Take it.

Look at Grandma Norma's hair.

- Oh, no. - Look.

Grandma was always very strong at home,

very important in all the decisions that were made.

I think that's also why,

as I told you, she always lived very close to us.

She was a woman who, not just because she was my grandmother,

was unique.

Unique in every way.

I think her life was a unique life.

Their personalities as siblings, how were they?

Were they already showing their personalities

- even though they were nine years old? - Fernando was-- Yes, yes.

Ale was very much like me, very much.

He was super fun.

He was always dancing.

He was very little.

He would climb onto the little step he had

and grab... like a broomstick and sing to me.

He'd say, "Here comes your favorite singer."

He was so little.

Look, Fer. This one, too... This has to be...

And Fernando...

When you looked at him, Fernando seemed like the kind of person

who could take on the whole world.

With Fer, it was

more of a friendship.

He talked to me a lot because he had a girlfriend.

He was very much in love with Cami.

This is a picture of us.

FERNANDO BAGNATO'S EX-GIRLFRIEND

So little.

I was 13, so at that age,

dating was really just a very close friendship, you know?

We were very close. We were together all the time.

Either I went to his house or he came to mine.

I have that year's diary, and everything says,

"Today I called Fer," "Today I talked to Fer."

Here, "I talked to her about Fer."

Apparently we'd had a fight.

Here, "I'm devastated because Fer is mad at me."

A whole tragic love story.

"I talked to Fer."

He was everywhere, but I wanted to get to that day,

because... That day, we had gone to the pool.

THE SADDEST DAYS FER: I LOVE YOU - I MISS YOU

This is the day, the 17th.

"I still can't believe it. As time goes by,

I miss you more.

The saddest days."

And... it was like... I read it now and I think...

I wrote that up until that day, and then I stopped writing.

I didn't write anything for the next three days.

Just a day earlier, I had been with you.

I had gone to the math teacher's house

with my sister the day before. It's like... It's crazy.

And the way it happened, you know?

Suddenly you realize that... that evil exists.

COURTHOUSE BUENOS AIRES

This doesn't depend only on witness statements.

There's a body of evidence.

RETIRED PROSECUTOR

The case came to us

like any other case that came before the court.

We immediately took it up in the prosecutor's office.

We realized we were dealing with a case that had very...

very particular characteristics. It was extremely serious

compared to everything we'd encountered up to that point.

He threw a gasoline can and set everything on fire.

A neighbor there, I don't know who, saw him.

Norberto Corda, a neighbor...

JOURNALIST AND CRIMINOLOGIST

...his wife wouldn't let him smoke inside the house.

Corda went out that night to walk along the empty street.

At one point, a car appeared, a black Renault Fuego,

moving at a very slow speed.

It caught Corda's attention.

That's what he stated in the court case.

According to his statement, he saw the dark Fuego coupe,

with markings on the sides,

passing by at very low speed

and then, a while later, it passed by again.

It stopped at the corner.

Someone got out and took what appeared to be a can

or a bucket from inside the vehicle.

Although he couldn't see who got out,

so he couldn't give a precise description,

what he heard was the sound of liquid pouring from a can.

Then the person got back into the car

and drove away at high speed.

I was guarding a Jewish facility, a school.

I was working from midnight to 6 a.m.

I would walk along Baldomero Fernández Moreno

so I wouldn't fall asleep.

But then around 3:30 in the morning,

I heard the screech of a car...

that makes that sound and turned on two wheels.

It was a Renault, a coupe, Fuego, black with red trim.

FORMER POLICE OFFICER - WITNESS

Of course, it wasn't a vehicle you saw everywhere,

and in this case, Olivera's description

matched what Corda had described.

The vehicle was there that night,

the night of the incident.

And I saw the license plate.

I memorized it, and I saw the driver.

He had graying hair,

and looked to be in his early forties.

So I thought, "Well, he must have stolen the car."

Then I crossed the street and noticed that something

seemed to be burning.

From a distance, it looked like garbage

because I was about 70 or 80 meters away.

As I got closer, I saw that it was the sidewalk

and the entire wall of a two-story house.

There was at least one point of origin on the ground floor,

in the interior living room, and two points outside.

This was at the entrance door and the garage door.

So far, the investigations carried out at the house

on Baldomero Fernández Moreno 1906

indicate that there were four main points

where the fire started.

The specialists are still working at the scene.

They haven't ruled out finding a fifth point of origin.

FLORES NEIGHBORHOOD BUENOS AIRES

What are you doing, Auntie?

When Mati comes over, I see him,

I open the door and watch him walk, and I say, "Oh, Mati.

You walk just like your dad.

Mati, you talk just like your dad."

Your body language, the way you speak,

and the way you convince people,

just like your dad. Exactly like him.

MATÍAS'S AUNT

Look. Look at this album.

Oh, yes.

- Did you see this? Look. - Oh, God! Oh, no, no...

Look.

No, no, no, no.

And there are lots of pictures with the boys, too.

- No... I can't believe it. - Look.

- They look so young. - See?

No, how beautiful, Mati.

Hmm. Dad...

I loved him so much.

We'd look at each other and already know

what was going on with the other.

I look at him and I can't believe it.

As a brother, he was unique, unique, exceptional.

Look.

He loved being around people.

He was always fooling around with his friends.

Turn off the lights.

Luckily, things started going well for him.

So he bought a country house.

And that place was always full of people, always.

It was a very beautiful, very large country house.

We'd have barbecues there.

MATÍAS'S AUNT

Both my husband and José, well, they worked.

And Alicia and I tried to light the fire, at least,

so that when they arrived... but we had a hard time.

Those were very...

Those were different times. They were very nice days.

No, José... he was a...

MATÍAS'S UNCLE

...the most honest, upright person you could ever meet.

We got along wonderfully.

No, no... Talking about him makes me feel awful

because I miss him so much.

And look what I found, too.

- Beautiful, Mati. - Look at this one.

- Oh, show me! - Look at this.

OUR WEDDING ALICIA AND JOSÉ MAY 17, 1975

- This is from their wedding. - Oh, from their wedding.

Oh. Let's see, Mati.

See?

Alicia went to the same school as I did.

And back then, people used to have parties at their homes.

That's where she met my brother,

at a party on the terrace of my house.

From the day they met, they never separated again.

Your mom looked beautiful.

They dated for many years.

So when they decided to get married,

they knew each other very well.

This palm... Remember when you used to touch it like this?

- Beautiful. - This video... See?

Beautiful. Beautiful.

What happened

on February 17, 1994, in the Flores neighborhood,

at your house, Matías?

Well, we had dinner, watched the game, and...

And that's it. It was a normal day.

San Lorenzo was playing.

We were all huge San Lorenzo fans at home.

San Lorenzo was playing Independiente that night.

I remember.

We watched the game.

Everything was normal. We had dinner.

We went to bed. I put the little ones to bed.

Wait!

Fer didn't want to sleep in his room.

He was 14. He didn't want to sleep in his room.

He was afraid to sleep alone at night.

But I wanted to sleep alone. So, we had a huge fight over it.

The guilt I felt afterward...

Because a thousand times afterward I said,

"If he'd been sleeping with me,

I would've saved him that night."

I walked past Mom and Dad's room,

said goodnight, went to bed, closed my bedroom door

because I was gonna listen to music.

Something I'd never done before, Juan.

I never closed my bedroom door.

That night I closed it because I wanted to listen to music.

And I closed the door, started listening to music,

and fell asleep.

Around 3:30, the first thing I remember was the heat.

It was incredible heat.

And the feeling...

You know when you try to breathe and you can't...

I was struggling to breathe,

but I felt like I couldn't get any air.

I didn't understand what was happening.

I remember reaching for the window.

When I leaned out to breathe,

I saw a neighbor,

Norberto Corda, and he was shouting,

"Matías, get out! Get out!" he yelled at me.

"Get out! Get out! They set the house on fire!"

I didn't get out 'cause I wanted to look for my brothers.

I covered my mouth with a shirt, went to the door, opened it,

and a burst of fire shot into the room.

A tongue of fire caught my closet, the ceiling,

the carpet, and set my hair on fire.

It knocked me to the floor.

I remember the noise very clearly.

The noise was... it was terrible, you know?

Like... like glass shattering.

I remember at one point there was this terrible noise,

like a building collapsing.

And that's when I started screaming at them the whole time

that I couldn't get out, that they shouldn't come...

I mean, I tried to get inside. It was impossible.

It was like... It was like the fire,

you know, was... it was pushing me back.

I don't know how to describe it. It was...

This is something I haven't talked about much.

At one point I heard, I don't know if it was...

I never knew if it was near or far.

Fer...

He...

He was saying, "I'm burning."

"I'm burning, I'm burning," he said.

And my mom, who...

who was saying, "Not the kids, not the kids,"

she was screaming.

There was fire on the sidewalk, I saw it on the wall,

and I saw flames starting

to come out of both upstairs windows.

And suddenly, the flames changed color.

They did something like... Like, I don't know.

It looked like the whole thing was about to explode.

I started hearing a voice calling for help.

That's when I saw a teenager at the first window.

The boy was at the window of the house, calling for help,

asking us to call the firefighters.

"Call them..." We had already called them.

I saw that the door of the house next door was open,

so I went up to the roof with a neighbor.

I yelled at the teenager,

"Step here, step here." And he was afraid.

He told me, "Don't jump because the sidewalk is on fire."

I remember the street was even on fire.

From the window, he crossed over...

He got onto the house next door, which had a ledge.

I reached for him,

grabbed his arm and pulled him toward me.

And the neighbor

who was following me grabbed his other hand.

Thank God he followed me,

because I don't know if I could have done it alone.

And between the two of us, we pulled him up onto the roof.

I remember everything right up to that moment,

just as I'm telling you. Then I stood there...

and I remember

the burning sensation on my back from the fire on my back.

Fire was already coming out of my bedroom.

I remember closing my eyes.

And I thought it was... That's it.

It happened so fast.

I did everything as fast as I could,

and I couldn't go back for them. Nothing.

There was no time to do anything.

This whole thing of trying to put into words, Juan,

the sensations

of seeing your house burning with them inside...

It's so, so difficult to convey because there are no words

to explain what it was like. Uh, it was horribl--

I don't know how to describe it to you.

The carbon monoxide, all of that.

I was starting to suffocate.

After that, I have images of being inside a police car,

then an ambulance.

When I got into the ambulance, Matías told me,

"You were very good to me."

"You have to kill him."

I said, "Who? Who do I have to kill?"

The first thing Matías said when they rescued him,

already at that moment, and obviously in shock,

besides saying, "My family is inside,"

was, "It was Cacho."

I think it was around 20 to 4:00.

I answered the phone, and it was Matías.

And he said, "Auntie, Cacho set our house on fire."

That's what they called him. That was the nickname

the family used for Fructuoso.

Your father had a shoe factory.

A shoe factory. My dad started in the footwear business.

He started distributing shoes

until he began manufacturing them.

My brother was doing very well with the shoes.

He was doing very well financially,

until imported shoes from Brazil arrived.

They were incredibly cheap.

Of course, my brother's sales started dropping quite a bit.

Until eventually he was buried in debt.

We really didn't know about all the debts he had.

At 473 Pedro de Jerez,

in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Ortúzar,

the Bagnato family's shoe factory

operated until last December.

And honestly, at 16,

all I knew was that my dad had a shoe factory.

But what could I have known

about my father's business at 16?

At home, for us, it was...

No, no... nothing had changed. I mean...

For us, it was the same life as always.

There were times, like at night when we had dinner,

when Mom and Dad would argue. It was like my dad thought

everything was fine, while my mom was more realistic.

About those things. But nothing was different.

I met Fructuoso at the boys' first birthday

because he was part of the family.

I really never, ever liked him.

Fructuoso Álvarez González, who was the husband

of one of my mom's cousins.

At a family gathering, my dad said

that he had decided to close the factory.

He was going to start distributing shoes again

instead of manufacturing them.

And that's when Fructuoso said,

"No, you're crazy, José," to my dad.

"How are you going to close the factory?

That's ridiculous.

I'll come over Monday and we'll talk."

He was a man who had a lot of money.

He owned a car dealership.

He had a place where girls worked.

We all knew what kind of state he showed up in.

He seemed like a nice person. Then things started to change.

I remember at Alejandro's birthday,

the men had sat down to play cards,

and he was yelling, "Bring me whiskey!

Bring me whiskey! Bring me whiskey!"

He was already completely out of control.

Fructuoso had a very particular personality.

You know those guys who think money can solve everything?

They say there's no worse rich man than someone who used to be poor.

So his behavior was arrogant, conceited.

And Fructuoso said he was going to turn the factory around.

"No, no, don't get involved with him," I said.

My brother replied,

"You always exaggerate. Why do you talk like that?"

This man approached him

and offered him money to launder his...

where he got it from

and... he never should have accepted that money.

Under no circumstances should he have accepted it.

Dad came home from work that night. He came in,

and Mom was coming down the stairs.

He hugged Mom and said,

"Ali, Cacho was sent to me by God."

I remember how he hugged her, as if it were today.

"God sent him."

I told him, "No. God didn't send him. The Devil did."

My brother told him,

"You should know I'm broke. I don't have any money."

He said, "It doesn't matter." He got involved anyway.

When he realized the factory wasn't profitable,

that he couldn't turn it around,

that's when he started asking him for the money.

But he wasn't asking for that amount.

He wanted twice as much.

One day, I remember coming home from school

and my dad was at home.

I didn't understand anything.

Mom told me, "Look, Mati, there was...

Dad and... and Cacho, Fructuoso, they had a fight.

We'll talk about it later. I'll tell you later," she said.

And that's when this whole strange situation

started at home, right?

Yes. Fructuoso wanted,

of course, to take advantage of the whole situation

and take everything for himself.

Norma was very sharp. She immediately realized

what was happening with my brother.

So Norma sold the apartment, gave the money to my brother,

and went to live in the house with them.

But even that wasn't enough.

I know José had offered him the distribution business

he had in Chacarita, but it wasn't enough for him.

He wanted to take the house they lived in, too.

I advised my brother,

"File for bankruptcy. Give him the house

and whatever else he wants, but get him out of your life."

Until one day I went there, and the man we're talking about

was sitting at his desk like Don Corleone,

with two guns beside him.

I looked at that and said to my brother,

"Come on, can you come outside?"

I told him, "I'm never coming back here.

I don't like this at all. Not at all, not at all."

OCTOBER 1993 4 MONTHS BEFORE THE FIRE

In October of '93,

because Grandma was such an important figure,

I'm sure Fructuoso knew

that Grandma was always behind everything

financially and in decisions, in so many things,

he called Grandma directly.

My grandmother went there without telling my parents

she was going to his house.

And she found Fructuoso there with his lawyer.

He took out a power of attorney

and said, "All right, now you have to sign here,

and with this, all the problems I'm having

with your daughter and son-in-law will be over."

I, NORMA CALZARETTA, HEREBY AGREE TO PAY FRUCTUOSO ÁLVAREZ GONZÁLEZ

THE SUM OF 300 000 U.S. DOLLARS SIGNATURE

When he told her the amount she had to pay him,

Norma said, "I can't pay you that amount.

That's not what you're owed."

And then, well, my grandmother always said

that he had turned into a monster.

Fructuoso started attacking her, pouring whiskey on her,

throwing cocaine at her.

He started hitting her, slapping her.

His lawyer, standing beside him,

started telling him, "Don't hit her too hard.

Don't leave any marks."

He started forcing cocaine into her nose,

saying, "You fucking old woman, sign it or you die here."

That wasn't enough for him. He pulled down his pants

and started rubbing his penis across her face.

At that moment,

Diana came downstairs. She was his wife.

So she told him, "Leave my aunt alone."

The only good thing Diana did was call Alicia.

My parents arrived, and then my mother obviously said,

"I'm going to report him. I want him in prison."

One afternoon...

MATÍAS'S LAWYER

...a client called me and told me she had a friend

who was having a very serious problem with a relative.

What I did was tell Alicia,

"Every time he threatens you, file the appropriate report,

because when you're dead, it will be useful to me."

I'm telling you, I remember it and it gives me chills.

And from that report on, the nightmare began.

The threats at home started.

That was the turning point with Fructuoso.

Because they didn't pay him

when he wanted and expected them to...

he started calling them every night.

He would change his voice and say...

"You're all dead. You burned to death."

He would call during the day and use this terrifying voice.

Poor Ale, when he answered, I remember him saying,

"Mati, it's the monster."

Then the phone would ring

at 2:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning.

Until eventually my dad would disconnect it at night.

They took all the phones out of the house.

He left me a Movicom.

MOVICOM PHONE - BAGNATO

My aunt wanted to leave that house.

Alicia was afraid. My aunt was afraid.

We advised José even to move somewhere else

where he wouldn't know where they lived.

Every time he threatened them, we'd go...

I went a thousand times with my mom and dad

to file reports at Precinct 38.

Nobody paid attention to death threats.

They didn't process them.

And the phrase was always the same...

"Don't worry. A barking dog doesn't bite."

"Usually, when people say these things,

they don't do them."

But what happened? He would start making threats.

Then he'd go and apologize to my brother, crying,

lying on the floor.

It was always about minimizing everything.

And, you know, it wasn't just the police.

It happened at home, too.

I never imagined anything like this.

Never.

And I don't think my parents did either.

That's the reality, isn't it?

FEBRUARY 17, 1994

I know I was in the... In a hospital.

That's another image that comes to my mind a lot.

At one point I went to the bathroom,

and that's when I saw that I had no hair here, no eyebrows.

I remember my lips were completely black.

His hair was all singed like this.

He was on oxygen.

And I kept asking him,

"Mati, where's Dad? Where's Mom?

Where's Fernandito? Where's Alejandro?"

And Matías would shake his head no.

I remember telling myself,

"You're going to wake up soon. You're going to wake up soon."

You know? It was... For me, it was impossible.

4TH FLOOR DERMATOLOGY (SKIN) GASTROENTEROLOGY ROOM 40

I know from my friends, my uncles,

that I was completely out of it.

I remember that...

that someone from the family had to go identify the bodies.

So, my cousin and my husband decided to go

identify the bodies.

The thing is, when my husband came back,

I had to call my neighbor because my husband

kept pacing back and forth.

He was having a breakdown,

and there was no way to stop him.

When we finally calmed him down,

I asked him, "What happened?"

"Never," he told me.

"Never in my life will I tell you what I saw. Never."

Telling Norma was terrible. Norma was in Mar del Plata.

She'd gone there with a friend the day before.

So, they took a plane with her friend

and came to Buenos Aires.

She came directly to our house. She didn't go to...

to see the house or... or to the police station.

She stayed at home.

I remember... Not the moment Grandma came in.

What I remember is, her squeezing my arm.

I remember she shook me like this and said,

"Matías, I know you're listening to me.

Listen to me, I've lost as much as you have, or more.

And I promise you, and I swear on Mom, Dad and the boys,

that I'll give you back everything

life allows me to give you back.

But I'm going to help a strong grandson.

I'm not going to help a grandson sitting there crying in bed.

So, if you want your grandmother by your side,

get up and come have some mate with me in the kitchen."

Norma was a woman of extraordinary character,

very strong.

Imagine that it was her only daughter, you know?

Her grandchildren. There was only one left.

You have to be incredibly strong to endure that.

And Norma... Norma was an exceptional woman.

And then those days passed...

The first thing I remember are images of Aunt Susana's house.

Was that... was that where you went?

My aunt Susana's house.

I know we stayed there, as if no one knew where we were.

Because he was on the run...

INTENSE SEARCH FOR THE KILLER

CLUES: ANONYMOUS THREATS, MORTGAGE DEBTS

AND A FAMILY MEMBER UNDER INVESTIGATION

Fructuoso Álvarez González was after Matías and Norma.

We had to keep them safe.

THE ONLY SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE

PLACED UNDER PROTECTIVE CUSTODY

For safety, no one knew we were at my Aunt Susana's.

First of all, Matías couldn't appear anywhere.

They were hiding, lying low, like rats.

You know what I imagined?

That he was going to pour fuel under the door.

Even though there was a police officer stationed outside the house.

Until, thank God, he was arrested.

They were looking for him, and four days later they arrested him.

FEBRUARY 21, 1994

We went out looking, knowing that the father of...

of this man, Fructuoso Álvarez González,

owned a restaurant.

And as soon as we walked in, we saw, at one of the tables...

RETIRED POLICE OFFICER

...the only person sitting there.

We radioed his information to Central Investigations,

and they confirmed that

he could be the person we were looking for.

We spoke to him. He was mumbling,

and we realized he was in some kind of drugged state.

He was disheveled, with an overgrown beard.

He looked somewhat neglected.

He showed no tears, so to speak. He didn't cry.

There was no sign of any emotion.

Fructuoso Álvarez González, alias Cacho,

was reportedly in custody...

Fructuoso Álvarez González,

the only person arrested for the Flores massacre,

was transferred from the police station to the courthouse.

Here he is. Here we see him...

He's under arrest, and he's...

Fructuoso Álvarez González has 17 criminal cases against him.

He was reportedly the owner of more than one massage parlor.

When I found out Fructuoso had been arrested, I felt relieved.

But when I saw him...

There he comes again, the detainee, the only suspect.

...when I first saw the image, I felt terror. He was vermin.

You could see the evil in him. It was obvious.

He was absolutely convinced

that nothing was going to happen to him.

And once he was acquitted,

he was going to go after Matías and Norma.

THE TESTIMONIES PRESENTED IN THIS AUDIOVISUAL WORK

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EXPRESSED VOLUNTARILY AND UNDER THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY

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THESE STATEMENTS DO NOT REPRESENT THE THOUGHTS, OPINIONS,

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