Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
La Rioja (Agenzia Fides) - "We have waited 38 years to see the truth triumph over impunity and finally the day has come where justice has condemned the killers of a man who was fighting for the hope and dignity of thousands of people": This is how Martin Fresneda, secretary of the organization promoted by the Argentine government "Derechos Humanos de la Nación" expressed himself, after reading the verdict that sentenced to life imprisonment two senior officers for the murder of His Exc. Mgr. Enrique A. Angelelli Carletti, Bishop of the diocese of La Rioja (Argentina), on August 4 1976. Mgr. Angelelli was one of the most famous Bishops in the country, against dictatorship, and died in a car accident shortly after the onset of the military dictatorship.
The judgment of the court of La Roja sentenced former army general Luciano Benjamin Menendez, 86, and Luis Fernando Estrella, 82, in the presence of many supporters of human rights organizations and the Lieutenant Governor of Buenos Aires, Gabriel Mariotto. According to the note sent to Fides Agency there was also the successor of Bishop Angelelli, the current Bishop of La Rioja, His Exc. Mgr. Marcelo Colombo, who the night before had celebrated a Mass and led a march from the Bishopric to the court.
For decades authorities argued that the Bishop's death was accidental. The case was reopened in 2010, when a former priest who was in the car with Angelelli, Arturo Pinto, testified that the vehicle was intentionally pushed off the road. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 08/07/2014)
