ARGENTINA: Tycoon Suspected in Cabezas Murder Commits Suicide

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 20 1998 (IPS) - Argentine business tycoon Alfredo Yabran, suspected of ordering the murder of photo-journalist Jose Luis Cabezas last year, apparently committed suicide Wednesday when police, who had been looking for him since Friday, found him on one of his estates.

An arrest warrant was issued for Yabran last Friday after the ex-wife of a police officer in custody testified that the magnate had ordered her ex-husband to kill Cabezas in January 1997.

The secretary of information of the province of Entre Rios, Martin Fabre, confirmed that “a lifeless body whose characteristics respond 100 percent” to those of Yabran was found on a country estate during a police search.

On Wednesday, when analysts and opposition leaders expressed their scepticism that Yabran would be found due to his high-level political connections, police located him on an estate in the province of Entre Rios, some 400 kms north of Buenos Aires.

The press reported that an employee of the estate told authorities that no one was home, but the police insisted on entering. They then heard a woman’s voice shouting “No, Alfredo!” and a shot.

The body found had been shot in the mouth with a large-bore shotgun.

Yabran was catapulted to fame in 1995 when then-economy minister Domingo Cavallo accused him of heading a mafia that controlled airport launching ramps and duty-free shops, as well as the postal service. He was also involved in the business of printing passports, voting lists, documents and permits to bear arms, and his latest endeavour was the construction of hotels.

According to the press, the magnate was worth around 600 million dollars. In one of the few interviews he gave, to the Buenos Aires daily ‘Clarin’, he defined power as synonymous with impunity.

Cavallo accused Yabran of using “mafioso” methods, ordering beatings and arson in the homes of officials who refused to yield to his requests. In exchange, he enjoyed strong support at high levels of government.

The former economy minister said President Carlos Menem’s request that he resign was related to his criticism of Yabran, who he alleged was protected by the president and several of his closest cronies.

In spite of the high-profile coverage by the press, the tycoon remained out of the public eye – until the weekly ‘Noticias’ published a front-page photo of him and his wife in the resort city of Pinamar.

Several months later the charred body of Cabezas, the photographer who took the photo, was found in his burnt-out car on the outskirts of Pinamar, with two bullet-holes and his hands tied behind his back.

From the start, suspicions centred on Yabran. Cabezas’ murder shook national and international public opinion, thanks to a press campaign and demands for justice by the photographer’s family.

Executives of ‘Noticias’ testified in court that before the photo was published, they were warned by Yabran that taking his photo was the same as shooting him – an allusion to his loss of anonymity.

Last year, the judge presiding over the case, Jose Luis Macchi, arrested former police officer Gustavo Prellezo, who allegedly kidnapped the reporter and drove him to the pit where his body was found. Yabran’s chief of security, Gregorio Rios, suspected due to his ties with Prellezo, was also arrested.

Yabran testified twice in connection with the case, claiming innocence. In September he complained that the legal harassment was hurting his business, and was granted an interview with Menem’s cabinet chief, Jorge Rodriguez.

The meeting took place in government headquarters, which sparked an outcry and led to protests by reporters and the general public. As Yabran drove away from the building, demonstrators smashed the rear window of his car.

A few months earlier, then-justice minister Elias Jassan had been forced to resign due to his ties with Yabran. Although Jassan initially denied that he knew the tycoon, the investigation into Cabezas’ murder revealed that the minister had received a number of phone calls from him after the reporter’s death.

The break in the case finally came last Friday, when Prellezo’s ex-wife asked to testify, and confessed that her ex-husband had told her he killed Cabezas on orders from Yabran, his boss for the previous two years.

Silvia Belawsky said her ex-husband told her that Yabran was “very annoyed” by the photograph Cabezas took and the resultant constant hounding by the press.