MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Punta Tombo penguin massacre trial begins

The prosecution seeks 4 years in jail for La Regina

The trial against Argentine Patagonian rancher Luis Alberto La Regina started this week in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia in the province of Chubut. He is prosecuted for the destruction of 175 nests, with an average of two eggs per nest, in addition to crushing chicks and adult animals in a natural sanctuary to open a rural road in what became known as the Punta Tombo Massacre. The defendant was denounced by his nephew back in 2021.

“He made a mess,” the finger-pointing relative told the court under oath. “On November 21, walking through the field, I saw the wire, the clearing, and the disaster he made,” he went on. “I was very shocked after so many years of taking care of it. I notified Tourism and they told me that they had nothing to do with it, because it was outside the Protected Area. Then I called Fauna and they told me that they were outside, doing a tour. I insisted for several days, but they did not come,” the witness, whose father had donated the land for the creation of a reserve, also pointed out.

La Regina had offered to donate 300 hectares to the reserve as part of a plea deal but the court rejected the proposal. He also insisted that his nephew had brought the case against him due to family differences. The accuser claims his only goal is to see to it that it does not happen again. “My interest is in the disaster that this man caused. Punta Tombo today is a brand in the world, we have to give a true dimension to what it means,” he also argued.

The witness also recalled that his father was the first fauna ranger at Punta Tombo and defined himself as “his assistant.” He also stressed that “the damage that was done was unnecessary.”

“In the first years when the reserve was donated, they proposed those 210 hectares plus a buffer area that covers the entire penguin colony that includes Punta Clara as well. It is not written, but common sense dictates that they could not do what they wanted to do in the buffer zone,” he also said.

Regarding the livestock activity in the farm neighboring the Magellanic penguin colony, he explained: “There have always been sheep. That field is not suitable for cows, because cows are clumsier, they step on penguin caves. The sheep are more distrustful and afraid of them.”

Magellanic penguin expert Pablo García Borboroglu testified Tuesday. He was the first to arrive and record images hours after the passing of the bulldozer over the nests. He showed the Court images of dead chicks and explained that he first ”saw the trajectory of the track (of a bulldozer) passing over the roof of the nest entrance, and the collapse of the structure,“ since ”the dragging threw loose soil and caused the death of the chicks, which were very fresh, they had no smell.“

Prosecutor María Florencia Gómez said in her opening argument that the defendant produced acts of ”animal cruelty“ and ”irreversible“ damage to the local fauna and flora when, with a backhoe, he ”cleared and moved“ the soil ”rolling over the eggs and chicks that were on the road.“ Gómez requested a four-year prison sentence for La Regina, but the plaintiff's legal team observed that all the crimes allegedly committed by La Regina carry up to 12 years in prison.

La Regina told TN that he had handled things the wrong way but he was helpless ”because the State was absent for more than 10 years“ during which he demanded the opening of roads and delimitations between the field he administers and the reserve.

The massacre occurred on a property adjacent to the Punta Tombo - Punta Clara reserve, on the Atlantic coast. This is a natural sanctuary where one of the largest Magellanic penguin colonies in the world nests and is considered a UNESCO ”reserve zone”.

Some 60 witnesses are expected to be heard before reaching a verdict. Joining Chubut's Public Prosecutor's Office were the Association of Environmental Lawyers and NGOs such as Greenpeace.