MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Murderer of English tourist in Buenos Aires gets life imprisonment

Each member of the gang had a specific role

A Buenos Aires court Tuesday sentenced the murderer of Matthew Charles Gibbard, an English tourist, to life imprisonment, while the assailant's accomplices were handed down suspended or effective sentences of between two and four years in jail.

The Venezuelan national Ángel Eduardo “Cachete” Lozano Azuaje was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of English tourist Matthew Gibbard in December 2019 at the door of the Faena Hotel in the exclusive Puerto Madero area.

The gang followed tourists from the Ezeiza International Airport to then rob them.

Cachete was also convicted of attempted murder against Gibbard's stepson Stephan Zone and of attempted “robbery doubly aggravated by the use of a firearm within a crowd and as a part of a gang.”

Six of the nine other defendants received effective prison sentences while the other three, although convicted, were given suspended sentences, as per the ruling signed by Judges Silvia Guzzardi, Pablo Vega, and Juan Giúdice Bravo.

Those to serve effective imprisonment are Aly José Ramos Ladera (4 years), Carlos José López Sánchez (4 years), Luis Lozano León (4 years), Miguel Ángel Aguirre Cancine (4 years), Samuel Francisco Zerpa Menezes (4 years) -these five for “illicit association” and “double aggravated robbery”-, and Rubén Darío Cañete Lobo (3 years and 6 months), for “double aggravated robbery”

Those receiving suspended sentences were Elvis Javier Escalante Blanco (2 years and 6 months), Christian Rafael Caicedo Lobo (2 years and 6 months), and Carlos Alberto Martínez Moreno (3 years).

The court also ordered the seizing of the vehicles used to perpetrate their crimes.

The role of each defendant within the criminal organization was taken into account when handing down the verdict, it was explained. The gang was said to have perpetrated eight robberies against victims previously singled out at the Ezeiza Airport, so there was a modus operandi, whereby some members of the gang at the air terminal tipped the others on the most convenient “targets”.