A former general in the Uruguayan army, Miguel Dalmao, has been found guilty of a murder dating back to 1974, when the country was under military rule.

Supreme Court of Uruguay (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Dalmao was sentenced yesterday to 28 years in prison by the Uruguayan Supreme Court of Justice in what has been celebrated as a victory by human rights advocates and former political prisoners in the country.

The 61-year-old has been imprisoned since 2010 while the case was being processed. His victim was an imprisoned communist militant Nibia Sabalsagaray, aged 25, who was also a professor of literature. The court heard that her death was the result of torture carried out by Dalmao.

The case has suffered delays due to a heart condition suffered by Dalmoa, who is currently receiving treatment in hospital.

Baldemar Taroco, Vice President of the Association of Ex Political Prisoners of Uruguay, said, “Violations of basic rights took place during the dictatorship. Dalmao committed crimes against humanity.”

Taroco also described the sentence as a “victory against state terrorism” and said that if these types of crimes are not punished then the country runs the risk of seeing them repeated.

An expiry law, which has prevented many crimes during the dictatorship from being brought to justice, “remains a wall” against more than 100 allegations of “murder, disappearance, and rape”, added Taroco.

Miguel Langón, Dalmao’s counsel, said that he hoped for the acquittal of the former dictator after reportedly submitting an appeal. “I hope the Court of Appeal corrects this mistake, there is a high possibility that Sabalsagaray committed suicide. It is clear the killing has not been proven,” he told local press outside the court.

The Ministry of Defence has not commented on the ruling, nor have any military officials, many of whom are ex-soldiers who served during the time of the dictatorship.

Like any country, Argentina has had its fair share of notorious murderers over the years but this week’s (rather morbid) Top 5 examines the worst of the worst, including homicidal midgets, explosive anarchists, and shotgun-wielding dentists. Many of the following stories are hard to believe, as though they have been conjured from horrendously warped imaginations, but they are all very true and very disturbing.

Cayetano Godino (Photo: Wikipedia)

Cayetano Godino, aka “The Big-Eared Midget” (1896-1944)

As a serial killer, it is perhaps best to remain inconspicuous so that in the event of suspicion you at least have a chance of evading capture. However, Cayetano Santos Godino, whose nickname was “Petiso Orejudo” (“Big Eared Midget”), struggled with anonymity. Born in 1896, he set his sights on two career paths at a young age: arson and killing. By the time of his death in 1944 he had racked up quite a list of crimes, including the murder of four children, attempted murder of seven others, and the arson of several buildings.

One of eight brothers, Godino experienced abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father throughout his childhood. His formative years were spent killing birds and cats, playing with fire, avoiding school, and generally making a nuisance of himself. His first recorded crime came at the age of seven, when he brutally beat up a two-year-old boy before tossing him into a ditch. A police officer saw this happen and promptly marched him to the nearest station.

A few years down the line, and perhaps a little harshly, the curious Godino received a two-year jail sentence for compulsive masturbation, an illegal activity at the time, after his mother reported his antics to the police. Soon after this embarrassment, the killings began. First was the murder of 13-year-old Arturo Laurona, shortly followed by that of Reyna Vainicoff, aged five, who failed to recover after he set her dress on fire.

In 1912, Godino enticed another victim, Jesualdo Giordano, into an abandoned house with some sweets before beating him and hammering a nail into the side of his head. He was arrested in 1913 and spent the rest of his years behind bars where he was severely beaten by a group of inmates for killing their cats. From 1935 onwards, he received no visitors and died in prison under unexplained circumstances.

Yiya Murano (Photo: Wikipedia)

Yiya Murano, aka “The Monserrat Poisoner” (1930 – present)

Her full name was Maria de las Mercedes Bernardino Bolla Murano, quite a mouthful and certainly hard to swallow, not unlike the cyanide she used to poison her three innocent victims. Better known as Yiya Murano or the poisoner of Montserrat, she had a penchant for expensive clothes and jewelry, although her bank account was often dry. She struggled to afford the materialistic fashion items that she hoped would propel her image from run-of-the-mill porteña teacher to educated madame.

Not only this, but Yiya was also in debt to her cousin, Zulema “Mema” de el Giorgio Venturini, who conveniently died of ‘heart failure’ before Yiya had a chance to reimburse her. Zulema’s daughter, Diana, also noticed that a $20 million (pesos ley) IOU was missing from her mother’s belongings after a visit from Yiya.

After an unsuccessful search of her deceased mother’s house for the note, Diana learned from the doorman that Yiya had come to visit on the day of Diana’s death and had brought some home baked petit fours– which turned out to be hiding a cyanide filling. She was apparently carrying a note in her hand when she left. Alarm bells rang and Diana informed the authorities who carried out a post-mortem on her mother which revealed death by poison.

However, before these results came to light, Yiya was able to bestow her culinary magic on two further victims, both of whom she owed money to. Nilda Gamba, Yiya’s neighbour, and ‘friend’ Lelia Formisano, were both found dead as a result of ingesting cyanide. On 27th April, 1979, police arrested Yiya at her home and charged her with triple homicide. Even after being locked up she never confessed and, bizarrely, after only three years in prison she was acquitted due to a lack of witnesses.

However, after an appeal the authorities soon locked her up once again, and this time she was given 16 years to mull over her crimes. During this time her husband passed away and her son wrote a book in 1994 about his mother’s crimes. He wasn’t shy in telling the world what he thought about his murdering mum (manipulative, cold, theatrical, and egoistical, to name some of the adjectives he used).

Yiya was released in 1995 under the controversial ’2×1′ rule, which effectively halved her sentence. Rumour has it she thanked the judges that intervened in her case by sending them a box of sweets. She is still alive today, seeing out the rest of her days in a old people’s home, and occasionally rolling back the years to give frank television interviews about her past exploits.

Simón Radowitzky (Photo: Wikipedia)

Simón Radowitzky (1891-1956)

Simón Radowitzky, a Ukranian immigrant and anarchist activist, made history as an 18-year-old when he killed Colonel Ramón Falcón, the chief of police who on 1st May 1909 had ordered the brutal repression of a popular demonstration in the streets of Buenos Aires. Radowitzky would spend the next 21 years of his life in prison, in almost complete isolation. Although many refused to justify his crime, his idealism and boldness earned him the admiration of leftist groups, and he became a cult legend in the eyes of some activists and workers.

Falcón was a fearsome character. He was a military man of the old school, a priest of law and order: severe, intrepid, incorruptible. He was also a widower with no children and, as it was once said, “he has neither vices nor luxuries, Falcón does not sleep.”

Radowitzky decided it would be a good idea to eliminate him, and when he learned that Falcón was going to be returning from a funeral in a horse driven carriage, he devised a home-made bomb. José Fornes, who was driving a car behind Falcón, spotted a young man sprinting after the coach carrying the chief of police and 20-year-old Alberto Lastigua, his private secretary. Before anyone was fast enough to react, Radowitzky ran up to the coach, threw a package into the compartment and fled before a terrible explosion shook the scene. A chase ensued, and the Ukranian was pursued by a number of Falcón’s entourage.

It is reported that Falcón did not loose consciousness as a result of the explosion, and that he insisted his secretary be helped before him. Both were tended to with makeshift bandages, but neither was in a good way. The bomb had ripped through their legs, and the bleeding was severe. They later died in hospital.

Radowitzky was caught after falling in the street and was described as “disagreeably pale with a small, rather wispy, reddish moustache, bony features, the jaw of a boxer, watery eyes, and large lampshade ears. Undoubtedly Russian.”

He was taken to the nearest police station where confusion ensued about his real identity and age. He claimed to be 18 and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. Regardless of the fact that the government wanted him to suffer for his crime, the most they could do was put a life sentence on his head, which they did. In 1930 President Yrigoyen pardoned Radowitzky with the condition of permanent exile, outraging the establishment.

Ricardo Barreda, aka “Conchita” (1936 – present)

Some people hate going to the dentist, but probably not as much as the wife, daughters, and mother-in-law of Ricardo Alberto Barreda. The day of 15th November 1992 witnessed the brutal killing of the women in question in La Plata, who had apparently collectively driven Barreda to commit the crimes by continuously hounding, abusing, mocking, and generally bullying him.

Unlike the ‘Angel of Death’ or the ‘Montserrat Poisoner’, whose nicknames carry menace and threat, Barreda was labeled ‘Conchita’ or ‘pussy’. It is reported that the female influence in the house dominated the poor dentist and he was often ordered to carry out housework and other domestic tasks. Some men who have been unlucky enough to live with their mother-in-law might have some sympathy for Barreda, but not the pre-meditated murder of 82-year-old Elen Arrecheusing with a shotgun. The same shotgun was used to kill his two daughters, Cecilia (26) and Adriana (24) and his wife.

However, Barreda was still compos mentis enough to attempt a cover-up and after unloading a suitable amount of hot lead he proceeded to ruff up the house hoping that the authorities would think a simple robbery/multiple murder had taken place. He then took the gun, spent cartridges, and drove to a local canal in an ever-dependable Ford Falcon to dump the evidence. Then, as one does after shooting family members, Barreda spent the afternoon at the zoo, followed by a trip to the cemetery, and, to round the day off, a quickie with his lover, Hilda Bono, in a hotel.

Upon returning to his house and finding an ambulance and police services, Barreda feigned despair. The authorities did not fall for his trickery though and he was promptly read his rights and marched off to court. He was handed a hefty sentence but was released in 2008 and kept under house arrest.

The case received a huge amount of media interest, and Barreda’s life after the crime was the subject of a book called ‘Conchita: Ricardo Barrera, el hombre que no amaba a las mujeres’ (The man who didn’t love women), released 20 years after the crime, in 2012.

Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch 1972 (Photo: Wikipedia)

Carlos Robledo Puch, aka “The Angel of Death” (1952 – present)

The last words of Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch, aka “The Angel of Death,” uttered to the court after being found guilty of multiple homicide in 1980 were: “Someday I’m going to get out and kill you all.”

Many in the room would have probably taken stock of this statement considering that Robledo Puch committed 11 murders, one rape, one count of sexual abuse, two kidnappings and two thefts. Not only this, but two of his murders were committed while the victims were asleep.

Robledo Puch did not always act alone: he had a sidekick who went by the name of Jorge Ibáñez. Together they robbed, pillaged, raped, and generally caused havoc around Buenos Aires. During one particular getaway, Robledo Puch was driving when he crashed, killing his partner in crime. Rumours suggest that this was no accident and that Robledo Puch wanted rid of Ibáñez due to an unsettled score years earlier.

After this incident there was a short break in criminal activity associated with the Death Angel, but things soon heated up in 1971 after a new impressionable accomplice joined the fold. Héctor Somoza breathed fresh life into Robledo Puch as they went on a rampage involving stealing cars from garages and shooting the salesmen point blank in the head. Unfortunately for Somoza, things didn’t work out, and during a bodged robbery he was murdered by Robledo Puch after apparently startling him.

As if this wasn’t enough, the Death Angel then proceeded to burn the face of the corpse in the hope that he would not be identified by the police. Not long after this, in 1972, Robledo Puch was arrested at the tender age of 20, and eventually sentenced to life in prison eight years later. He remains there today, having been recently denied parole.

National Security Secretary Sergio Berni (Photo: Courtesy Ministerio de Seguridad de Argentina)

Sergio Berni, Security Secretary, has admitted that the murder of Leonardo Andrada, a key witness in the Once rail tragedy investigation, is “suspicious”.

“A full expansion of the investigation needs to take place in order to clarify what took place, an answer needs to be found.” Said Berni in an interview with local radio station, La Red.

“There is no doubt that the circumstances are suspicious. The judiciary needs to fully examine what happened and make a conclusion,” he added.

Fifty-three-year-old Andrada had testified that the conductor blamed for the accident had left from the Moreno station 20 minutes late, which prompted the hypothesis that the ill-fated train was going faster than it should have upon arriving a Once station. Andrada was brutally murdered last Friday having been shot four times in the back at a bus stop in Ituzaingó.

The attackers stole his mobile phone but did not take any of the other belongings including a rucksack and over $1,200 in cash.

Carlos Enrique Castillo Medrano, the mayor of the Eastern Guatemalan town of Jutiapa, was gunned down and killed yesterday as he waited to have his haircut at a local barber shot.

Witnesses say that Medrano, 39, was shot several times by two unidentifiable gunmen on a motorbike.

The killing came the same day that the president of the Central American country, Otto Perez Molina, gave his state-of-the-nation address during which he claimed that Guatemala had seen “a historic decline in violence”. He said that murders have decreased by around 10%.

“We have had 526 fewer homicides in 2012 than in the previous year,” declared President Molina.

In recent years, United Nations statistics have revealed Guatemala to have one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world. Like other Central American countries, Guatemala has suffered from drug gang-related violence, and this is considered the primary reason for the high murder rate.

Medrano’s brother, Manuel de Jesus Castillo, is serving a prison sentence in relation to the 2007 murder of three political representatives from neighbouring El Salvador. Castillo was a former congressman who was accused of ties to the drug gangs.

Daniel Asijak, 16, from the Qom indigenous community of Formosa, was found unconscious next to his motorcycle on the side of Road 86 with his cranium fractured.

The young man was transported to the Hospital Central de Formosa and spent three days in treatment before being declared dead because of the head injury. The exact circumstances of Asijak’s injury are not yet clear; his parents claim he was the victim of a beating, while the police say it was an accident.

“It wasn’t an accident, I don’t believe that,” said the father of the victim, Pablo Asijak to news agency DyN. While the police told the same agency that “the minor managed to tell his mother that it was an accident that caused his injury,” they also assure that there are witnesses of said statement.

Laureano Sanagachi, one of the leaders of the local Qom community, said that doctors at the hospital where Asijak was treated had said that the young Qom “had been beaten and he had a fractured cranium, result of a strong hit that could have been dealt with a metal bar”.

The Qom community released a statement saying they no longer knew “how to protect” their people and asking for “justice and peace”. The death of Daniel Asijak occurred just a few days after another young member of the same community was killed.

Imer Ilbercio Flores, 12, was beaten to death in Chaco, just 100 metres from a festival held at the municipal camping site of Villa Río Bermejito. Last month two members of the same community, Celestina Jara, 49, and her granddaughter, Natalia, 10 months old, were killed by gendarme Walter Cardozo.

The two victims were run over by the gendarme when they were riding a motorcycle with Ricardo Coyipe, Jara’s partner. Coyipe has said that the accident was intentional and that the policeman beat him while he was laying injured after the incident.

A court in Chile has ordered the arrest of eight former army officers in connection with the murder of well-known communist folk singer Victor Jara in 1973.

Almost 40 years ago Jara was brutally murdered just days after General Pinochet installed himself as dictator in Chile. The iconic folk singer was taken to the Estadio de Chile in Santiago where he was publicly tortured and killed.

Two men are to be charged with murder, while the other six accused will be convicted as accomplices. The two main perpetrators are retired officers Hugo Sanchez Marmonti and Pedro Barrientos Nunez. The latter currently lives in Florida in the United States. As a result, Judge Miguel Vazquez Plaza has issued an international arrest warrant for Nunez. The other seven have already been detained.

Jara was one of around 5,000 political prisoners that were taken captive by Pinochet, over 3,000 of which have never been seen again. The singer-songwriter’s body was found on 16th September 1973, in the streets outside the stadium with 44 bullet wounds. He was 40 years old.

Victor Jara became famous in the 1960s for his protest music. He was one of the founding fathers of Chile’s “New Song Movement” which was instrumental in bringing Salvador Allende’s left-wing administration to power in 1970.

Two Mexican men have been charged with killing a member of the U.S. coast guard following a clash between authorities and a suspected smuggler vessel on Sunday.

The U.S. attorney office announced yesterday that Jose Leyva Meija and Beltran Higuera were the men responsible for the death of 34-year-old Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne.

Two men were thrown overboard when a U.S. coast guard boat collided with a panga, a commonly used smuggler vessel, off the southern coast of California in the early hours of Sunday morning. Horne, 34, suffered from severe head injuries and was later pronounced dead. Other crew members were treated for minor injuries.

Chief Horne, a 14-year veteran of the coast guard, was part of a patrol team that attempted to apprehend the panga, which aroused suspicion because it was travelling at high speeds with no navigation lights.

The incident took place about 180 miles north-west of the US-Mexico border.

The judge of a Spanish National Court yesterday indicted seven former members of the Chilean secret police (DINA) for their alleged role in the murder of a Spanish diplomat during Pinochet’s military dictatorship.

The judge, Pablo Ruz, ordered an international search warrant, for the arrest and imprisonment of the seven former DINA agents. They are accused of the kidnap, murder and torture of Carmelo Soria in 1976 whilst he was working in Chile as a UN representative to the Economic Commission for Latin America.

Soria was one of around 3000 victims killed during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.

The seven men charged include six Chileans and one US citizen. Juan Contreras, the former director of DINA, who is currently serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity in Chile, is one of the accused. Another of those indicted is Michael Townley, currently living under a US witness protection programme following his role in the Orlando Lettelier’s murder case.

Soria was reportedly murdered due to his suspected connections with the communist party. Apparently he was force fed alcohol before being strangled in his car. The car was then driven into a river and the Chilean authorities explained the murder as a drunken accident.

Two men have been arrested for the shootings on Saturday where at least two members of the opposition were killed in Barinas during a campaign for opposition leader Henrique Capriles. President Hugo Chávez has condemned the killings and has begged people to avoid violence.

Chávez yesterday commented on the incident in a public speech saying that “we need to be very sorry for the deaths of these two people”, begging his sympathisers to “avoid falling into violent provocations” during election time. He further announced that “violence is not the right way to face the elections”, and pointed out that “what matters are the votes, the ideas and peace”.

On the same day, deputy of the opposition Julio Borges confirmed that a third person was killed in the incident.

On Sunday, before knowing about the third victim, Interior Minister Tareck El Aisami confirmed the capture of the “perpetrators of the double murder” on his Twitter account. He said in an interview with national TV channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) that “we are not asking for impunity, what we want is justice”.

Borges claimed that the accused men were employees of The Ministry of Environment and of the Barinas regional police force. However, president of The National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, denied that the detained suspects are linked to any official organisations and deemed “irresponsible” those launching such accusations “without waiting for investigations”.

In his last speech of the campaign rally Capriles addressed the deaths as a symbol for the violence issues the country has since long suffered from: “I want to tell their families, and those angels in heaven, that we are going to defeat violence on the 7th of October.”

A senior human rights lawyer who represents Agrarian peasant groups in disputes with large land owners was killed on Sunday in Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras.

Alejandro Trejo Cabrera, 41, was shot several times as he stepped outside of a church to answer a phone call, where he was attending a wedding. He was taken to hospital but died shortly after.

An official spokesman admitted that there are as yet no suspects. “We have no idea who killed him, we only know that there were two individuals on a motorcycle.”

Trejo Cabrera represented three peasant farming co-operatives in the Bajo Aguan valley, a fertile palm-oil-producing area plagued by violent conflicts between agrarian organizations and land owners.

The Dinant co-operation was the largest of the three, and is owned by billionaire Miguel Facusse. About 12,000 acres of the plantations are held by workers which they seized from Dinant.

In the past, Trejo Cabrera has publicly stated that if he were to be killed, Facusse would be responsible.

In a statement to the press last night, Facusse denied all involvement. “I deeply lament the death of the lawyer Trejo Cabrera, as I lament the loss of any human life, independent of any differences I might have had with him on the legal plane on the issue of land in Aguan”.

In June 2011, according to the Associated Press, the human rights lawyer reported the fact that he was receiving death threats and requested government protection. In particular, he referred to a Blackberry message that reads “Trejo, you dog, you have 48 hours to get out or your dead”.

Yet Trejo Cabrera’s brother, Rigoberto, told the Associated press, that the government failed to protect him and “nobody cared”.

Hours before his death, Trejo Cabrera had taken part in a televised debate, during which he voiced his criticism for plans to create privately run cities in Honduras with their own police and tax systems.