Thursday May 4, 2023 | 5:00 a.m.
The border line in the Provincias Unidas neighborhood, belonging to Bernardo de Irigoyen, again shed blood yesterday. Two men on a motorcycle gunned down a local merchant and then fled to Brazil, marking the fifth contract killing in just under two years.
A series that is as painful as it is worrying, which seems to have no end and increasingly shocks the residents of the area. Even those who live there had to witness the sequence after the crimes several times and protect minors from all that scene.
The victim in this incident was identified as Lindomar De Olivera Cunha (40). According to police sources and residents of the area, the man owns a business selling wine, but he was also engaged in currency exchange at the border.
In this regard, in his vehicle, members of the Misiones Police seized almost 30 million pesos between reais and dollars. This supports the hypothesis of a commissioned crime.
Members of the local police station stated that they found out what happened shortly before 6:00 p.m. It was reconstructed that Olivera Cunha was in a Toyota Corolla vehicle in front of a well-known bar in the neighborhood that is on the border line, at the beginning of the route national 101.
What was said is that the murderers were traveling in a black Honda Titan and they came from Brazil, given the geographical particularity of the dry border. In this instance, the surveys indicate that there was an exchange of words -something that did not happen in previous cases- before the man received a burst of shots.
There were between three and five impacts, most of them in the face, and then they fled outside again. Lindomar was assisted by those present and the transfer to the local hospital was completed, although the medical personnel could do nothing and he died minutes later.
By order of the authorities of the First Investigating Court of San Pedro, the body was transferred to the Judicial Morgue for an autopsy.
A fact that quickly emerged the day before was a shooting attack by De Olivera Cunha himself on a neighbor in the town of Dos Hermanas. It happened a month ago, in the first days of April. A judicial investigation is being conducted in the same court for the case.
According to police sources, the events occurred at night and were denounced by a 57-year-old day laborer. The man said that he stopped on Provincial Route 17, in front of the 3D market, to visit his partner who lives nearby.
Without giving details of a conflict or a previous discussion, he added that in that instance he was approached by Lindomar, who unsuccessfully punched him. The complainant stated that he continued walking and in that instance the now deceased -who was accompanied by another man- shot him with a firearm.
He said that he did not see what weapons he had, but that the projectile hit his shoulder.
In this regard, the Misiones Police officially stated yesterday that the investigators “do not rule out an adjustment of account because weeks ago, after an argument, the victim shot a 50-year-old man with a firearm, causing him injuries to his shoulder, a fact that was prosecuted through the Dos Hermanas Police Station.”
Background
The last case registered at the border occurred on December 28 last. The victim at that time was a teacher identified as Carla Betiana De Olivera, 37 years old. The woman herself was in the driver’s seat of a Renault Sandero Stepway she owned when she was hit by a burst of bullets.
Her husband, identified as Ismael Sergio Batista C. (42), who was in the passenger seat, was also hit, but was not seriously injured.
It all happened around 5:30 p.m. on Malvinas Argentinas street in the same Provincias Unidas neighborhood, right on the border with the Obrero neighborhood. The hypothesis outlined at that time indicates that the survivor was the true recipient of the shots because she was linked to smuggling, particularly wine and fuel.
Regarding the latter, it was said that it was common to see him driving through that same neighborhood in a truck with a tank on top.
On September 23, the victim was Sebastián “Chany” Fernández Da Rosa (42), designated as a strong force at the border, who apparently managed to monopolize the transfer of any merchandise at the border. In other words, his warehouse functioned as a parallel customs office where he could withdraw what was purchased in the foreign country and vice versa.
The event occurred around 9:30 a.m. in a merchandise warehouse located on the border with Brazil, on Tránsito Pesado avenue, at its intersection with Saltos del Moconá. The victim was lying on a truck when the killer arrived on his motorcycle and shot him, then fled to an unknown destination.
2021 and beyond
Previously, Juan María López (50) and Rafael Antúnez de Olivera (45) had been murdered in similar circumstances, both during 2021. However, in addition to these events, the town cries for the crime of Ariel Camargo de Lara (19), They do not know anything about the whereabouts of Maximiliano (Pimentel 24), in whose search his uncle Diego (34) ended up shot to death.
In other words, seven deaths and one missing person related to smuggling.
Juan María López (50) was assassinated on May 15, 2021, around 12:55 p.m., on an internal street in the Santa Rita neighborhood, a few blocks from the international dry border. According to what he was able to reconstruct this medium, López was driving his Ford Ranger Limited truck until a motorcycle with two occupants crossed in front of them.
It was in that instance that the subject who was accompanying the motorcycle pulled out a weapon and without saying a word opened fire on several occasions. The first data collected by the investigators indicate that a total of five shots were fired.
After that, the murderers fled without stealing anything. López came to be transferred in a private way to the Irigoyen hospital, where unfortunately half an hour later he died.
The autopsy revealed that the lawyer’s heart was almost destroyed by the bullets, which had previously pierced his lung. That is to say, an accurate death attack, although the investigators still do not have the elements to affirm that this was the product of the professionalism of the person who fired the shots.
The murder of Rafael Antúnez de Olivera (45) occurred shortly after 8:00 p.m. on November 18, in the heart of the town, in front of one of the main squares and two blocks from the police station. On this occasion, through the security cameras, it was possible to establish that it was a single murderer.
The victim was traveling with a teenager close to the family in a Chevrolet Montana truck on the main avenue of the border town, Andrés Guacurarí, a few blocks from the local police station. He stopped at a traffic light and that became the site of his end.
According to sources that intervened in the investigation, he received three shots to the head, which indicates the presence of a hired criminal. The three bullet holes were located, two in the left parietal zone and the rest under the ear on the same side. Two of the projectiles that caused these injuries remained lodged in the body and were rescued.
In figures
$30 million
Lindomar De Olivera Cunha was engaged in the wine trade and currency exchange, his main activity. In his car they found about 30 million pesos.
5
Since May 2021, there have been five homicides at the hands of hitmen in the area. The last one was recorded in December, when a teacher was killed.
