"One likes to take the woman to everyone, problem is when they take one's own"
It was the words of Ledezma
The murders committed by the distinguished Ledezma became one of the most famous police cases in Venezuela; 38 years later they are remembered. You could say that they are part of our popular culture
Argenis Rafael Ledezma began to wish Rosa Elena Pinto, Chena, when she was just 11 years old and he, 26. The short age of the girl-woman did not seem to be any inconvenience for the low passions of the Metropolitan Police (PM) official There was only one small problem that was soon overcome: Chena's mother was a policeman's lover.
Thus began the story of love, jealousy, betrayal, witchcraft and death that culminated in one of the most notorious crimes in Venezuelan black history: the case of the "Mamera Monster".
Ledezma gained fame for having murdered three young people under 18 years of age, hiding their bodies and denying the fact for more than 13 months, despite the fact that all indications pointed towards him.
Thirty-five years ago of the famous case that shocked the public; it merited the intervention of the then president of the Republic, Luis Herrera Campins, and was taken to the cinema with Macu. The woman of the police, one of the highest grossing films in the history of Venezuelan cinema
Stolen childhood
Argenis Rafael Ledezma began to persecute Chena when she was 11 years old, at 13 they were already married and a few months later a girl was born, and after two years the boy came.
Chena was a thin, graceful brunette, with long charcoal hair who at 15 years old was already the mother of two children in a home marked by the violence and infidelity of her husband, famous in Mamera and the surrounding area as a quarrelsome and womanizer, as he had a one-year-old son with another woman from Caricuao, as well as countless conquests.
The girl-woman, who was forced to skip adolescence and all that it represents, began to frequent a group of cheerful young people-lovers of rumbas and rum-among which were Martín Mijares (14), Efraín Irausquín (17) and Douglas Nieves (16), who would later become the mortal targets of her husband's jealousy.
Parrandas and beatings
Throughout 1979, the boys started to take Chena, then 17 years old, and her sister Moraima, which earned her not many beatings from her violent husband, to the point that she decided to leave him, but the damage was already In fact, the death sentence hung over the young. It was only a matter of time.
A chronicle by José Roberto Duque, published by El Nacional in 1997, gathers the testimony of a friend of the boys who sheds light on Chena's relationship with Martín: "She was a skinny girl with a tan little brown color. The Martin, who had never had a girlfriend, got worse quickly, and how could he not get worse with that woman? That's why I think he ran his hand. He was not careful to hide the thing well, he was walking around with his girlfriend without caring that she was married to a policeman. It was as if he did not understand the size of the risk, he was aware of his candy, period.
Crime of honor
Born in Ciudad Bolívar, Argenis Rafael Ledezma was a soldier between 1967 and 1969 and was assigned to anti-guerrilla operations. Upon leaving the Army, he entered the training institute of the Metropolitan Police, becoming one of the pioneers of the institution, becoming outstanding by winning on a couple of occasions the distinction of "police of the month".
Womanizer, parrandero and lover of the guaguancó, he saw himself as the typical Latino male: "You know, as every Latin American male likes to take the woman to everybody, problem is when they take one from you", I would confess to Duque years after the events.
Chena tried to make up for lost time and was studying first grade at the Cuatricentenario school, where her friends Efraín and Douglas went to find her that fateful January 11, to invite her to dance that night.
They took the bus to Mamera for Chena to find her sister Moraima, Douglas' girlfriend. She came in and the boys were waiting for her outside. It was the last time they saw them alive.
When leaving with Moraima, Chena looked for them everywhere and gave up until the next day, when already alarmed by the disappearance of Efraín and Douglas they began to make diligences to find their whereabouts: they looked for them in the prefecture of Antímano and even They went to give up White Rabbit in the hope of not having been picked up by the recruit.
The hours and days passed and nothing was known about the boys, Chena even moved to the Douglas family's house to help in the search and there went to give Argenis, who feigning concern asked them for a picture to "put all the police to investigate. "
At the height of cynicism he offered to help them contact a spiritualist to find the whereabouts of the young people he had murdered with their hands.
The last day of Martin
Martín also looked for his panas with concern, but he continued his normal life until Thursday, January 17 when he was for the last time to the Industrial Technical School of Caricuao. He was in classes, he went to the library and at noon he went to lunch and never returned, because he was kidnapped by Ledezma.
Anguish grew among the relatives of the young people who in February denounced Ledezma before the Judicial Technical Police, arguing that he was the only one who was right to do something to their children: jealousy.
The case had a huge media coverage and little by little not only the relatives of Martin, Efraín and Douglas suspected of the distinguished Ledezma, but half of the country did so and in July of that year an investigation was requested against the police officer.
Ledezma did not abandon his version: "No, I did not kill those young people, I do not know where they are" and asked that they apply the truth serum test, sodium pentothal, which passed without problems before the stupor of the researchers.
A few months later, faced with the impotence - or incompetence, if you prefer - of the police forces, Efraín's father died of a heart attack without seeing justice done.
Several times Ledezma was successful in the police interrogations, he was said to be confident and even challenging because he trusted in a special amulet: "a ridged belt" that he never took off.
Despite the accusations, he was still active in the PM, as his bosses simply said "we neither accuse him nor protect him."
Presidential intervention
Tired of the police incapacity, one year after the disappearance of the boys, Martin's mother asked for an audience with the then president of the Republic, Luis Herrera Campins, who listened to her for a while and then made a couple of phone calls, in the second of which he ordered the dismissal of Ledezma from the PM.
A few days later Ledezma confessed to the crimes and where the corpses were, there is a black legend that affirms that the interrogators stripped him of the ensalmado belt and that caused him to collapse.
In an interview with reporters of the newspaper El Nacional he confessed that he had killed the young people with his own hands: "I killed them for defending my honor, that of my home. I killed them with my hands, I did not need help. "
In his confession he said that the first two victims had been handcuffed to a tree and that Douglas had hanged him with his hands and Ephraim with a rope. The bones of the young men were found without clothing. One of the corpses had symptoms of being burned, which Ledezma attributed to a forest fire, but nobody believed him.
To the third and last victim, to Martin, he hanged him with a rope, undressed him and threw him into a ravine.
Habitual suspects
During all the interrogations that were made to Argenis Rafael Ledezma always denied that he had received help to commit the crimes, although the police stopped preventively two police officers friends of his, one of whom, Tairo Aristigüieta, was involved years later in the massacre of the soldiers of Altamira.
In 2003, the lifeless bodies of three soldiers and one young woman were located in a greasy area of the Caracas-Guarenas highway. The military were part of what was called the dissidents of Plaza Altamira and the girl was the girlfriend of one of them.
Witnesses to the investigation mentioned former PM Aristigüieta as one of the murderers.
The other alleged accomplice of Ledezma was also the official Luís Hernán Márquez, who was arrested and released for lack of evidence.
Maximum penalty
Once confessed the "Monster of Mamera" was sentenced to the maximum prison sentence: 30 years in prison and was sent to the General Penitentiary of Venezuela in San Juan de los Morros, where 17 years later he was interviewed by the journalist of the newspaper El Universal Víctor Escalona.
Ledezma was turned into a model prisoner: he finished high school, studied Administration at the National Open University, kept the accounts of the prison's canteen, taught at the INCE and, as if it were not enough, he participated as an actor in theater performances.
He categorized himself as a positive leader: "I was very inspired by Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. Man can be a leader like Christ, like Bolivar, in Venezuela, and Piar himself, still shot. "
Ledezma confessed to the journalist his regret for having made his wife Rosa Elena Pinto suffer. "These years of prison I owe to jealousy. Now I have to prepare myself to not be so jealous. At that time I had a list of seven boys whom I planned to kill. It was a band from San Pablito and the seventh on the list was the famous captain Avendaño, although at that time in the neighborhood they called him Juancito. But now I do not think the same, I think that violence is not the solution. "
To conclude the interview with Escalona the "Monster of Mamera" said: "I have to improve because I like a lady and I think we can relate. Maybe I buy a house here in San Juan and when I leave I start living with her, although I think I have to graduate here at the PGV first. I do not want to disengage from prison because I will continue working for her and for my colleagues. "
On February 15, 2000, after turning 21 on the 30th of his sentence, he was released for good behavior.
The case of the "Monster of Mamera" was so famous that even a film based on the blood facts called Macu was made. The woman of the police, which has been one of the most successful in the national film history.
The tape, premiered in 1987, was directed by Solveig Hoogesteijn and had the performances of Daniel Alvarado (his sons represented the sons of Ledezma), Maria Luisa Mosquera, Frank Hernandez and Ana Castell.
María Luisa Mosquera
The last thing that was learned about Ledezma was that in 2004 he worked at the headquarters of the Regional Brewery of San Juan de los Morros.
He always promised that he would write a book with his version of the facts that he knows never did it.
story taken by stories from El Nacional newspapers, latest news and interviews made by reporters
photographs taken from internet
