Life sentences for Chaco's 'Clan Sena,' the killers of Cecilia Strzyzowski

A court in Chaco Province on Tuesday sentenced the three members of the “Clan Sena” to life imprisonment on Monday for the femicide of Cecilia Strzyzowski, a 28-year-old woman who disappeared in June 2023.

The victim’s husband, César Sena, received the maximum sentence as the author of the crime, while his parents, Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña, were convicted as necessary accomplices.

Three other defendants were handed prison sentences for concealment-related offences. Gustavo Obregón was sentenced to four years and ten months in prison for aggravated concealment, while Fabiana Cecilia González received five years in effective custody for simple concealment. Gustavo Melgarejo, convicted of the same offence, was sentenced to two years and ten months.

The verdicts had already been handed down last November. Sentencing was confirmed and read out Tuesday by Judge Dolly Fernández at Criminal Court No. 2, at Juan B. Justo and San Martín, during a hearing held via Zoom.

César Sena was unanimously found guilty of homicide doubly aggravated by gender-based violence and by the relationship with the victim, as the direct perpetrator. A popular jury also established the criminal responsibility of Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña as necessary accomplices.

The victim’s killers followed the proceedings from prison, with defence lawyers and representatives of the private prosecution also in attendance.

Murder in Chaco

Strzyzowski disappeared on June 2, 2023 in the northern province after being seen on security footage entering the home of her partner’s parents in Resistencia.

Although her body has never been recovered, investigators allege she was killed at the residence, then taken to the Sena family’s pig farm, set alight and her remains dispersed across the local neighbourhood.

Prosecutors argued in court that the crime was premeditated, with César Sena – Strzyzowski’s former partner – perpetrating the killing, and his parents, powerful local picket-leader Emerenciano Sena and politician Marcela Acuña, playing “necessary” roles in both the murder and the subsequent cover-up.

Prosecutors alleged that César lured Cecilia to the house by telling her they were about to leave on a trip to Ushuaia, a journey prosecutors said was fabricated.

Investigators were unable to establish the exact mechanism of the killing, but they pointed to scratch marks on César’s neck and other indications of a violent struggle, consistent with strangulation and possible blows with a blunt object.

Prosecutors also said the young man acted under the strong emotional and financial control of his parents.

Demand for justice

Strzyzowski’s mother, Gloria Romero, led a rally outside the courthouse prior to sentencing, with demonstrators demanding justice and drivers honking their horns in support.

Gathering under the slogan of “Life without privileges,” protesters demanded that the guilty receive the maximum sentences possible.

The case attracted nationwide attention not only for the brutality of the crime, but for its deep political reverberations in Chaco. The fallout from Strzyzowski’s death included the collapse of the Sena family’s network of influence and the ejection, two years ago, of ex-provincial governor Jorge Capitanich from office.

The couple were long-time allies of Capitanich, the Peronist ex-governor of Chaco who once served as national Cabinet chief in former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government and is now a senator-elect. 

The trial laid bare the clan’s far-reaching patronage structure and the political protection that had shielded them for years.

Patricia Bullrich, head of the La Libertad Avanza bloc in the Senate, said on Tuesday that “justice” had been served. César Sena, Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña would remain “in prison, which is where they belong,” she wrote. 

“This is news that brings justice for Cecilia and her family,” Bullrich said in a post on social media platform X. “She was murdered in a chilling crime, and for far too long her killing was surrounded by political protection and complicit silence. Today they are imprisoned for life. Where they should be.”

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL