Cecilia Strzyzowski used to run a café in the northeastern Argentine province of Chaco. But in June 2023, she packed her suitcase with the belongings she would need to start a new life in Ushuaia, four thousand kilometers south, with her partner, César Sena.

César’s parents were politicians and social leaders who held such power in and around Resistencia, the provincial capital, that they had a neighborhood built and named after his father, Emerenciano Sena. The family had strong ties to Peronist Chaco Governor Jorge Capitanich; at the time, Emerenciano was running for provincial deputy and his mother, Marcela Acuña, for mayor of Resistencia.

On the morning of June 2, security camera footage shows Cecilia, 28, entering one of the Sena family’s houses with César, who was 19 at the time. She was never seen again.

Earlier this month, a jury found César, Emerenciano, Acuña, and three of their assistants guilty of murdering her and attempting to hide the deed. They will be sentenced next Wednesday. César was convicted of aggravated homicide. Acuña and Emerenciano were found to have acted as his primary accomplices, and three of the family’s assistants were convicted of helping cover up the killing.

In a tearful statement to the press after the verdict, Cecilia’s mother, Gloria Romero, said that since reporting the disappearance, she had lived in fear that people linked to the Senas would harm her other daughter. “Often, I used to regret reporting them… I would say, if they kill me, it doesn’t matter, but [my other daughter] deserves better, and I put her at risk, and she’s supposed to be what I protect most.”

The case outraged the public, not only because of the killing of a young woman, but also because of the family’s political ties. Emerenciano started out as a construction worker, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he started........

© Buenos Aires Herald