The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the second man charged with the murder of Los Andes University student Jaime Esteban Moreno, who was brutally assaulted on Halloween night, turned himself in Monday morning. Ricardo González Castro, whom the organization identified as its target, appeared at one of its headquarters in Cartagena de Indias, almost 1,000 kilometers from Bogota, where the 20-year-old young man died. In the coming hours, prosecutors plan to bring Mr. González before a judge to legalize his arrest and begin a hearing.
González, 22, was wearing a rabbit mask when Moreno was assaulted in the early hours of October 31 after leaving a party at the Before Club nightclub in the town of Chapinero, northeast of Bogota. In addition to the critical testimony of Jaime Esteban’s friend who accompanied him and tried to stop the assault, there is evidence of the assault on surveillance cameras in the area.
The suspect is from Cartagena and completed his technical training as a carpenter at the state SENA. He worked selling hot dogs in the San Victorino district of central Bogotá. On Friday, October 31, the morning after the crime, he told his boss that he had been involved in an “altercation.” A few hours later, he called to quit his job, saying he was so horrified by the gravity of the news. The boss told the prosecutor’s office that he gave González 100,000 pesos (about $28) but knew nothing else about it, but that González’s father then called and asked him to tell him to turn himself in to authorities if he wanted to talk to his son. It finally happened 10 days later this Monday.
Juan Carlos Suarez Ortiz, who was arrested by authorities on Friday, October 31, is already on trial for Moreno’s death. The prosecutor’s office charged him with aggravated murder before a judge, and he was sentenced to 40 to 50 years in prison. Suarez did not accept the charges. The prosecutor in charge of the case, Claudia Lucía Rodríguez, requested preventive detention for him pending further investigation, arguing that it amounted to aggravated murder, as it was an “exaggerated and premeditated” attack committed with intent and “disregard for human life,” as she said last Thursday.
A hearing to decide whether to place Suarez Ortiz in preventive detention is scheduled for 9 a.m. this Wednesday, after it was postponed last Friday due to an error with the judge presiding over the case. Arrested with Suárez were two other women, including Caledimal Paola Fernández Zurbarán and Berta Parra Torres, both of whom were wearing blue dresses. They were released after just a few hours, but had nothing to do with the process.
According to a report on W Radio on the same day, the Before Club nightclub was closed last Saturday, November 8, after authorities conducted a surveillance and control inspection of the facility and found sanitary abnormalities. The nightclub had already been investigated for not complying with regulations regarding opening hours and noise limits. María del Mar Pizarro, the bar’s owner and congresswoman from the ruling Colombia Humana party, deplored Moreno’s killing, stressing that the incident occurred three blocks away.
The fallout from the death has caused controversy in the House of Representatives. She is promoting the “Night Law” initiative, which aims to create a “care system for night activities” that includes measures for mobility, health, and cargo transportation. The bill has not been introduced in Congress, but networks and media outlets have accused her of having a conflict of interest due to her activities as a nocturnal businesswoman. “I can’t be disqualified because of a law that doesn’t exist,” he replied, making it clear that he would not sign on to a project if it was in his own interest. Meanwhile, this Saturday, local authorities locked down the bar, but Pizarro’s manager and partner Andres Solado claimed the measure was disproportionate.
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