THE BLACK ANGEL OF ARGENTINA: ROBLEDO PUCH

Article BY Joshua Laing

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Birth of a Butcher

The 1960’s in Argentina arrived late and had cultural ramifications that spewed over well into the ’70s. A revolving door of oppressive military regimes interrupted only by intermittently elected civilian governments began in 1955. General Eduardo Lonardi and Admiral Rojas led the cataclysmic event, known as the ‘Revolucion Libertadora,’ and brought an end to Juan Domingo Peron’s second term in office.

General Juan Carlos Ongania, Argentinian President by default from June 29, 1966 through June 8, 1970, had a large impact on cultural censorship. His particular focus’ seemed to be the length of young women’s skirts, and the length of young men’s hair. He saw magazines shut down for ridiculing him and art galleries shut down for causing offense, but could seemingly do little to put a damper on the thriving culture of Buenos Aires, where art and literature flourished – especially that which provided exceedingly strong social and political commentary.

On the 19th of January, 1952, in the midst of its immense political turmoil and cultural reform, Argentina saw the birth of a man who would go on to become one of the most feared men in the country’s history. Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch, later known simply as ‘The Death Angel’, and the ‘Black Angel’, would go on to commit nearly a dozen murders and 17 robberies, alongside a plethora of vile crimes found on his record today.

 

Chaos Commences

On the 15th of March, 1971, Puch and his accomplice, childhood friend Jorge Antonio Ibanez, robbed the nightclub Enamor, in Olivos. Breaking in through a back window at dawn, they stole 350.00 pesos. Before fleeing, Puch used a Ruby pistol and killed the owner and night watchman in their sleep.

Puch and Ibanez lay low after the first attack until the 9th of May. They broke into a Mercedes Benz parts store in Vicente Lopez through the skylight. Sleeping in a back room were a couple and their newborn child. Puch shot both of them, killing the man and wounding the woman. Ibanez attempted to rape the woman. She survived the ordeal, later testifying against Puch at trial.

As they left the Mercedes shop, Puch shot at the crib where the baby lay, crying. His shots missed, and the pair escaped with 400.00 pesos.

The next kill came quickly. The pair took the life of the night watchman of a supermarket on the 24th of May, in Tanti.

June 13th saw the next strike. Ibanez broke into a garage in Constitución. He shot and killed the caretaker, stealing a Ford Fairlane. Puch met him later, and they spotted a 16-year-old girl leaving a bowling alley in Avenida del Libertador. They picked her up, where Ibanez proceeded to rape her in the backseat while Puch drove around. They let her out on the Pan-American route. As she ran from them, Puch shot her five times in the back.

11 days later they staged a similar attack, driving to the same location and raping a 23-year-old woman they had picked up in Vicente Lopez. She resisted the attack, and was subsequently thrown half-naked from the car. Puch shot her 7 times as she ran for the Pan-American border.

The Puch-Ibanez duo reached expiry on the 5th of August, 1971. Puch crashed the car they were driving, killing Ibanez on impact. Puch himself escaped, unscathed.

Puch took some time after the death of his friend, returning to his studies briefly and reconnecting with his childhood friend, Hector Somoza. Somoza became Puch’s next partner. On the 15th of November, they stormed a supermarket in Boulogne. Puch pumped the shop full of bullets with a stolen .32 calibre Astra pistol stolen in a robbery just a few days earlier.

Between the 17th and 24th of November, they broke into two car dealerships and murdered the watchmen. They stole over 1.000.000 pesos.

 

A Brutal Blunder

In 1972, on February 1st, Puch and Somoza broke into a hardware store. Once inside, they killed the watchman and tried using his keys to open the safe. When the keys didn’t work, Puch entered a state of confusion. Startled, he shot and killed Somoza.

To stop police identifying the body, Puch took a blowtorch to the face of his murdered companion. He took the money from the safe after opening it with the same blowtorch.

3 days after killing Somoza, on the 4th of February, Robledo Puch was arrested. While he was burning Somoza beyond recognition, he neglected to check his pockets, one of which contained his identity card.

 

Darkness Descends upon the Angel

Police searched Puch’s villa, finding money from the robberies and two revolvers, a .32 gauge and a 0.5 calibre. Initially denying his heinous crimes, Robledo Puch eventually confessed to each crime he was accused of in great detail. Amongst his confessions were robberies that had not even been reported.

On July 7, 1972, the then defendant escaped his detention facility at Penal de Olmos, located near La Plata. After just 64 hours, he was arrested as he wandered the streets of Olivos.

Robledo Puch was tried in 1980 and received a life sentence, the maximum sentence available in Argentine. His sentence was to be served in the high-security prison Sierra Chica, not far removed from the city Olavarria.

A favourite theory of writer Osvaldo Aguirre as to the continued relevance of Robledo Puch is not a matter of the crimes themselves. Instead, Aguirre hypothesises that Puch remains in the memory of the public so clearly because he not once asked for forgiveness or expressed remorse during his trial.

In November, 2013, Puch requested a review of his sentence. If this were not to be viable, he had a request for his own execution via lethal injection despite its illegality in Argentina. Both requests were denied.

In July, 2017, Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch had spent more than 45 years in prison and became the longest serving prisoner in Argentina.

Perhaps the most chilling display of Robledo Puch’s lack of regret, were the last words he spoke before the court; “This was a Roman circus. I was judged and sentenced beforehand.”