Parsley

In recent weeks Argentina has become incensed by the kidnap and murder of an 11-year-old girl and the subsequent fallout. The case is shrouded by confusion and has somehow gained media coverage in a way that would suggest that the country is frustrated by ennui and has a desire to vent.

It started innocuously enough. Candela Rodríguez left her house in a humble neighbourhood in Hurlingham, Buenos Aires province, to meet up with some Scout group friends on August 22, but never made it. What followed were nine days of agonizing searching and constant demonstrations, led by her mother, Carola Labrador. The search was eventually extended to several neighbouring countries. Just over a week after her disappearance, the girl was found dead in a bag by the side of the motorway.

Aside from the fact that the kidnap and murder of a pubescent girl is essentially abhorrent, what exactly is so special about Candela? She was not the first girl to disappear in Argentina and not the first this year. However, her disappearance, barely a week after President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner posted a massive ‘victory’ in the primaries, seemingly nullifying any suggestion that she would not be re-elected in the October presidential elections, was taken up by local politicians, civil rights groups, celebrities and politicians as an issue that had to be addressed.

What was unclear from the start, and remains so today even after nine arrests, is what the motive behind her kidnapping was. This did not prevent the immediate supposition by several civil rights groups that Candela was kidnapped as part of a human trafficking ring. Outcry ensued. The President herself received a weeping Labrador at the Pink House. The mother insisted that the girl would be found, but wise heads sagely and forlornly believed that Candela had already been shipped north.

Until her body was found, about 30 blocks from where she lived. The discovery of Candela’s body turned the entire case on its head, as human traffickers evaporated and a motive gap emerged. It was then revealed that Labrador had received an attempt at a ransom or extorsion; on the same evening, it emerged that Candela’s father was in prison for motorway stick-ups. Before long, whisperings of drug involvement started to bubble up to the surface, and suggestions that other members of her family were involved in the drug trade, including perhaps her mother who might have known the kidnappers, made Candela’s case unique, more disturbing, and increasingly obscure.

Suddenly everyone looked sheepish. Several bandwagons that had been settled in for the long term vanished into the horizon, including the actors who declared a march in Candela’s name on Wednesday evening only to cancel it on Thursday morning. The media was not, and indeed has not been able to decide what the focus of the case is, torn between an ineffective or inept provincial police force (how was Candela undiscovered by 2,000 policemen if she was being held only 30 blocks from her home?), political focus on crime afflicting Buenos Aires (predominantly related to sex and drugs), or the grimy underside of a humble suburb.

One of the most amazing u-turns in the whole story has undoubtedly been the fall from grace of her family. The rapid shift of focus from distressed mother to drug-related criminality has exposed a sneering elitism behind Argentine media that calls to mind the reaction to Shannon Matthews’ ‘kidnap’ in the UK in 2008. The fact that the girl’s extended family seems to live in the area in which she was kidnapped and also be involved in activities that arouse suspicion has led to a media machine intent on digging up yet more dirt on characters that were previously portrayed as victims. So much for the benefits of the 24-hour rolling news cycle.

In terms of how politicians have dealt with the case, their approach has been far from measured. Opposition figures have leapt on the opportunity to slam an already besieged provincial police force in a province that accounts for 40% of Argentina’s electorate. The province governor, Daniel Scioli, encouraged sharp criticism for his arrival of the scene where Candela’s body was found by helicopter, leading to suggestions that her body had actually been discovered earlier than admitted and that the governor was waiting for the photographers to be ready.

Prosecutors have admitted to be overwhelmed and to be searching for a motive. The subsequent arrest of nine people, including a 75-year-old mechanic and his son, has not revealed an alleged ring of professional kidnappers and murderers, but a confused bunch of local characters, none of whom really fit the bill (two carpenters, two mechanics, a local drugs dealer, a beauty salon worker…). Parsley, synonymous in this country with innocence, has literally been thrown at some of the suspects’ houses in sprigs. More people get arrested by the day, and others have already been released. Perhaps hugging Candela’s mother at the Pink House wasn’t such a great idea after all.

Other commentators have already suggested that the case is so huge because Argentines are desperate for something of interest when faced with the probability that the President will be re-elected in October. What better than a case that seems to unite drugs, inept and/or crooked coppers, ineffective politicians, and a family of criminals to remind Argentina that, in a year of elections, there is more to the country than voting.

In that sense, it is unlikely that the real motivations behind Candela’s kidnap and murder will ever become clear. The only certainty in this case is that a young girl died tragically in a country where innocence is a precious commodity.