After accepting a three-year sentence in a summary trial in which he acknowledged his involvement in an illicit association and regaining freedom in 2019 after serving time in Marcos Paz prison, this Friday Roger Natividad Terán assumed the presidency of the Municipal Council of the PJ in the city of Corrientes, as if nothing had happened.
Natividad Terán was the former mayor of Itatí who was arrested in 2017, accused of collaborating with drug trafficking in the city during the well-known Operativo Sapucay by the Gendarmerie.
The image of his arrest, in which he was seen handcuffed, with his head down and in sandals, completely contrasts with his new public appearance at the political event where he presented himself as the highest party authority. The event took place at De La Costa, his own restaurant.
Roger Natividad Terán.
The news was announced on the official site of the Justicialist Party of Corrientes, led by Senator Ana Almirón. However, the publication omitted any reference to his recent past, despite the fact that the leader always defended his "innocence".
According to the same publication, Terán was accompanied by the PJ candidate for mayor of Itatí, Juan José Fernández, as well as by provincial councilors Justo Estoup and Omar Molina, members of the party leadership in the province.
The newspaper Norte highlighted that the Terán family never distanced themselves from politics. His daughter, Vanina Soledad Terán, was elected councilor in 2018, and two years later, his brother Nelson Javier Terán held the same position, a term that ends this year.
Currently, the mayoralty of Itatí is in the hands of Francisco Gato Romero, who is in the last year of his administration that began in 2021.
Roger Natividad Terán.
Operativo Sapucay
Itatí, a town in Corrientes with 6,000 inhabitants on the banks of the Paraná River, was the epicenter of an unprecedented case that resulted in multiple convictions. From the mayor to the commissioner, several authorities were accused of operating under the protection of the judicial system.
Roger Terán was not the only one arrested. The deputy mayor Fabio Adrián Aquino; the commissioner Diego "Negro" Ocampo Alvarenga; a sergeant of the Federal Police; a Gendarmerie commander and a Prefecture agent were also apprehended.
In total, 37 arrest warrants were issued. During the operation, 40 vehicles, three boats, and two trucks were seized.
Behind these arrests was an organization that transported up to 700 kilos of marijuana from Paraguay across the river, in trips that did not exceed four minutes. The criminal network was led by the "fisherman" Carlos "Cachito" Bareiro, in coordination with the drug lord Federico "Morenita" Marín, who was captured in October 2018.
Marín managed to escape in February 2023, but his flight ended in August of that same year, when he died in a confrontation with the Gendarmerie.
The investigation into this organization began in 2014 in Federal Court No. 12, under the direction of Sergio Torres. It was determined that the marijuana shipments were distributed in AMBA slums, as well as in Rosario, Córdoba, Tucumán, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, and Catamarca.
Between 2011 and 2017, 18 tons of marijuana linked to this gang were seized. However, many of these cases stalled during the tenure of former federal judge Carlos Soto Dávila, who had electoral jurisdiction in Corrientes for 23 years.
His arrest and prosecution in 2018 exposed how he had favored various drug traffickers with his rulings, including "Cachito" and "Morenita".
