Uruguayan justice is complicit in horror: Moisés Martínez is not a murderer

The 12-year prison sentence imposed on Moisés Martínez is a legal and moral scandal. It is not a sentence against just any murderer: it is the final revictimization of a young man who, after decades of domestic terror, did what the Uruguayan State steadfastly refused to do for years: protect his family from a

convicted sexual predator.

Carlos Martínez, the father, was convicted in 2010 for a continuing crime of indecent violence against his own daughter Sara, who reported more than 60 systematic abuses since she was 12 years old. The sentence handed down was three years and two months. He was just one and a half years old. He was released for “good behavior”. The same system that today severely punishes Moses decided, fifteen years ago, that a serial child abuser deserved to return to the streets and live with his victims. That decision was not a technical error: it was an active complicity

.

Because when justice frees a rapist from his own daughter after serving less than half of an already ridiculous sentence, it is sending a clear message: domestic sexual abuse is not that serious. The pain of the victims, the psychological consequences, the daily terror, all of this is worth less than the “good behavior” of a monster. Carlos Martínez's early release was not an act of mercy; it was a slow death sentence for his family. It was the guarantee that hell would continue

.

Moisés Martínez grew up in that hell. Beats, threats, abuses against their sisters, a climate of constant terror. The defense demonstrated in court that the young man suffered a “complex trauma” and an “emotional collapse” after learning new details of the abuse days before the incident. It wasn't a premeditated hate murder: it was the explosion of someone who saw, once again, that the State was not going to protect him. The father was there, free, unpunished, and Justice — the same one that had released him — continued to look

the other way.

And now that same Justice, through Judge María Noel Odriozola, denies Moisés the “legal pardon” of Article 36 of the Criminal Code. He recognizes the years of violence, recognizes the context of abuse, but decides that it is not enough to exempt from responsibility. What else did the magistrate need to see? That the father continued to abuse? That another sister would end up shattered? That Moses committed suicide out of desperation

?

The prosecution and the judge hide behind the “law” to justify 12 years in prison. But the law is not an abstract entity: it is applied by human beings. And those human beings, with their decision in 2010, left a sexual abuser free to continue destroying his family. That is the real guilt. The Uruguayan justice system not only failed to protect the victims: it was complicit with the abuser in not keeping him locked up as long as necessary. Upon releasing it, he signed the certificate that the Martínez family would continue

to be victims.

Moises Martinez didn't kill his father out of revenge. He killed him because the State failed him, his sisters and his mother for fifteen years. He killed him because Justice preferred the “good behavior” of a rapist to the physical and mental integrity of his children. Today, that same system condemns him with the minimum penalty of aggravated homicide, as if the context of decades of abuse didn't matter

.

The defense will appeal, and must do so with all possible force. Because this case isn't just about Moisés Martínez. These are all the victims of domestic violence who see how the State frees its aggressors and then punishes those who, in desperation, take justice into their hands when the system closes all the

doors to them.

The Uruguayan justice system has its hands stained with blood in this case. He released the abuser. He condemned the son who couldn't stand it anymore. And now he intends to wash his hands by saying that he “applied the law

”.

No. It applied impunity for the father and selective rigor for the son. That's not justice. That is complicity. And until that complicity is publicly recognized, cases such as that of Moisés Martínez will continue to be repeated. Because when the State protects the predator, sooner or later someone — tired of waiting — will take the place that Justice abandoned

.

Moisés Martínez is not a criminal. It is living proof of the utter failure of a system that prefers to release rapists rather than defend

its victims.