Argentina begins trial over disappearance of 5‑year‑old Loan Peña

A public oral trial opened in Corrientes, Argentina, to investigate the 2022 disappearance of five‑year‑old Loan Danilo Peña. The hearings are being held at the National Gendarmerie’s Escuadrón 48 facility under a strong security presence. A three‑judge Federal Oral Tribunal – judges Fermín Cerolini, Eduardo Belforte and Simón Pedro Bracco – will hear cases against seven alleged perpetrators, including the child’s aunt Laudelina Peña, her husband Antonio Benítez, former police commissioner Walter Maciel and others. A parallel proceeding will address alleged cover‑ups by additional suspects.

Prosecutors expect the case to last four to six months because of the volume of evidence – more than 90 bodies of proof and nearly 900 pages of documentation – and the large number of witnesses. The trial seeks to determine each defendant’s responsibility and to end the long‑standing silence surrounding the boy’s fate, which has kept Argentine society in suspense for over two years.