- “Breaking the Silence: The Maria Soledad Case” looks at the 1990 murder of a 17-year-old girl.
- The Netflix documentary explains how Maria Soledad’s death sparked national outrage in Argentina.
- Here’s what happened to Guillermo Luque and Luis Tula, who were involved in her death.
“Breaking the Silence: The Maria Soledad Case” shines the spotlight on Argentina’s first murder to be classed as femicide.
It’s the latest true crime offering from Netflix that highlights a case of shocking violence against women, following “Worst Ex Ever,” and “Lover, Stalker, Killer.”
Maria Soledad was 17 when she attended a party in San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, the capital of Argentina’s Catamarca province, on Friday, September 7, 1990.
Soledad’s boyfriend Luis Tula, kidnapped her from the party and gave her over to a group of men, including Guillermo Luque, the son of Argentine politician Ángel Luque.
Her body was found three days later on a roadside seven kilometers from the city. The authorities found that Soledad had been raped. She also had a broken jaw, her left eye socket was severely injured, and she had cigarette burns across her body. The authorities concluded Soledad died of cardiac arrest due to a cocaine overdose.
It was suspected that a group of men were involved with Soledad’s murder, but Luque and Tula were the only ones who faced a trial.
Here’s what happened to them.
Guillermo Luque was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the rape and murder of Maria Soledad
The pair went to trial in 1996, but Judge Juan Carlos Sampayo’s ruling was overturned by the provincial court because it was deemed biased toward Luque and Tula.
A new trial began in 1997, and Luque was sentenced to 27 years in prison for Soledad’s rape and murder in February 1998.
However, La Nacion reported that he was freed in 2010 after serving two-thirds of his sentence with good behavior.
At the time, he maintained his innocence during a press conference, saying: “I am an innocent man who was in prison.”
Luis Tula was sentenced to nine years in prison for his involvement in Soledad’s murder
Tula was sentenced to nine years in prison for his involvement in the rape and murder of his girlfriend, but he was not found solely responsible for her death.
He trained to become a lawyer while in prison, and was freed in 2003 after serving five years of his sentence. Tula still lives in Catamarca.
In June 2019, his ex-wife accused him of domestic abuse and claimed that he tried to stab her 25-year-old son from a previous relationship, Pagina 12 reported. Tula has not publicly responded to the allegations.
The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, was granted a restraining order against Tula in April 2019, but told the outlet “I am scared, I am afraid that he will kill me, that he will order the killing of my eldest son.”
