The five-year-old boy has been missing since June 2024. “Our only priority remains finding him alive,” they said.
Shortly before the first anniversary of Loan Danilo Peña’s disappearance in Corrientes, his parents issued a statement asking that the child, whose whereabouts have been unknown since June 2024, not be forgotten. They emphasized that they are still searching for him alive to “bring him back home.”
In the document, the minor’s family described these months as “an endless struggle” and thanked the solidarity of each person who supported them with words of encouragement and other gestures during this time.
Toward the end of the text, the child’s parents asked that Loan’s case not be forgotten, while asking society not to erase his face from the collective memory until he appears.
“We urge the media to carry out their work with responsibility, prudence, and respect, remembering that behind this tragedy is an innocent child and a devastated family,” they stated.
And they concluded: “Finally, we ask all of society not to forget Loan. His little face continues to wait for us in every corner of the country. Let’s not leave him alone. Let’s not erase him from the collective memory. Because until he appears, we will continue searching for him. Everyone. Always.”
The request from the parents of the minor, last seen on June 13, 2024, in the town of 9 de Julio, Corrientes, when he was at his paternal grandmother’s house, was released days after a major development in the case: the decision by the Federal Court of Appeals of Corrientes to uphold the prosecutions and pretrial detentions of the seven defendants in the case.
These are Antonio Benítez, Laudelina Peña, María Victoria Caillava, Carlos Guido Pérez, Daniel “Fierrito” Ramírez, Walter Maciel and Mónica Millapi, who will remain in preventive detention, according to the judges Selva Spessot, Ramón Luis González and Mirta Sotelo .
For Millapi, the house arrest option granted by the court of first instance was upheld, based on the need to preserve the defendant’s bond with her minor children, in line with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In the case of former police commissioner Walter Maciel , the Chamber also partially revoked the indictment for the crimes of aggravated concealment and threats , considering that he should not be charged with these acts if, as the trial judge held, he had played a direct role in the abduction of the child. For this reason, the judges considered him—in this instance— a necessary participant in the crime of abduction of a child under ten years of age.
The charges for threats against Maciel and Caillava were also revoked , considering that Judge Cristina Pozzer Penzo ‘s ruling did not adequately substantiate the existence of that crime. However, the remaining charges were upheld.