Argentina: The Pomar Family Tragedy · Global Voices
Jorge Gobbi

In the last weeks the Argentinean media made an extensive coverage about the disappearance of the Pomar family. On November 14, Fernando Pomar, his wife Gabriela Viagrán, and their two children Candelaria and Pilar were travelling by car to the city of Pergamino, located 220 Km. away from Buenos Aires, and went missing after passing a toll.
Both police and media made various hypothesis about the missing family, many of which accused the father, Fernando Pomar, as the responsible and possible murder.
On December 8 the car was found near Pergamino city, flipped over at the side of a road. All family members were found dead, reported newspaper El Clarín [es]. Police stated the cause was a car accident: the car flipped when it could not make a curve. The high pastures alongside the road might have avoided finding it sooner.
After the finding of the police, two main topics were mainly discussed by the Argentinean community. The first one was the inefficiency of the police. On Twitter, under the hashtag “#pomar” [es], one can find many opinions about the lack of capability of the Buenos Aires province Police to solve cases.
User @la_despistada [es] writes:
La misma polícia que investigó el caso Pomar es la que lucha contra la inseguridad, protegiendonos???. #pomar
Also user christian4oux [es] shares:
la impotencia que me genera que la institución que nos brinda “seguridad” es tan corrupta e inepta #policía #pomar
To blogger JSK-SDE [es] it is hard to believe that it took 24 days to find the car:
Se sabe que el lugar es transitado, hay numerosos establecimientos cerca, que ¿nadie vio o sintió nada?. Me es muy difícil creerlo, 24 días son muchos días para que nadie vea ni sienta nada.
Blogs Soy Más de lo Mismo [es] and Visualmente [es] also joined the discussion on insecurity.
The other main topic discussed was the performance of the media. Both TV shows and newspapers exposed all sorts of theories about the family. On Magia Crítica [es], Alejandro Agostinelli talks about the media who featured “psychics” to discuss the case:
Parapsicólogos y videntes dijeron que estaban vivos. Ufólogos hablaron de teleportaciones. Expertos en casos policiales se ensañaron con el padre. O con el padre del padre. Ahora sabemos que la familia Pomar murió en un accidente de tránsito.
On Twitter, user Daniel Molina [es] says:
El caso Pomar es el índice de seriedad del periodismo argentino: todo lo que dijeron era mentira, sin atenuantes
More about the coverage of the media can be found on blogs La Puta Pituca [es] and Los Lanzallamas [es].
On Seguridad Vial [es], they prefer to draw attention to another topic: the case will hopefully help to improve the safety policy of the roads.
Ojalá que estas muertes no hayan sido en vano y que ahora que el caso se esclareció -con un final trágico pero que “no vende”- no quede todo en el olvido. Que los colegas de la prensa que tanto escribieron y hablaron en vano, que ahora al menos llenen espacios exigiendo más seguridad vial, algo que nunca está de más.