They are demanding that he be brought to justice for gender-based violence

Prosecutor Silvana Russi, temporary head of the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 43, requested that Leandro Esteban García Gómez (46), the ex-boyfriend of the singer Lourdes Fernández (44)is facing trial over a series of gender-based violence committed against the Bandana member between January and October this year.

In her request to Criminal and Correctional Judge No. 13, Diego Slupski, the prosecutor demanded that the defendant “be brought to justice” as the perpetrator of the crimes.minor serious injuries for bonding and for mediating gender-based violence; unlawful deprivation of liberty aggravated if the act was committed to the detriment of a person who deserves special respect and if force and coercion were used; And Threats coercive measures repeated three times”.

On November 4, the judge ordered preventive detention for the defendant and imposed an embargo of 15 million pesos against him.

“Leandro Esteban García Gómez and Cecilia Lourdes Fernández claimed a conflictual relationship and intermittently from early 2020 to October 2025, which was characterized by a persistent context of long-standing gender-based violence that was thereby entrenched various forms of physical and psychological aggression“repeated behaviors of emotional manipulation, harassment, control and progressive isolation of the victim from his family and emotional environment,” the prosecutor described in the indictment.

The first of the events attributed to García Gómez occurred last January 19thin his apartment, in Ravignani, 2100 Palermo. There, according to the allegation, after an argument out of jealousy, the defendant grabbed the victim by the hair while checking his cell phone, dragged him and inflicted injuries on his face, arm and neck.

A second case occurred in the same department between October 1st and 2nd. when, after another argument, the defendant allegedly punched Fernández in the head and kicked him in the ribs. On this occasion, the screams prompted a neighbor of the building to ring the doorbell and call 911, prompting members of the city police’s Neighborhood Police Station 14B to arrive on scene.

At that moment, the couple admitted to one of the police officers that they had been arguing, but said they were unhurt.

For the prosecution, García Gómez left the apartment after the police officers left He left his partner locked up “with no keys and no phone charger.”and deprived her of her freedom until she returned the next day.

For his part, Fernández told them about this attack and showed several people around him the bruises on his ribs. He told them all that he did not want medical treatment to avoid prosecution and “not to cause harm to the defendant.”

Meanwhile, the third event occurred between October 17th and 23rdwhen the victim was rescued from Ravignani’s apartment and the accused was arrested.

In this case, the public prosecutor’s office accused García Gómez of having “caused minor injuries and unlawfully deprived his partner of his personal freedom through coercion and physical attacks” in those days.

The third episode of violence was the one that finally gave rise to a judicial investigation based on the complaint of the singer’s mother, who filed a complaint October 22nd that he had not had any contact with his daughter since the beginning of the month.

The woman told the Central Office for Receiving Internet Complaints of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires that during her last contact on October 4, she noticed that she was “nervous, had obvious pain and scars on her face and head, which she tried to justify by saying that she had fallen from a ladder.”

Faced with this situation, the municipal police arrived at the apartment where García Gómez lived, but were able to enter it after almost 24 hours when they received the court order.

The man denied to the media that afternoon that Lourdes had been there. Eventually she was found by police officers and García Gómez was arrested.

In her subsequent statements before the judge and at the Domestic Violence Office of the Supreme Court of the Nation (CSJN), Fernández denied having suffered acts of violence. He also said that García Gómez was “a loving, intelligent and competent person”; and that he remained in the department of his own free will.

However, for the prosecution, the fact that the victim decided not to take criminal action against her ex-boyfriend constitutes this situation.”shows the cycle of violence she was subjected to and in which their personal choices and autonomy were conditioned by the naturalization, minimization and justification of the violence they suffered.”

“Fear of possible retaliation, emotional manipulation, emotional dependence, and the expectation of change from his partner shaped his actions and explained Fernández’s persistence in this dysfunctional bond,” Russi reflected.

In the course of the investigation it has now been determined that the man had threatened two friends of the victim so that they don’t interfere in their relationship. For this reason, the public prosecutor’s office requested that García Gómez be brought to trial for three threats of coercion, one of them in March 2024 and the other two on October 6 and 17.

Currently, García Gómez remains housed in the security department of the Contraventors Center of the City of Buenos Aires.