Who was Barreda, the brutal femicide whose crimes divided the country

More than 30 years after committing one of Argentina’s most infamous family murders, the story of Ricardo Barreda is landing on streaming platform Prime Video.  “Barreda,” a new Argentine film directed by Daniela Goggi, will premiere exclusively on Prime Video on August 28, bringing the gruesome murders to audiences in more than 240 countries and territories. Ricardo Barreda was a dentist from La Plata, a city about 60 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. On November 15, 1992, when he was 56, he killed four women with a rifle at the family home: his wife, Gladys McDonald; his mother-in-law, Elena Arreche; and his two adult daughters, Adriana and Cecilia.  The killings became one of the most shocking criminal cases in Argentina’s recent history. It should be noted that, while Barreda’s murder of four women was a femicide, it was not treated as such because the judicial figure did not exist in the Argentine legal system at the time the crimes were committed. What made the case particularly controversial was not only the brutality of the murders, but also Barreda’s attempts to explain what he had done. He initially tried to make the killings look like a robbery and later presented himself as a victim of alleged mistreatment by the women. Iconic case of the 90’s  His statements attracted enormous media attention, and the case became a national conversation about family violence, toxic relationships, and the way the media portrayed violent criminals. Television and newspapers followed the investigation and trial intensely, turning Barreda into a familiar figure to millions of Argentines. Public discussion often focused more on his personality and claims than on the four women he had killed. Barreda was eventually convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995. In prison, he studied law, received hundreds of pieces of fan mail, and eventually married a fan. In 2008, he was granted house arrest and three years later obtained conditional freedom.  He died in 2020 at 83. Throughout the years, Barreda’s face graced T-shirts and mugs, while the case reached television films, books, and mentions in popular Argentine rock songs by artists like Bersuit Vergarabat, Attaque 77, Horacio Fontova, and Sometidos por Morgan. Pop culture even created a misogynistic cult of “San Barreda,” a hypothetical patron saint of men who are victims of abuse by their wives, while also being a promoter of femicide. The film The new TV movie seeks to revisit the case. Directed by Daniela Goggi, whose credits include the films “Abzurdah” and “El hilo rojo (The red thread),” as well as the Netflix series “María Marta: El crimen del country” (The crime in the country club) — another story based on a famous murder case —- the film is a fictionalized account inspired by real events. Lauded TV, film, and theater actor Luis Machín plays Barreda, while Carla Peterson, Mercedes Morán, Maite Lanata, and Margarita Páez (the 22-year-old daughter of rock star Fito Páez) portray the four women who were murdered.  The cast also includes Marcelo Subiotto, Paola Barrientos, and Alberto Ajaka. The producer is Armando Bo, who produced the series “Cromañón” and “Moria.” In 2015, Bo received an Academy Award for the script of “Birdman,” directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.