The late Ricardo Brinzoni, Secretary General of the Chaco military province during the dictatorship, and Chief of Staff of the Army from 1999 to 2003, has also been accused of responsibility for the massacre.
[citation needed] The official military version reported that the convoy had been attacked on the road, and that at least five of the prisoners had died in the shooting that followed, while the rest had fled.
It is believed that the massacre, which was ordered by then-Colonel Cristino Nicolaides, was in retaliation for the attack on the 29th Mountain Infantry Regiment in Formosa, carried out by Montoneros guerrillas on 5 October 1975 and which cost the lives of 14 servicemen.
The Buenos Aires Federal Chamber sentenced that the official version of the story lacked verisimilitude and found junta leader Jorge Rafael Videla guilty of homicide.
The Federal Chambers of Rosario and Paraná dictated the same sentence for Cristino Nicolaides, junta leader Leopoldo Galtieri and Santa Fe Provincial Police chief Wenceslao Ceniquel.