Argentine prosecutor seeks trial for engineer and architect after a tower's brick facade killed a man

Prosecutor María Celeste Blasco signed the request on Nov. 4, La Voz del Interior reported. The two men face a charge of aggravated negligent destruction (estrago culposo calificado), which carries one to five years in prison under Argentina's penal code. Both rejected the charges during the investigation. The filing asks that the case move to an oral trial.

On the night of May 17, 2025, strong gusts tore a large section of brick veneer off the María Reina V tower at a height of about 45 meters (148 feet). It came down on the neighboring property at Bulevar San Juan 673, which held Posto Bar and a family home. Ramiro Alaniz Cortés, 34, was crushed and died at the scene.

The prosecution leans on an expert report from a testing center at the National University of Córdoba, signed by civil engineer Pedro Huerta Soaje in February 2026. It found that the gusts, about 94 km/h (58 mph), were within the loads local building rules require structures to resist. The experts counted only 30 ties holding the veneer, where a wall that tall needed at least 231. According to the report, the work carried out by FITO S.R.L. lacked metal reinforcement and a proper structural connection, and did not meet the rules on seismic and lateral loads. Built to code, the experts concluded, the wall would not have collapsed.

Prosecutors say the engineer ran the construction of the exterior masonry, and the architect, hired as technical director, let the work go ahead without checking it against the rules. No city officials were charged. The investigation found the city only checks zoning and plans, while construction methods and safety rest with a project's technical directors and builders.