The Supreme Court of Justice of Corrientes has confirmed the conviction of a producer for the death of a child and the injury of his cousin due to the spraying of agrochemicals on his field. The ruling states: "All the evidence assessed has provided the necessary degree of certainty for the judge's decision to issue a guilty verdict, considering that the fact is proven and the culpability is demonstrated without any doubt." The incident occurred in March 2011 on a tomato and vegetable farm in the town of Lavalle. The boy, Nicolás Arévalo, was running through the farm when he fell into the mud, having direct contact with the agrochemical. The verdict was against Ricardo Nicolás Prieto, who in 2020 was sentenced to three years of conditional imprisonment for the negligent homicide of Nicolás Arévalo and the negligent injuries to Celeste Estévez. The measure was taken after the provincial court rejected the appeal filed by Prieto's defense, thus confirming the penalty established by the Criminal Court of the Second Circumscription of Goya. His cousin, who tried to help him, was also affected in the process. It was demonstrated that the producer engaged in "improper and reckless conduct in the use of the chlorinated organophosphate alpha-endosulfan, an agrochemical that was in the mud of the ditch and in the air due to the drift of the poison." According to the authorities, this agrochemical caused the child to suffer an acute pulmonary edema, which led to his death.
