Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
silence about the Dirty War. Veteran activists also spoke. “[This
memorial] is fruit of 28 years of what we human rights organizations,
family members, survivors, exiles, and the people have been doing to
maintain our banners of truth and justice and to preserve memory in
order that never again shall the crimes of state terrorism be repeated,”
said one human rights advocate (Ginzberg, 2004, 117).
For many, the convictions came slowly. In 2005, the son of former
junta member Admiral Emilio Massera was convicted of taking over
WHAT HAPPENS TO WITNESSES
J
orge Julio López, 77, was a retired construction worker who had
endured years of imprisonment and torture following the last
military coup d'etat in 1976. When the trials resumed for human
rights abuses, López gave testimony in court about the murder of a
young couple by former Buenos Aires police commissioner Miguel
Etchecolatz. “Those assassins killed [Patricia] without mercy,” he testi-
fied during the trial in June 2006. “[Etchecolatz] personally directed
that slaughter.” López provided the most graphic and disturbing details
about tortures, rapes, and wanton murders by policemen in the facilities
in which he was incarcerated. The police chaplain frequently came into
one prison but never intervened to protect the prisoners, López said.
“There they pricked us with electric cattle prods all night long,” he told
the court. “Etchecolatz had no compassion. He himself would come
and kick us” (Pertot). The judge sentenced the ex-police commissioner
to life in prison. Shortly afterwards, Jorge Julio López disappeared, and
many Argentines began to fear that the right-wing death squads were
returning two decades after the Dirty War had ended.
Judges, prosecutors, and witnesses in other trials have received
death threats. One witness about to testify about the sale of the
babies of murdered women had been taken into protective custody.
He died of poisoning in his cell. Another was found dead of a gunshot
wound to the head. Still other potential witnesses in a separate trial
received the following threatening note: “No one of you will escape
us. We have your telephone, address, family, access to mail. We are
going to flush out all of you in your houses with the family inside.”
Sources:
Hauser, Irina. “No se va a escapar ni uno.”
Página 12
, February
8, 2003; Pertot, Walter. “Etchecolatz dirigió personalmente la massacre
de Patricia y Ambrosio.”
Pagina 12 Anuaro 2006
, pp. 215-216.
