By Stella Calloni on July 3, 2020
30,000 disappeared in Argentina Photo: Bill Hackwell
Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas announced Thursday the discovery of a new clandestine detention center that was operating during the past military dictatorship (1976-1983) and which was under the control of the then Ministry of State Intelligence (SIDE – Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado). This is located in the same block as Automotores Orletti, the site of Operation Condor in the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where the victims, most of whom were disappeared, were taken. (Operation Condor, it should be remembered, was a covert CIA coordinated program that operated in the countries in the Southern Cone of Latin America beginning in the 1970s that resulted in 60,000 deaths of leftists and progressive, 400,000 imprisoned along with 30,000 disappeared in Argentina alone.)
The announcement shocked human rights organizations. The existence of this site had been mentioned in the testimony of the survivors, but the exact address had not been located. The victims of Operation Condor may also have passed through this clandestine center of torture, detentions, and killings, set up in 1976, as noted in the testimony concerning the presence of foreigners, especially from Uruguay, and it could have been closed when the Orletti site was closed after the spectacular escape of an Argentine married couple in 1976.
Rafecas pointed out the importance of this discovery, which stemmed from the testimonies of victims who described the zone and structure of the place where they were held captive, but in reviewing the documents declassified by the United States, which are still being carefully studied in Argentina, investigators found the address of a house at the address Bacacay 3570, with the certainty that this location was rented by the SIDE.
Those responsible for operating the Orletti site were also active here, including the gang of Aníbal Gordon, of the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina (Triple A), a member of the so-called “mob” of the former SIDE agents, together with already convicted Eduardo Ruffo, César Alejandro Enciso, Miguel Ángel Furci, Honorio Carlos Martínez Ruiz and others.
“The victims’ description and the plans of the layout drawn by them correspond to that given by the woman who bought the house on Bacacay in 1977.”
The owner of the house stated that when she bought the very dilapidated house, there were women’s shoes of old rose color and men’s shoes in the basement. What is important in this case is that the same arrangement was preserved that the victims had described, since a court order prohibited making changes, and the new discovery makes another investigation possible.
It is known that there are other clandestine detention centers that have not yet been discovered, but each day the complete map of the military dictatorship is brought closer to discovery, and justice, together with organizations and families, while operating at maximum capacity with this new methodology.
Meanwhile, in the province of Buenos Aires, illegal spying that took place during the previous government of Maria Eugenia Vidal was being investigated; it was considered much more serious than that set up by the then-president Mauricio Macri. The representative for Buenos Aires from the Frente de Todos party, Susana Gonzáles, confirmed that these were carried out by the Internal Affairs division of the provincial Ministry of Security, which could only investigate personnel of the police.
However, this was expanded to seek information regarding 48,000 people, including judges, representatives, senators, supervisors, businessmen, union members, and also ex-governor Daniel Scioli, who was the presidential candidate of the Frente de Todos party.
The Immigration Department was also complicit in this, informing on who entered and left the country, with many of the cases investigated turned over to journalists and media favorable to the government for improper and illegal uses, according to the denouncement. Among those implicated are the ex-governor, ex-Security Minister Cristian Ritondo, the attorney general for the provincial Supreme Court Julio Conte Grand, also accused of other crimes, and other important former functionaries of the government.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau