A Buenos Aires court imposes the maximum sentence on a dozen ex-soldiers for their participation in the so-called ‘death flights’
During the seven years of Argentina’s dictatorship, from 1976 to 1983, the Campo de Mayo military complex became the greatest exponent of horror. In these facilities, located 30 kilometers from the capital, barely 1% of the more than 4,000 victims admitted there survived. Many didn’t even have a chance to know their whereabouts because of extermination methods such as the ‘death flights’, so called because the victims were thrown into the Río de la Plata to drown after being drugged. For these and other atrocities, ten former soldiers were sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday in a landmark trial that concludes one of the darkest pages in the country’s history.
During the nearly two hours it took to read the verdict, the number two federal court in San Martín, in Buenos Aires, made it clear that both the ten ex-soldiers sentenced to the maximum sentence and the other nine former members of the Armed Forces Armed with 4 to 22 years in prison, they committed crimes against humanity. Each of the verdicts was met with cheers and applause from a crowd gathered at the court’s doors, including the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo association, who joined the case as plaintiffs.
Not surprisingly, among the 323 victims for whose deaths or disappearances the defendants were blamed, there were 14 pregnant women whose children were handed over to appropriators. “Of the children born during their mother’s imprisonment or who were abducted along with their mothers and fathers, five have already returned, but we are still looking for ten of them, now adults,” the grandmothers said. from Plaza de Mayo in a statement. pronunciation. Abuses against the people detained in Campo de Mayo, including torture, insidious murders and even rapes involving two or more people, were mainly committed in El Campito, the clandestine detention center located in that military complex. and it was the largest in the hands of the military, as described by Judge Daniel Gutiérrez when reading the verdict.
Among those sentenced to life imprisonment is the head of the Campo de Mayo military garrison, Santiago Omar Rivero, 98, who was already under house arrest for previous reasons. Rivero had received the maximum sentence in more than a dozen trials, including Monday’s landmark ruling that found the existence of “death flights” departing from the military facilities he commanded.
Wednesday’s verdict has brought an end to Argentina’s largest crimes against humanity trial since 2006. The process started three years ago. In that time, the judges have heard more than 700 witnesses, who have appeared mainly electronically as the hearings were held in the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic. Particularly relevant is the story of the ex-conscripts, the young people who did military service in those years, who were largely the ones who were able to discover the atrocities on Campo de Mayo. given the small number of survivors.
Source: La Verdad
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