RIGHTS-LATAM: Argentine Activists Meet Spain’s ‘Pinochet Judge’

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Apr 6 1999 (IPS) - Representatives of the Argentine rights group ‘Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo’ met Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon in Madrid Tuesday, where they announced that they would file charges against former dictators of Argentina and Chile.

The president of the Abuelas (Grandmothers), Estela Carlotto, and vice-president Rosa Roisinblit also said they would submit evidence to Garzon to enable him to extend his investigations to former de facto rulers of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, “accomplices and participants in Operation Condor.”

Details on Operation Condor, a joint operation to crack down on real or suspected opponents of the military regimes ruling Southern Cone nations in the 1970s and 1980s, are now being released thanks to the detention of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London.

Pinochet was arrested Oct 16 on a warrant for torture, terrorism and genocide issued by Spanish Judge Garzon.

Carlotto and Roisinblit told a news briefing that they would present Garzon with four cases proving that Operation Condor existed, as “a systematic, coordinated and multinational operation to commit crimes against humanity.”

According to the Abuelas and other human rights groups, the repressive network was created and coordinated by Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990.

One of the cases mentioned by Carlotto and Roisinblit was that of two Uruguayan children, Anatole and Victoria Gisona, who were abducted along with their parents in Argentina, taken to Chile and abandoned in a square in the coastal city of Valparaiso. Their parents are still missing.

Another case is that of Carla Artes Company, kidnapped along with her parents in Bolivia. Her father never reappeared.

The Bolivian police turned Carla and her mother, Graciela Artes, over to the Argentine army. Graciela was last seen in a concentration camp in Argentina during the 1976-83 de facto regime. Carla was given to an agent of the Argentine intelligence services, who registered her as his own daughter.

But after searching for years, her biological grandmother, Matilde Rutilo Artes – “Sacha” – finally found Carla, and won the custody battle.

Carla, age 23, one of the first abducted children of those “disappeared” by Argentina’s dictatorship to be found and recuperated by her biological relatives, announced Tuesday that she would also file charges.

Sacha, who represents the Abuelas in Spain, added that the group had publicly called on the families of victims of repression in Peru as well to get in contact with the association, and give testimony in the case being prepared by Garzon.

The Abuelas said they were convinced that the former dictators would be brought to justice in Spain.

But they stressed that efforts in Latin America must nonetheless continue in search of the truth about the whereabouts of the disappeared, the recovery of the real identities of kidnapped minors, and trials without impunity for human rights violators.

Britain’s House of Lords ruled Mar 24 that Pinochet did not enjoy immunity as a former head of state. But it drastically reduced the number of charges for which he could be tried if extradited to Spain, to those committed since 1988, when Britain signed the International Convention Against Torture.

Carlotto underlined that there were still people missing – 30,000 in Argentina and 2,000 in Chile, according to rights groups – people abducted at birth who remained in the hands of their kidnappers, and others who had been found, but had not yet recovered their true identities.

She stressed that each of these situations constituted ongoing crimes, torture and degradation that continued to be committed today, and whose perpetrators should be brought to justice.

The Abuelas also indicated the existence of a secret investigation by a Spanish court in search of individuals abducted as newborn infants by Southern Cone dictatorships, who are presently living in Spain with those who illegally “adopted” them.

Carlotto, Roisinblit and Sacha agreed that recent court action in Argentina – where several officers are facing charges in connection with the abduction of minors during the de facto regime – and in Spain had been positive. But no similar advances had been seen in Chile, they added.

The activists attributed the progress made by the courts to the evolution of democracy, the perseverance of survivors of the repression and the families of victims, and a newfound awareness seen among certain judges.

Asked if they would be frustrated if Britain decided not to extradite Pinochet to Spain, the Abuelas admitted that they would. But they added that “from every frustration, of which we have faced many, we draw more strength to continue fighting for truth and justice.”