RIGHTS-LATIN AMERICA: New Condor Evidence Now in European Courts

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Oct 30 1999 (IPS) - A Paraguayan human rights attorney has presented judges in Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland with new evidence on Operation Condor, the co-operative repressive efforts of Latin America’s Southern Cone dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s.

Paraguayan lawyer Martín Almada met with judges in the four countries entrusted with investigating crimes committed under the dictatorships of Argentina (1976-1983), Chile (1973-1990), Paraguay (1954-1989) and Uruguay (1973-1985).

The new evidence comes from Paraguay’s foreign ministry archives, its Interpol office and the “Archive of Terror,” as the five tonnes of documents Almada uncovered in 1992 are known. He told IPS the files had been stored at a branch office of the Asuncion police force.

In Italy, Almada presented several newly discovered documents to public prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo, who is investigating the forced disappearances of eight people, including three Argentineans of Italian origin.

Capaldo paid close attention to new information about the disappearance of Italian-Argentinean Alejandro Logoluso, arrested in Paraguay on March 29, 1977 and missing since that date.

Among the documents Capaldo received was a copy of a note from a subordinate officer to Pastor Coronel, chief of investigations in Paraguay at the time. The note informs Coronel that Logoluso and other Argentinean and Uruguayan detainees had been turned over to Argentina’s Army Intelligence Service on May 16, 1977.

On October 7, while Almada conferred with Capaldo on proof of the joint operations between the former Paraguayan and Argentinean dictatorships, British judge Ronald Bartle ruled in favour of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s extradition to Spain, where Pinochet faces charges of crimes against humanity.

Later, in Geneva, Almada testified before judge Christine Junod, providing documentation for the case of Alexis Jaccrd-Siegler, a student with double Chilean-Swiss citizenship who was arrested at the Buenos Aires airport on May 15, 1977 and turned over to Chilean police.

On the next leg of his European trip, the Paraguayan attorney gave new testimony in Paris to judge Roger Leloir who is collecting evidence on the disappearance of French citizens in Argentina during that country’s dictatorship.

In Madrid, his final stop, Almada provided judge Baltasar Garzón with 17 documents from Paraguay’s Archive of Terror, foreign ministry and police. Some of the files were discovered only in recent weeks.

After the documents from Paraguay’s foreign ministry and police materialised, lawyers for the prosecution in the human rights cases asked judge Garzón to use legal and diplomatic channels to obtain access to similar archives in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

Among the new documents of interest to Spain is one from inspector Alberto Cantero, “director of policy and related issues” for the Paraguayan secret police. The memorandum, dated April 9, 1977, informs the organisation’s chief about a taskforce meeting.

The taskforce was made up of Paraguayan military personnel, two officers from the Argentinean Army Intelligence Service and one of their Uruguayan counterparts.

According to Cantero’s note, the taskforce “thoroughly” questioned each one of the Uruguayan and Argentinean detainees. The memo highlights the “very productive” interrogation of Gustavo Edison Insaurralde Meliar, an activist from Uruguay’s leftist People’s Victory Party.

Another document now in the hands of the Spanish courts includes photographs and personal information of approximately 50 Uruguayans wanted by their country’s police authorities. “Captured, 25/4/75” is written above one of the photos.

This material concludes with a letter from the Uruguayan chief of police to his counterpart in Asuncion, asking for information about a list people “the Uruguayan army is ordered to arrest.”

The last item Paraguayan attorney handed Garzón was an Archive of Terror document in which the Joint Chiefs of the Paraguayan armed forces provide Pastor Coronel with a list of names and photographs “of the Brazilian subversives living in Argentina.”