RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Six Officers Arrested for Kidnapping of Minors

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 10 2000 (IPS) - Argentine courts are questioning six non-commissioned Navy officers arrested on charges of kidnapping at least 12 children of political prisoners during the 1976-83 dictatorship.

The non-commissioned officers, two of whom are retired, were arrested Friday night on the orders of Judge María Servini de Cubría. They live in the Las Toninas military housing complex near a naval base where an illegal detention centre operated in the resort town of Mar del Plata, 400 kms south of Buenos Aires.

From 10,000 to 30,000 people were “disappeared” by the de facto regime, and around 500 small children of political prisoners, kidnapped with their parents or born into captivity, were reportedly abducted and illegally adopted.

Witnesses in the Mar del Plata case – whose names were not reported – said “newborn babies were given away as if they were kittens,” and that it was an open secret in the military housing complex. They also said that no one wanted the “little dark babies,” only the “little white ones.”

This is the first time since investigations got underway in the past few years on the kidnapping of babies born to mothers in captivity during the dictatorship that several officers have been taken into custody at the same time and under conditions of secrecy.

Other courts prosecuting officers for this specific offence issued arrest warrants for a single individual, such as in the case of nine former officers, including general Jorge Videla and admiral Emilio Massera.

The latest arrests could give a major boost to the investigations aimed at proving that the kidnapping of minors, falsification of identities and forgery of public documents was a systematic crime committed by the dictatorship, based on a preconceived plan.

The charges were not included in the mid-1980s trial that ended with the conviction of the former commanders of the de facto regime’s military juntas. At that time, it was believed that the disappearance of children of political prisoners took place in an isolated fashion.

The 1990 presidential pardon letting the convicted officers off the hook did not cover the offence of kidnapping and illegal adoption of children, considered a crime that continues to be committed until the kidnapped person turns up dead or alive.

The six officers taken into custody in Mar del Plata are being prosecuted on charges of kidnapping of minors, and according to sources with the judiciary, further arrests could take place over the next few days.

It was also reported that around 20 young adults will have to decide whether or not to submit to genetic tests in order to verify their true identity.

Servini de Cubría is one of the judges involved in a case that opened in mid-1999 on the basis of denunciations filed by Abuelas (Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo, a human rights group created with the aim of tracking down the estimated 500 kidnapped minors. Of that total, 64 have been found, a number of whom have been reunited with their biological families.

The fact that the newborn babies kidnapped in the 1970s are today adults means they must authorise the tests to verify their identities. Several have refused to submit to the blood tests.

The judge, who is questioning the detainees this week in Buenos Aires, ordered a search of Navy headquarters and other Navy offices where irregularities were found in birth certificates dating back to the de facto regime.

Records were found, for example, of women supposedly giving birth in their homes – not a common practice in Argentina – or in unknown locales, as well as births to infertile parents – alleged attempts at covering up the kidnapping of children of the disappeared, and the changing of their identities.

Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo provided Judge Servini de Cubría with an irregular birth certificate of a young woman born during the dictatorship, whose supposed parents suddenly picked up and moved after non-commissioned officer Policarpo Vázquez was arrested and accused of kidnapping the daughter of a disappeared couple.

Vázquez was one of the non-commissioned officers taken into custody Friday, and is believed to have provided the judge with information on the case.

The young woman registered as Vázquez’s daughter is 22 years old today, and refuses to undergo genetic testing.

The woman believed to be her biological grandmother, Inocencia Pegoraro, who has worked with Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo for over 20 years, searching for her granddaughter.

“Poor thing, she must feel terrible. I understand her and I don’t want to force her to do anything, I would just like to know the truth, confirm that she’s my granddaughter, know that she’s alive and well,” said Pegoraro between sobs.

Her daughter, Susana Pegoraro, was five months pregnant when abducted by the security forces. Both she and her husband, German national Ruben Bauer, remain missing.