Massacre of Margarita Belén

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Massacre of Margarita Belén was an episode of the 1970s' "Dirty War" in Argentina. It involved the torture and execution of 22 political prisoners, near the town of Margarita Belén, Chaco Province, on 13 December 1976, in a joint operation of the Argentine Army and the Chaco Provincial Police. Argentina was at the time ruled by a military junta, who had ousted in March 1976 the constitutional government of Isabel Martínez de Perón and was conducting the so-called National Reorganization Process.

The December 1976 massacre was one of many cases included in the Trial of the Juntas in 1985, two years after the end of the dictatorship. The Buenos Aires Federal Chamber found junta leader Jorge Rafael Videla guilty of homicide. The Federal Chambers of Rosario and Paraná dictated the same sentence for Cristino Nicolaides, junta leader Leopoldo Galtieri and Santa Fe Provincial Police chief Wenceslao Ceniquel.

Ricardo Brinzoni, Secretary General of the Chaco military province during the dictatorship, and Chief of Staff of the Army from 1999 to 2003, has also been accused of being responsible of the massacre.

1 The 13 December 1976 massacre
2 1985 Trial of the Juntas
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] The 13 December 1976 massacre

The prisoners were mostly members of the Peronist Youth. Some of them had been legally detained at Penitentiary Unit #7 in Resistencia, Chaco, while others were brought from prisons in Misiones Province; on 12 December they were all taken to the Resistencia police headquarters, tortured, and locked up in individual cells. A military order to move the prisoners to another prison in Formosa was allegedly received during the night. The military took the prisoners away and drove them along National Route 11 in two vehicles, escorted by a police car. At some point near Margarita Belén, the prisoners were shot and placed in several vehicles. Prior to that, according to a member of the police, the female prisoners were raped and three of the male prisoners were castrated, along with further tortures. Ten bodies were taken to Resistencia's cemetery and buried in graves that had been prepared beforehand.

The official version indicated that the convoy had been attacked on the road, and that three of the prisoners had died in the shooting that followed, while the rest had fled. These allegations of attacks, used to mask illegal executions, were commonplace during what the junta called a "Dirty War" (a term refused by jurists during the 1985 Trial of the Juntas).

It is believed that the massacre, which was ordered by then-Colonel Cristino Nicolaides, was intended as retaliation for the attack on Regiment 29 in Formosa performed by an unindentified armed organization on 5 October 1975.

[edit] 1985 Trial of the Juntas

Further information: Trial of the Juntas

The massacre was one of many cases included in the Trial of the Juntas in 1985, two years after the end of the dictatorship. The Buenos Aires Federal Chamber sentenced that the official version of the story lacked verosimilitude and found junta leader Jorge Rafael Videla guilty of homicide. The Federal Chambers of Rosario and Paraná dictated the same sentence for Cristino Nicolaides, junta leader Leopoldo Galtieri and Santa Fe Provincial Police chief Wenceslao Ceniquel.