| Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 May 1929 Argentina |
| Charge(s) | Homicide, torture, kidnapping |
| Penalty | life imprisonment |
| Status | in prison |
| Occupation | Former senior Argentine police officer |
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (born 1 May 1929) is a former senior Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship. Etchecolatz was an active participant in the "anti-subversion operation" known as the National Reorganization Process. For his part in this operation, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, in 2006, on charges of homicide, illegal deprivation of freedom (kidnapping), and torture. The tribunal, besides passing the sentence, stated that Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina".[1] The term "genocide", introduced by the accusers, was thus employed for the first time in the official treatment of "Dirty War" crimes.
The "Dirty War" was a series of atrocities committed under the military dictatorship of Argentina during 1976 to 1983. The dictatorship began with a coup d'état staged against President Isabel Perón by a military junta led by General Jorge Rafael Videla. During the military rule, as was subsequenely established,[2] tens of thousands of (political) dissidents were either killed or "forcibly disappeared".
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Etchecolatz served as Commissioner General of Police, directly reporting to Police Chief Ramón Camps. He served as Director of Investigations of the provincial police from March 1976 until late 1977. During his period in office, Buenos Aires Province had the highest number of illegal detentions in the country. In particular, Etchecolatz was second in command during the so-called Night of the Pencils, when several high school students were detained and then tortured and some of them murdered.[3]
In 1983, democratic rule returned to Argentina. In 1986, Etchecolatz was sentenced to 23 years for illegal detention and forced disappearances, but was spared prison because of the "Pardon Laws" (the Ley de Punto Final and the Ley de Obediencia Debida), which halted and rolled back investigations of crimes committed during the so-called Dirty War of the Argentine dictatorship against "subversives".
After his release, Etchecolatz wrote a book defending his actions during the dictatorship, called La otra campaña del Nunca Más (The other Never Again campaign), a counter-reference to the Nunca Más (Never Again) report produced by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons. Jorge and Marcelo Gristelli, owners of a Catholic publishing house,[4] presented the book in 1998 at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair. Etchecolatz decided not to appear in public, because according to the Gristellis, he "had received threats".
In his book, Etchecolatz stated: "I never had, or thought to have, or was haunted by, any sense of blame. For having killed? I was the executor of a law made by man. I was the keeper of divine precepts. And I would do it again." In 2001, the Gristellis were seen guarding Etchecolatz as he came out of a court in Buenos Aires and reportedly used violence against left-wing demonstrators who allegedly confronted and insulted Etchecolatz.[2]
Etchecolatz faced civil trials outside the purview of the Pardon Laws (which were restricted to acts committed in the context of military or police procedure). In 2004, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the abduction of a "disappeared" couple's child and the suppression of the child's true identity.[5] He was imprisoned in Villa Devoto in 2004 and 2005, but was later allowed to continue the sentence under house arrest due to his advanced age (over 70 years old at the time).
Although Etchecolatz's lawyers claimed he also had a terminal illness, he was transferred, in 2006, to the Marcos Paz prison after police found a firearm in his home, in violation of the conditions of house arrest.[6][7]
Etchecolatz was the first official of the Dirty War to be prosecuted since the repeal of the "Pardon Laws". Beginning in June 2006, he faced a high-profile trial for human rights abuses. On 19 September 2006, he was found guilty of the detention and torture of Jorge López and Nilda Eloy, and the homicides of Ambrosio Francisco De Marco, Patricia Graciela Dell'Orto, Diana Teruggi de Mariani, Elena Arce Sahores, Nora Livia Formiga and Margarita Delgado.
He is believed to have operated, together with Police Chief Ramón Camps, at least eight clandestine detention centres in La Plata, Quilmes, Banfield, and Martínez. More than 100 witnesses were called, including former president Raúl Alfonsín (1983–1989), under whose administration the Pardon Laws were passed.[8][9][10][11]
Etchecolatz criticized the procedures of the trial as biased and the judges as obedient to other powers. He called himself "an old man who is ill, with no money and no power", and "a part of a war that we [won] with the arms and that we're losing politically." Furthermore, he refused to acknowledge the authority of the judges, telling them "You are not the judge. The supreme judge awaits us after death. [...] It's not this tribunal that sentences me, it's you." The last thing he said before hearing the sentence was to claim he was "a prisoner of war" and "a political prisoner".
A witness in the trial, Jorge Julio López, who was among those illegally detained, disappeared after being seen for the last time on 17 September 2006. The provincial government offered a 200,000 peso (US$ 64,000) reward for information on his whereabouts. López, a 77-year-old retired mason with Parkinson's disease, was initially suspected of having suffered posttraumatic stress disorder after re-living his ordeal during the trial, or that he may have been threatened and chosen to protect himself, but, after a few days, the theory that he had been kidnapped gained weight among the authorities. Buenos Aires Governor Felipe Solá stated that López "could be the first desaparecido since the years of state terrorism", and that this could be intended "to intimidate future witnesses or block their participation in other trials". President Kirchner warned "The past is not defeated... [But] we cannot go back to that past". Human and civil rights organizations allege that active and retired provincial police personnel took part in the kidnapping of López, as a way to intimidate other witnesses and impede future trials.[12][13]
On 6 October 2006, a demonstration, gathering tens of thousands at the Plaza de Mayo, demanded López be found.[14][15][16] As of 25 November 2011[update] López has yet to be located.
On 27 September 2006, judge Carlos Rozanski, president of the court that sentenced Etchecolatz, confirmed he received a long letter which claimed that judges were being pressured by the national government and which denounced those who "from the offices of power do not look for justice but for revenge against those who defended the Nation." The letter was signed by the self-styled Third International Congress of Victims of Terrorism - Barcelona - Spain, although the official Third International Congress of Terror Victims, held in Valencia, Spain, was not involved. The three trial judges also received threatening telephone calls.
The same letter was received by Santa Fe federal judge Reinaldo Rodríguez and by several other federal prosecutors. The text was "well-written" and correctly addressed, and contained covert threats, pointing out that the senders "are bound, as citizens, to monitor that [judicial officials] fulfill their functions", and that "this farce will end soon, and those who have not honored their posts will be accountable to a particularly impartial court".[17][18]