Argentine justice on Wednesday, July 6, sentenced ten former soldiers and policemen to life imprisonment for crimes committed during the dictatorship (1976-1983). They have been convicted of, among other things, murder, kidnapping, torture and rape. The crimes were committed in the Campo de Mayo barracks against 350 people, including pregnant women and employees of the German multinational Mercedes Benz. The defendants followed the reading of the court’s unanimous decision via video conference, and the courtroom was filled with relatives of the victims and members of human rights organizations.
Among the 350 victims were fourteen pregnant women whose children were stolen after birth. There was a secret maternity hospital in Campo de Mayo where illegally detained pregnant women gave birth in inhumane conditions before disappearing. The organization May Square Grandmothers estimates that during the dictatorship, about 400 children were born in captivity and illegally handed over to other people. 130 of them have recovered their original identity.
Many workers and union delegates from factories in the industrial zone north of Buenos Aires, including car makers Mercedes Benz and American Ford, were also among the victims.
The trial began in 2019 and was mostly held remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, there were 22 defendants, but two died during the trial. Many had already been convicted of crimes against humanity in other trials. 98-year-old former general Santiago Riveros is the highest-ranking officer sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. Riveros was sentenced to another life sentence on Monday, along with three other soldiers, for his role in the “death flights,” which consisted of dropping drug-laden prisoners into the sea from planes flying from Campo de Mayo. The former president of the military junta, Reynaldo Binhón, the former commander of this barracks who died in 2018, had already been convicted of the crimes committed in Campo de Mayo.
Since the repeal of the amnesty laws in 2006, there have been 278 convictions for crimes against humanity across the country, involving 1,070 people, many of whom were sentenced to life in prison.
Source: Le Figaro
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