By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Former Argentine general Eduardo Cabanillas has been sentenced to life in prison for running a detention center in the 1970’s linked to “Operation Condor.” “Operation Condor” was a 1970’s plot by right-wing South American dictatorships to coordinate repression of leftists in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay. According to reports, an estimated 30,000 people were killed or disappeared under the Argentine dictatorship.
Cabanillas operated Automotores Orletti, a secret prison that was disguised as a car repair shop. Prosecutors estimate that 300 people passed through this secret detention center. Cabanillas was found guilty of five counts of murder, 29 counts of “illegal detentions” and 29 counts of torture. In addition to Cabanillas, the court sentenced former military intelligence agent Raul Guglielminetti to 20 years in prison and ex-intelligence officers Honorio Martinez Ruiz and Eduardo Ruffo to 25 years in prison.
According to one family member of a victim, “justice has been done. But we are still looking for the baby of my militant friend and colleague Alicia Chuburu, kidnapped when she was seven months pregnant.” Uruguayan human rights activist Sara Mendez praised the sentences. According to Mendez, “this ruling is the product of 30 years of struggle to sentence the culprits.”
Those who survived time in the detention center say that prisoners were bound and blindfolded, then were given electric shocks and hoisted up by pulleys and submerged head-first in water in what was known as “the submarine.” It is said that running car engines in the garage covered the detainees’ screams.
For more information, please see:
The Independent – Ex-General Gets Life for Junta Prison Atrocities – 2 April 2011
Inquirer – Ex-General gets Life Sentence for Operation Condor Role – 1 April 2011
Press TV – Ex-Argentine Torture Officials Face Jail – 1 April 2011
RTT News – Former Argentine General Jailed for ‘Dirty War’ Crimes – 1 April 2011
