‘Operation Condor’ Torture Garage Trial Opens in Argentina

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Five Argentine ex-military officials have gone to trial, accused of human rights abuses and the deaths of 65 people under a clandestine co-operative by several South American dictatorships. Operation Condor, which operated between 1976 and 1983, was an effort to eliminate dissidents seeking refuge in neighboring countries.  There are hopes that the trial will bring to light the secrets of the notorious Automotores Orletti torture center, one of many similar prisons used by the military dictatorship.

The Automotores Orletti, nicknamed “the garden” by the military, appeared as an auto-body shop in a popular middle-class neighborhood of Buenos Aires.  But behind its metal garage door, bound, blindfolded prisoners were held alongside car parts and engines that ran to mask their screams.  Prisoners were interrogated and tortured, given electrical shocks and submerged headfirst in water.

Rodolfo Yanzon, a human rights attorney representing the plaintiffs, said, “This trial is even more important since the clandestine center was used by intelligence services of other Latin American countries, and people from those countries were detained there.”  Among the 200-plus people held at Automotores Orletti were Argentines, Uruguayans, Chileans, Paraguayans, Bolivians and Cubans.  John Dinges, author of “The Condor Years,” estimated that only 10 percent of them survived.  Dinges explained that Orletti “was the place that housed the international prisoners, those who were detained using the international network of Condor.”

A prosecutor described what took place in the secret prison as “calculated and planned and amounted to a death sentence.”  The center was shut down after two Mexicans escaped, grabbing a firearm and firing at guards.  In 2008, the center was converted into a museum.

Those charged on Thursday were Raul Guglielminetti, Ruben Visuara, Eduardo Cabanillas, Nestor Guillamondegui, Honorio Martinez Ruiz, and Eduardo Ruffo.  They were charged with illegal detention, torture and the killing of 65 people.  Guillamondegui was excused from the trial because of bad health.  Court officials said his health would be monitored to determine if he would face trial later.

Operation Condor was a coordinated repression by South American dictatorships against left-wing activists.  Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay all participated.  Rights activists say that between 1976 and 1983, 30,000 people were killed or disappeared under the Argentine dictatorship.

The trial, expected to last months, reflects Argentina’s effort to resolve crimes of the 1976-1983 military junta.

For more information, please see:

BBC-New ‘Operation Condor’ trial starts in Argentina – 4 June 2010

AP-Argentina court opens dirty war torture garage trial – 3 June 2010

Nine MSN-Argentines face trial for Condor deaths – 3 June 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive