Day 1: The oppressor Refuses to Testify in Initial Hearings

The Court opened today with a stage of oral debate starting with a reading of the charges against Etchecolatz.
During the morning, human rights organizations, families, survivors, and social and political organizations demonstrated in the entrance of the Court of Buenos Aires, where the trial took place.

LA PLATA. – In a room brimming with people, the oral trial began today against the former Director of Investigations of the provincial Police of Buenos Aires, Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, for his involvement in the kidnappings, tortures, and homicides perpetrated under his command during the last dictatorship. After the Prosecution´s reading of the charges against him, the oppressor refused to testify.

The First Oral Federal Court, composed of Judges Carlos Rozanski, Horacio Insaurralde, and Norberto Lorenzo, began the process with a reading of the charges formulated by the Prosecution, headed by the federal prosecutor Carlos Dulau Dumm during the oral stage.

In this document, the Prosecution began to frame the events in question as part of a systematic plan of illegal repression instituted by the previous dictatorship. The Prosecution emphasized that the events covered in these proceedings “are only a fraction” of the crimes committed in the period of state terrorism, and pointed out that the operation was integrated and interconnected to the repressive apparatus.

“It is proven that Mr. Etchecolatz was involved in the system of clandestine detention centers,” stated the Prosecution, and added that the oppressor “had control over the repressive structure” through his position as Director of Investigations of the provincial Police of Buenos Aires, held from May 5th, 1976 to February 28, 1979.

Next, the Prosecution reviewed the relative events covered in this case: the first degree murder of Diana Teruggi; the illegal imprisonment, tortures, and homicide of Patricia Dell’Orto, Ambrosia De Marco, Nora Formiga, Elena Arce, and Margrita Delagado; and the illegal imprisonment and tortures of Nilda Eloy and Jorge Julio López.

The reading of the charges against Mr. Etchecolatz lasted approximately three hours, given the overwhelming quantity of evidence available for each case. During the reading, Etchecolatz listened impassively to the allegations being made against him, yet, he exited the chamber twice claiming physical discomfort.

After a brief intermission, the president of the Court, Carlos Rozanski, called Etchecolatz to the stand to testify. Cries of “Assassin!” were heard from the public when the judge asked Etchecolatz what his profession had been. Next, when asked if he had any previous charges against him, the former police inspector evaded the question, responding, “Several, I don’t remember them all,” adding, “And I have several pending.”

The oppressor, represented by his lawyers Adolfo Casabal Elía and Luis Boffi Carri Pérez, refused to testify, arguing that “the Court does not have the authority to try these cases, as they are the jurisdiction of the military courts” and “because the sacred right of the National Constitution supports my actions.”

Etchecolatz also took this opportunity to explain that he was not able to listen to the allegations which had been formulated against him because “Due to a terrorist attack by the idealists (sic) I have lost a great part of my ability to hear.” Etchecolatz then attempted to iniciate a kind of political discussion, but the judge Rozanski stopped him, saying, “This is an act in which, if the person decides that he will not testify, he may not defend why he will not testify.”

Towards the end of the day, one of the complainant’s lawyers, Alejo Ramos Padilla, representative of the Teruggi-Mariani family, requested of the Court that the oppressor be moved to the 20th Penal Unit (Hospital Borda) “during the proceedings of this trial.” Already that same day, a court in the federal capital had verified that Etchecolatz, who currently enjoyed a house arrest at his chalet in Mar del Plata, “was the judicial trustee of a Browning 9 mm gun in perfect working order” and that he kept the gun in his household. Padilla stated, “I wish to make clear the grave risk possible if this person of proven danger return to his home today.”

Etchecolatz, in a new intervention which prompted the laughter of the audience, attempted to defend himself. “That gun has always remained disarmed in my household, and, moreover, my wife and my mother-in-law have disarmed it and hidden it.”

The Court will answer the request of Ramos Padilla this coming Thursday the 22nd, when the trial resumes at 10 A.M. On the same day, there will be previews of the first three testimonies in the trial.

Thus, this Thursday will begin the case of Nidla Eloy, kidnapped in October of 1976 by a taskforce working for Echecolatz and forced into captivity in six different clandestine concentration camps. The survivor will be called to testify that day, as well as the detainees-desaparecidos Emilce Moler and Mercedes Borra.

“This Trial is a Product of Our Struggle”

During the morning, before the trial began, in front of the Municipal Government in La Plata, in which the trial would take place in Salon Dorado, there gathered the members of human rights organizations, relatives of victims, survivors, and representatives of social, corporate, and political organizations which demonstrated their support for the trial and for the repudiated genocide of Etchecolatz.

The demonstrators chanted “Justice Now in La Plata” – a slogan which impels this and other causes against the human rights violations perpetrated during the terrorism of the State – under the banner “Justice for all the genocides. Sentencing for all of its companions. We start with Etchecolatz.”

During the demonstration, representatives spoke of the organizations which filled the space, who had made clear the importance of this trial, the first to take place after the repeal of the amnesty laws of the Obediencia Debida and the Punto Final. “This is not the trial that we wanted, but it is what we got,” remarked Adriana Calvo, from the Association for Ex-Detained Desaparecidos, in reference to the treatment of the case in the form of isolated events, instead of part of a systematic plan of repression which included the integral function of the circuit of clandestine detention centers under the command of Etchecolatz.

However, it was remembered that the case began in full force with the laws of amnesty, which drove forward the limit to take only determined, specific events which had never before been reported and that, at least, were not covered in these rules. “In that moment, it was prohibited to judge the genocides. Justice was prohibited. However, our fight is able to defeat this prohibition,” affirmed Calvo, adding, “We will make use of this time to accumulate proof against the genocide. Therefore, today I believe this trial is the product of our struggle, as it will be for all that follow it.”

JUSTICE NOW IN LA PLATA
June 20TH, 2006

JUSTICE NOW IN LA PLATA is comprised of: The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights La Plata; The Anahí Association; The Association for Ex-Detainees-Disaparecidos (AEDD); The Center for Argentine Workers of La Plata-Ensenada: The Center for Argentine Workers of the Province of Buenos Aires: The Center for Professionals for Human Rights (CPHR); The Committee for the Defense of Health, Ethics, and Human Rights (CDHEHR); The Committed for Judicial Action (CJA); Families of the Desaparecidos (La Plata); The Foundation for Legal Investigation and Defense of Argentina (FLIDA); H.I.J.O.S. Regional (La Plata); Liberpueblo; The Argentina League for Human Rights (ALHR); Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (La Plata), The Ecumenical Movement of Human Rights (EMHR).