“I neither forget nor pardon any of the personas of death” said Walter Docters, son of a Buenos Aires police offical and former employee of la repartición (the distribution), in relation to his captivity in different clandestine detention centers. Meanwhile, the lawyer of Etchecolatz requested that the defendant be returned to house arrest. [español] [italiano]
LA PLATA. – The lawyer of Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, Dr. Luis Boffi Carri Pèrez, solicited the Oral Court in the Federal Court No. 1 today to repeal the current imprisonment of the oppressor Etchecolatz, claiming that his state of health was “aggravated” and arguing that the former General Director of Investigations of the provincial Police “is a peaceful man,” such as if he were attacked at his home by a “horde of savages” (in reference to a demonstration) he would limit himself to calling the police.
Boffi Carri Pérez also alleged that it was untrue that Etchecolatz had a weapon in his possession, for already the gun in mention had been handed over to his mother-in-law, who lives in an apartment a few blocks away. Before the Court, Dr. Oscar Rodríguez, representative from La Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos La Plata declared that the mother-in-law of the oppressor could be found culpable in the criminal possession of an illegitimate weapon of war.
In the first testimony of the day, Walter Docters, who was kidnapped September 20, 1976, after enrolling in the School of Subofficials and Troops of the provincial police, declared that the police that night must have been commanded, not by a colonel, but by a man of his own volition, since he had converted a group of delinquents to the service of corruption and torture.
Docters was brought to the police detachment center in Arana, which functioned – as has been continually shown in these audiences – as a clandestine center of torture and interrogations. There, Docters, like all who passed through that place, was subjected to electrocution and also to the practice known as “submarine.”
During his stay in Arana, Docters was moved to the headquarters of the General Direction of Investigations by police inspector Nogara, to be interviewed with his family, as his father was also a police official and had worked under Etchecolatz. While Docters spoke with his family in the Police Headquarters, the accused Etchecolatz entered the room and stated to Docters’ father “You see how he lives? Let’s see if you allow yourself to fuck around now.” Docters’ father testified in the Juicio por la Verdad in November of 2001, but never consented to divulge the identities of his comrades in arms. If recognized to have visited his son in the General Direction of Investigations (see www.apdhlaplata.org.ar/prensa/2001/141101.htm).
The witness remained in Arana for around ten days. He described the affliction he suffered, explaining that in that site they performed on the detainess “whatever thing that you would feel to do to one that afterwards would not have any possibility of life, of dignity, of anything.” On October 1st, Docters was moved to the “Pozo de Quilmes.” There he encountered Nilda Eloy, whom he later met again at the Police Inspection Unit No. 3 at Valentín Alsina.
When asked if he knew at any time the reason for his kidnapping, Docters responded, “I was a student delegate and I was, and I am, a popular militant.”
At Arana, tortured while the guards ate
Nora Alicia Ungaro, the current Director of Human Rights for the Municipal Government of La Plata, also testified today. Ungaro was kidnapped on September 30th, 1976, fifteen days after the disappearance of her own brother, Horacio Ángel, in the household of another desaparecido, Daniel Racero, on “La Noche de los Lápices,”
Ungaro was brought to the Calvary Police Brigade at 1 at 60 for a few hours and then moved overnight to the police Distribution Center in Arana, which, like Docters, she characterized as a torture center.
Ungaro referred especially to the cases of Ángela López Martín, professor of history in the Colegio Nacional, and his companion, Osvaldo Busetto, injured during his kidnapping, as well as to the circumstances of the Badell Brothers, who were the subject of special cruelty due to their history in the police force. Her statement detailed intricately the torments they suffered, but yet she lost her calm at the memory of the solidarity and the affection that had grown between the fellow captives, like the above mentioned López Martín and Amelia Acosta de Badell.
The witness described the methods of torture in the clandestine detention center, which coincided with the statements of the remaining witnesses. Ungaro added a particularly notable occurrence, in which she had listened to the oppressors eat lunch while she was tortured. “Pass me the mayonnaise,” they said, whilst the captives underwent their torment. In Arana, Ungaro had the opportunity to share captivity with Nilda Eloy. Similar to an important group of kidnappings related to “La Noche de los Lápices,” Ungaro was later moved to the Investigations Brigade in Quilmes (Pozo de Quilmes), where he was not tortured, but suffered instead the inhumane regimen of deficient nutrition and hygiene, as well as the continuing disappearance from her family.
Finally, Urgano was returned to Arana and freed near her home.
