Argentine court sentences 10 dictatorship defendants to life in prison

Two days after the massive mobilization in Plaza de Mayo to mark the 48th anniversary of the military coup, the Argentine Court sentenced, this Tuesday (26), 10 former agents to life imprisonment for crimes committed against more than 600 victims. Another convict received a 25-year prison sentence and another person was acquitted.

The conviction comes amid revisionist attempts by Javier Milei’s far-right government to minimize the regime’s repression.

Read also: Milei minimizes dictatorship and refutes the 30 thousand dead and missing

The trial began in 2020 and was held at the Federal Oral Court 1 (TOF-1), in La Plata, and conducted by judges Ricardo Basilico, Walter Venditti and Esteban Rodríguez Eggers. The magistrates sentenced him to life imprisonment:

• Federico Antonio Minicucci (head of the 3rd Menchanized Infantry Regiment of La Tablada);
• Guillermo Domínguez Matheu (head of Psychological Activities at Intelligence Detachment 101 in La Plata);
• Jorge Héctor Di Pasquale (head of the Special Operations section of Intelligence Detachment 101 in La Plata);
• Carlos María Romero Pavón (head of Interior Meeting of Detachment 101 of La Plata);
• Roberto Balmaceda (chief of Counterintelligence of the Special Activities Corps of Detachment 101 of La Plata);
• Jaime Lamont Smart, former government minister;
• Juan Miguel Wolk (head of the Property Offenses Division and the Offenses Against Persons Division)
• Jorge Antonio Bergés, medical examiner;
• Horacio Luis Castillo, commissioner;
• and Carlos Gustavo Fontana, link between Detachment 101 and Intelligence Battalion 601)

Those convicted were tried for the crimes of kidnapping, forced disappearance of politically persecuted people, murder, torture, rape, child kidnapping and forced abortion.

During the process, TOF1 examined the responsibilities of the Armythrough the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade based in the neighborhood of La Tablada, in the province of Buenos Aires, responsible for the area that covered the districts of Avellaneda, Lanús and Lomas de Zamora, and the intelligence apparatus based on the role played by Detachment 101 of La Plata.

The judges also looked into the role of dictatorial government in the province and the actions of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police (Polícia Bonaerense), then under the command of Ramón Camps. Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, former director of investigations at Bonaerense, who died in prison at the age of 93, in July 2022, while serving a life sentence.

In addition to Etchecolatz, five more defendants died during the process and 12 received the verdict.

The court also ordered that medical examinations be carried out to decide whether to revoke the house arrest served by most of the convicts, so that they can serve their sentence in penitentiaries.

According to organizations of victims of the dictatorship and their families, 30,000 people disappeared during the regime. President Javier Milei’s government denies this and speaks of around 4,000 missing people.