The Condor Plan, the CIA, Death and Extermination …

The United States yesterday handed over to Argentina the latest batch of declbadified secret documents on the civil-military dictatorship that began in 1976. This is the largest declbadification of the history of this country. It comprises 45,000 pages including documents provided by the State Department and 14 security and intelligence agencies such as the FBI, the CIA and the Pentagon. The cables provide specific information that will be useful in advancing judicial processes and will also explain the vision and information available to US officials about what happened during the last Argentine dictatorship, as well as the internal interests of some and others. disguised factions of military juntas. Many of the papers presented yesterday reveal part of the state terrorism plot that, at the regional level, called Plan Condor. "Now it is necessary that the Argentine state processes the information to contribute to the reconstruction of the truth and the ongoing judicial investigations," said the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and the alliance Memoria Abierta, two of the driving organizations. of the order.

The contents

A first reading of the documents made by the George Washington University National Security Archives indicates that there are specific data that will serve as evidence in ongoing trials. For example:

* October 26, 1975. The judicial attaché in Buenos Aires, Robert Scherrer, reports the arrest and execution of the leader of Montoneros, Marcos Osatinsky. The cable reports that Osatinsky was arrested and tortured by the security forces of the then-governor, Raúl Lacabanne, and that the authorities "organized" his death to give the impression that he was dead. he was killed while attempting to rescue an officer allegedly abducted by Montoneros. To conceal the evidence of the abuses, Lacabanne security personnel removed the hearse that was carrying the body of Osatinsky from Córdoba to Tucumán. "The goal was to avoid an autopsy," the report says.

* December 3, 1976. The CIA reports that "powerful military commanders", such as the leader of the First Army Corps Guillermo Suárez Mason and the commander of Campo de Mayo, General Santiago Omar Riveros, as well as the head of the Provincial Police of Buenos Aires Aires (PPBA), have agreed. in which "it is time to stop being so gentle with the country's terrorists and to unleash a total war against them". From the PPBA, they went further: "Until further notice, we do not want interrogation prisoners, but only corpses," they said, according to the recently declbadified document.

August 16, 1977. The CIA gets agreement between the member countries of the Condor Plan, with details on funding, staffing (for which they recommend the inclusion of at least one woman, logistics), training and the targeting of the death squad "Theseus" murders "subversives" abroad. The cable specifies that the base of operations of "Teseo" will be installed in Argentina and that each member country must donate "US $ 10,000 for operating costs". Expenses incurred by "badbadination mission" agents are estimated at $ 3,500 per person for 10 days, plus "additional $ 1,000 for the supply of clothing".

* July 21st, 1978. The State Department's summary on human rights violations in Argentina mentions the torture of a psychologist, confined in a wheelchair because of polio, who was "interrogated with a electrical device for the sole purpose of obtaining information about any of his patients. "The same report reveals that the Argentine army used injections of a powerful anesthetic, Ketalar, at the captured victims, who were later "eliminated in the rivers or in the ocean".

* April 12, 1979. The CIA report reveals that the Montonero leader, Norberto Habbeger, who disappeared in Brazil in 1978, "was executed in late November or early December 1978 by order of the head of the counterintelligence section of the intelligence service of the United States. Argentine Army (SIE).) ".

May 21, 1983. This document reports that only a few months before the transition of Raúl Alfonsín to the democratic presidency in late 1983, the security apparatus continued its program of badbadinations. Using euphemisms for torture, the report says: "In early April, six or seven people were arrested and interrogated extensively, and then they were killed." In addition, the cable notes that the information obtained during this operation " led to the capture of Raúl Yaeger, who, after being interrogated, was killed during a shootings organized in Córdoba on April 30 ".

"Due to the volume of documentation, we warn that significant resources are needed to process it and that people trained and informed about the history of Argentina can extract information that contributes to the progress of judicial investigations. for crimes against humanity in progress, "they said. CELS and Memoria Abierta in a joint statement. In this sense, they urged the Argentine State to "contribute to these aspects so that declbadification can strengthen the process of memory, truth and justice".

The writings of the organizations can be read as a reminder that this historic delivery of declbadified material, received yesterday in the United States by the Minister of Justice, Germán Garavano, and by the Ambbadador of Argentina, Fernando Oris de Roa, was initiated by the sustained claim of the organizations. human rights.

The first declbadification, carried out in 2002, involved the opening of 4677 cables and other documents showing that US authorities were encouraging repression. Former President Barack Obama has launched a second, more than one thousand pages, which were published in 2016. The declbadification of yesterday is the last step of an initiative taken by the US government. United to publish files on rights violations. occurred in Argentina between 1975 and 1984 and, in addition to providing useful information for the progress of cases, reveal essential information to understand the functioning of state terrorism at the regional level.

Report: Sibila Gálvez Sánchez.