Twenty-four South American oppressors sentenced to life …

Italian justice has sentenced to life imprisonment 24 soldiers from Uruguay, Peru, Chile and Bolivia, accused of the disappearance of some 20 Italians during the war. Operation Condor, the macabre coordination mechanism of the South American dictatorships of the 70s and 80s. Capture, stop and kill opponents. The Rome Court of Appeal extended the first instance judgment of 2017, in which eight life sentences were handed down, but 19 were also acquitted for the alleged prescription of the crimes.

The case had been opened 20 years ago, when relatives of missing persons of Italian origin had denounced the South American repressors in Rome. Evidence that "strongly demonstrates" the participation of the Uruguayan army in the crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship was presented by Uruguay to the Third Assisi Court in Rome , two months ago. "The team of lawyers in our country has presented evidence to identify the military who committed crimes, such as torture and enforced disappearances," said Uruguayan presidential secretary Miguel. Ángel Toma.

The trial began on February 12, 2015 with 34 defendants, including former heads of state, officers, police officers and members of the intelligence services of the countries concerned. The deaths of some of the accused reduced the total to twenty-seven: two Bolivians, seven Chileans, fourteen Uruguayans and four Peruvians. After the acquittal of most of the people involved, prosecutors Francesco Mollace and Tiziana Cugini appealed in March of last year for the sentences to be extended on the grounds that they "were part of 39, an abominable extermination program, the defendants being responsible for everything they are accused of because they were the executors of death ".

On the list of defendants are the former Minister of the Interior of Bolivia, Luis Arce Gomez, the former President of Peru, Francisco Morales Bermúdez and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia. Uruguay, Juan Carlos Blanco. All were convicted of intentional homicide. "It is an important and exciting sentence for Uruguay and for the victims," ​​said Toma today, who has traveled to Italy for the occasion. "We have come here to Rome to support the fight against impunity and because we have an obligation not to forget," said the Bolivian Deputy Minister of Justice, Javier Moncada.

Family members, politicians and human rights representatives from the countries visited traveled to Rome to hear the sentence, claiming justice for more than 40 years. "It's a failure that exceeds our expectations," Giancarlo said. Maniga, lawyer of the relatives of the victims. The investigations into the dreaded strategy applied by the military regimes of the Southern Cone were opened more than fifteen years ago following the complaints lodged in Italy by the relatives of Italians killed or missing, among whom Aurora Melloni, born in Italy, widow of Alvaro Daniel Banfi, strafed with other leftists activists in October 1974 near Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Among the 24 convicts is the former Uruguayan Jorge Néstor Tróccoli, the only one present since the process since he had fled to Italy a few years before the start of the process, in 2007. Among the Accused include the army and police Jose Ricardo Arab Fernandez, Jose "Nino" Gavazzo Pereira, Juan Carlos Larcebeau Aguirregaray, Pedro Mato Antonio Narbondo, Luis Alfredo Maurente Mata. The list is completed by Ricardo José Medina Blanco, Ernesto Avelino Ramas Pereira, José Lima Sande, Jorge Alberto Quesada Silveira, Ernesto Soca and Gilberto Vázquez Bissio.

This was the second trial for the crimes of the Condor Plan, since the first one was held in Argentina and ended on May 27, 2016. On this occasion, fourteen former commanders of the london were arrested. army and intelligence officers and a Uruguayan were sentenced to prison terms. between eight and 25 years in prison for more than one hundred illegitimate deprivations of liberty and other crimes against humanity.