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<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=898&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=1">
Human Rights in Argentina: A Year Without Julio Lopez <br><br>
</a>
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/898/1/" eudora="autourl">
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/898/1/<br>
</a>Written by Marie Trigona <br>
Tuesday, 18 September 2007 <br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=3>Human Rights groups in Argentina
rallied September 18 to mark the one year disappearance of a key witness
who helped convict a former police officer for life in 2006. Rights
representatives have expressed immediate concerns over
<a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3595/">missing witness Julio
Lopez</a>; a new name that has been inscribed on the doleful roll call of
Argentina's disappeared. From the final courtroom proceedings to the
search for the disappeared witness, this is a look at the events of the
past year. <br><br>
"The Federal Criminal Court number 1 in La Plata, orders the
following sentence. The court sentences Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz to
life in prison." As judge Carlos Rozanski read the sentence,
Etchecolatz kissed a crucifix. Several spectators threw red paint on him
as he was escorted out of the courtroom. Human rights activists and
relatives of the disappeared celebrated the verdict while embracing each
other inside and outside the court room in La Plata,<br><br>
Julio Lopez, went missing exactly a year ago, on the eve of the land mark
conviction of Miguel Etchecolatz, the first military officer to be
sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide
committed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Lopez was last seen
walking near his home in La Plata, about 40 miles from Buenos Aires.
<br><br>
Lopez's testimony of his detention as a political prisoner from 1976-1979
in clandestine detention centers was key in the conviction of
Etchecolatz. Testifying before a court in La Plata, Lopez described the
prolonged bouts of torture under Etchecolatz's direct supervision.
"That day they electrocuted me with the electric prod using a lower
voltage. The electric prod had a battery, so I couldn't feel it as
much. ‘Now you're going to feel it,’ he said to me. He gave an order to
the others: ‘Hook the electric prod up directly to the street line,’ he
said. Etchecolatz said this. Mr. Etchecolatz."<br><br>
Since Lopez's disappearance, little headway has been made in the
investigation of his whereabouts. Much of the evidence recently released
has been tracked to the federal prison where Etchecolatz and another 100
military officers are imprisoned. Phone calls from the prison and note’s
from Etchecolatz’s personal agenda lead to a clear trail that Lopez was
under surveillance in the days leading up to his kidnapping. <br><br>
At a press conference, Myriam Bergman, human rights lawyer handling the
case of Lopez's disappearance, SAYS she worries that much of the evidence
has been filtered to protect the kidnappers. "A year has gone
by since Julio was kidnapped and the disappearance of the comrade and
there's still no one under investigation in the case. Human rights
organizations have given the only serious tip offs being investigated.
The investigators have waited months to investigate them. They allowed
the suspects under investigation to know they were being
investigated."<br><br>
Human rights groups are pointing to Etchecolatz and other military
officers currently jailed in the V.I.P. Marcos Paz Federal prison while
facing trial for human rights crimes. For Margarita Cruz, a torture
survivor from the northern province of Tucuman, Julio Lopez's
disappearance is a sign of the long standing impunity for military
personnel who killed an estimated 30,000 people during the military
junta's reign of terror.<br><br>
"A year since Julio was disappeared, it's certain that impunity in
the country is alive and well. All of the work of human rights
organizations on each of the anniversaries, each month since Julio's
disappearance, is going to bring change. That's what we hope, we are
calling for a massive march, to demand real answers to the whereabouts of
Julio Lopez."<br><br>
In total, 256 former military personnel and members of the military
government have been accused of human rights crimes and are now awaiting
trial. But only three trials have been held since Argentina's Supreme
Court struck down amnesty laws in 2005 protecting military personnel who
served during the seven-year dictatorship. Human rights groups in
Argentina report that the trials to convict former members of the
military dictatorship for abuses have advanced at a snails pace, if
advancing at all. Victims blame an inefficient court system filled with
structural roadblocks and uncooperative judges. <br><br>
Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and filmmaker based in
Argentina. She can be reached at
<a href="mailto:mtrigona@msn.com">mtrigona@msn.com</a>
<a href="http://mujereslibres.blogspot.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://mujereslibres.blogspot.com/<br><br>
</a>To listen to this radio story visit,
<a href="http://www.fsrn.org/">www.fsrn.org</a>. For videos on human
rights in Argentina visit,
<a href="http://www.agoratv.org/">www.agoratv.org</a><br>
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