The Trelew Trials

the basic story:

On August 22, 1972, 16 leftist guerrillas were murdered as they were being held in a military base in Trelew (Patagonia, Argentina) after attempting an escape from the nearby prison in Rawson. The 15th of August there was a massive break-out of the political prisoners from Rawson in which leaders from the FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias), ERP (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo) and Montoneros managed to escape to Chile and later Cuba. Another 19 of the prisoners were caught and sent to the military base in Trelew where days later they were machiene gunned in their cells. Alberto Camps, Mary Berger and Ricardo Haidar survived the attack and reported the crime.

Recently the court has issued orders for the arrest of various military officials involved in the massacre -- Paccagnini Ruben and Emilio Del Real were arrested earlier in February. A few days ago Carlos Marandino turned himself in to the Argentine Embassy in the United States. Página 12 recently located another one of the wanted officers -- Roberto Guillermo Bravo in Tampa, FL where he has been living for much of the past 30 years as the head of RGB Group. He put his house up for sale shortly before federal judge Hugo Sastre released the order requesting his international capture from Interpol and has been on the run for the last 10 days.

Link to the original Página 12 article

a link to a post i wrote for rulablog.

Link to the Impunity watch blog post about the reopening of the Trelew trials.

Se terminan las vaciones

i'm back after some long vacations. in december my family came for las fiestas and we traveled south to ushuaia ("famous" as the "southernmost city in the world"). there were penguins, sea lions, sled dogs, lakes, glaciers, etc. very pretty but very touristy, expensive and english-speaking. the interesting historical facts are the (former) presence of an indigenous group that went without clothes despite the cold, wet weather and the former prison that housed various serial killers and political prisoners (including simón radowitzky). exciting for me was seeing the end of la ruta nacional 3 -- i spend so much time on the first 30ish kms of...

the rest of vacations included visits from friends from the u.s. and a short trip to the coast with the folks from la matanza which was, of course, a blast. sometime, if i have time i might add more photos... andá a esperar...