The Argentine justice opens another chapter with the fourth trial for the events that occurred in the School of Mechanics of the Navy

In this new trial, which began on August 13, 10 former soldiers will be tried, most of them belonging at the time to the Argentine Navy, the Federal Police and the Battalion No. 601 of the Argentine Army. All of them are accused of crimes such as illegal deprivation of aggravated liberty, the imposition of torture and torment followed by death against 805 people.

Leer en español: Argentina: Un nuevo capítulo en el juicio contra los militares

It is worth remembering that the School of Mechanics of the Navy (Esma), located in the city of Buenos Aires, was one of the largest clandestine detention and torture centers that existed in Latin America. During Argentina's last civic-military dictatorship, this place was the epicenter of thousands of crimes in which around 5,000 people opposed to the military regime were kidnapped and tortured.

According to newspaper Página 12, the trial will take place in the courts of Comodoro PY, the same place where the most recent trial was conducted for the crimes committed in the Esma and that culminated in convictions to some of those responsible for these events. This is the trial with the highest number of victims and in which, in addition to kidnappings, torture, and murders, there are several cases of stealing babies.

"Megacausa Esma"

Between 1976 and 1983, the Esma was recognized as one of the largest and symbolic clandestine centers of torture and extermination of the military dictatorship. Due to the symbolism of the place, in the year 2003 the then president of Argentina Néstor Kirchner transformed the old Esma and turned it IGNORE INTO a center of memory for the crimes committed by the dictatorship.

However, there were so many crimes committed there that justice had to divide the trial, to such an extent that the process was baptized as the "Megacausa Esma". Three trials have already taken place in that process.

Regarding the above, the news portal Cubadebate presents a summary of the three trials already concluded, noting that:

• The first trial of the Megacausa Esma was held in 2007, but the only accused, the prefect Héctor Febres, committed suicide before hearing the sentence. The second trial culminated in 2011 with 16 convictions and two acquittals.
• By November 2017, after five years of debate, the third trial ended for the crimes committed in the Esma. This is the most important process in Argentine history due to the number of defendants and victims. In that trial, 54 repressors (civilian and military) who committed crimes against humanity against 789 victims were condemned, several of the survivors who could testify in the hearings held.
• Of those 54 convictions, 29 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
• For the fourth trial that has just begun, half of the accused are detained in prison and the other half enjoy the benefit of house arrest.

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The Diario Clarín, on the other hand, reveals the names of the former soldiers who will be prosecuted in the fourth trial:

Raúl Armando Cabral, Carlos Mario Castelvi, Néstor Carlos Carrillo, Néstor Eduardo Tauro and Roque Ramón Zanabria, detained in Unit 31 of the Federal Penitentiary Service. There are also Horacio Luis Ferrari, Miguel Conde, Jorge Luis Ocaranza, Jose Angel Iturri and Claudio Vallejos, sheltered with home detention.

What comes next?

In the Federal Oral Court, No. 5 will be decided the future of the 10 ex-soldiers prosecuted for the crimes committed in the Esma. The judges Adriana Palliotti, Daniel Obligado and María Gabriela López, will be in charge of judging and establishing the sentence that these people will receive.

Considering the antecedents of the three previous trials and the meaning of the Megacausa Esma, it can be foreseen that as it happened in November of 2017, new sentences to life imprisonment are dictated. Thus, all the benefits that currently have some of the defendants in the fourth trial of the Megacausa will be eliminated.

If the sentences are determined in this way, the Argentinean justice would once again leave a historical precedent in this long road that the Argentines have traveled to heal the wounds of the crimes committed during the dictatorship, seeking truth and justice for the memory of the thousands of victims of the bloody military regime that ruled this country.

LatinAmerican Post | Samuel Augusto Gallego Suárez

Translated from 'Argentina: Un nuevo capítulo en el juicio contra los militares'