The Federal Oral Court 1 of La Plata announced the reasons that led the magistrates to convict the genocidal Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, who died on July 2 before the conviction is known. Jorge Julio López had testified against the former Buenos Aires police chief in the first trial that took place after the repeal of the Due Obedience and Final Point laws, and then he was disappeared in democracy. The sentence was handed down on May 13 by Judges Andrés Basso, José Michilini and Alejandro Esmoris, but that day Etchecolatz did not participate in the hearing because he was already hospitalized, after a series of symptoms of fever and vomiting. Court staff reported his last words before sentencing: “Etchecolatz said that he is innocent, that he did not do anything that is accused in this debate and that he understands that the process of the National Constitution has been violated,” said the secretary of the court. The repressor died on July 2, at the age of 93. But the TOF had set these days to make known the grounds of the sentence. “Taking into consideration that between the lapse between the dictation of the verdict until the issuance of these grounds, the accused Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz has died, the truth is that the latter do nothing more than complete the sentence issued in the case. In this sense, the legislator has given an additional period in voluminous cases to issue the grounds with more time, but in reality they are an integral part of the verdict, and the only thing that is done is to complete the sentence, with which, it is irrelevant that the accused has died between one and the other. Therefore, this does not infringe the rights of the defence, since the basis that is dictated does nothing more than integrate the verdict, thus becoming a single act”. In turn, the court stressed that “in these trials there are state obligations aimed at ensuring memory, truth and justice for crimes against humanity that encompass the duty of the State to ensure the right to the truth of the victims of serious human rights violations, their families and society as a whole.” And in particular “the right to know what happened, the identity of the perpetrators and the causes, facts and circumstances in which they occurred; and to produce information, to allow access to it and to disseminate it actively as a guarantee to avoid its repetition”.
Jorge Julio López testifying against Etchecolatz.
Jorge Julio López was one of the first to give his testimony after the repeal of the laws of Due Obedience and Final Point, he was 47 years old, he was a bricklayer and lived with his family in the neighborhood of Los Hornos. During the seventies he participated in the basic unit Juan Pablo Maestre. On October 27, 1976, he was illegally detained, during the night, in an operation that was carried out in his home. He was then taken to a building, which according to his testimony was similar to a “quackery” where he was tortured and later transferred to the “Pozo de Arana”, where he was tortured again. After the testimony López was disappeared in democracy and after 15 years his whereabouts are still unknown. The court sentenced Etchecolatz and Garachico to life in relation to the kidnappings and torments of seven victims: Jorge Julio López, Patricia Dell’Orto, Ambrosio De Marco, Guillermo Cano, Norberto Rodas, Alejandro Sánchez and Francisco López Muntaner, as well as for the murder of three of the last three.
