In Argentina, Children of 'Death Flights' Perpetrators Aim to Testify Against Parents

[Judi Lynn]

In Argentina, Children of ‘Death Flights’ Perpetrators Aim to Testify Against Parents
Ramona Wadi by Ramona Wadi August 21, 2019

The death flights are synonymous with U.S.-backed Latin American dictatorships. Widely used in Argentina and Chile to eliminate all traces of victims and safeguard the state and perpetrators’ impunity, the death flights were not just a means of disappearance but also of extermination. Documents reveal that dictatorship’s opponents were at times heavily sedated after prolonged torture and thrown off helicopters into the water, while still alive.

During Argentina’s dictatorship from 1976 to 1981 under Jorge Rafael Videla, over 30,000 people were disappeared. The forced disappearances of the regime’s opponents in Argentina were part of a region-wide operation known as Plan Condor, carried out with full knowledge and support of the U.S. Declassified documents from the U.S. Department of State testify to the fact that the U.S. was aware of the extermination and disappearance procedures. Notably, the U.S. also provided the helicopters used to carry out the death flights.

For relatives of the disappeared, reconstructing memory is an ongoing, arduous process, hampered by the state’s refusal to collaborate with human rights organizations, as well as the protection it offers to perpetrators.

But state impunity is also being challenged by the children and relatives of genocide perpetrators. In 2017, Historias Desobedientes was formed, providing a platform for mobilization and a stance that works for Argentina’s collective memory and justice. The group participates in marches for justice and actively speaks out in communities in order to communicate their testimonies and assert their commitment to justice.

Argentinian lawyer Pablo Verna is the son of a genocide perpetrator, Julio Alejandro Verna, who worked as an army doctor, sedating prisoners at Campo De Mayo in preparation for their extermination by death flights while still alive.

More:
https://theglobepost.com/2019/08/21/argentina-death-flights/

[Duppers]

1. Jeebus.F'n.Crist

US president in 1976 was Gerald Ford. Then 4 yrs of Jimmy Carter. Then in 1981, Ronald Reagan took office.

It is difficult for me to believe that Jimmy Carter knew of this and approved it. I would like to think not. Could this have been hidden from him???