Torture of Argentine witness resembles `dirty war' tactics

[Joanne98]

Torture of Argentine witness resembles `dirty war' tactics
PRESIDENT ACCUSES EX-SECURITY AGENTS
By Mayra Pertossi
Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A witness in a human rights trial was abducted and tortured using methods reminiscent of Argentina's military dictatorships decades ago, government officials and associates of the victim said Saturday.

Luis Gérez was found Friday night in the city of Garín, 28 miles north of Buenos Aires, two days after he vanished. He was shirtless and bore the marks of having been beaten and burned with cigarettes, authorities said.

Gérez, who disappeared Wednesday, was scared but generally in good condition, relatives said. He was tossed from a speeding automobile on a deserted street.

Alberto Fernández de Rosa, a friend who spoke with Gérez shortly after he was taken to a hospital, said the 51-year-old construction worker told him he was abducted by at least three men who kept him blindfolded the entire time, tied him to an iron bar and subjected him to physical and psychological abuse.

At one point, he said, he was led before a mock firing squad while blindfolded. Argentina's past military dictatorships frequently used such procedures.

``He told me he has been hurt in his soul,'' Fernández said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16356625.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Good grief! This man had ALREADY been tortured by the right-wing idiots EARLIER.

More from the article:

Gérez, who has accused a former police chief of torturing him during the 1966-1973 dictatorship, was released shortly after President Nestor Kirchner told the nation that former security agents from past military regimes were believed to be behind his disappearance.

Kirchner said former agents were also responsible for the disappearance of Julio López, a witness in another rights case who has been missing since Sept. 18.

The president said former agents sought to intimidate potential witnesses in several pending legal cases stemming from the so-called ``dirty war'' waged by the military rulers against suspected subversives.

Since two amnesty laws were annulled last year, the courts have called 250 active and former military and police officers for questioning.

Interior Minister Aníbal Fernández said Kirchner's speech contributed to Gérez's release.

``I think the kidnappers felt they were surrounded,'' he said. ``The president identified them very clearly, so they felt at risk. The kidnapping of Gérez had a clear message -- do not keep investigating.''
(snip)

Even Argentina's very own President Kirchner was tortured by the military coup which was supported whole heartedly by Henry Kissinger. (Don't forget Michelle Bachelet, CHILE'S PRESIDENT was ALSO TORTURED by a Nixon/Kissinger engineered coup President Pinochet)

Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war'


Declassified US files expose 1970s backing for junta

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday December 6, 2003
The Guardian


Henry Kissinger gave his approval to the "dirty war" in Argentina in the 1970s in which up to 30,000 people were killed, according to newly declassified US state department documents.
Mr Kissinger, who was America's secretary of state, is shown to have urged the Argentinian military regime to act before the US Congress resumed session, and told it that Washington would not cause it "unnecessary difficulties".

The revelations are likely to further damage Mr Kissinger's reputation. He has already been implicated in war crimes committed during his term in office, notably in connection with the 1973 Chilean coup.

The material, obtained by the Washington-based National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, consists of two memorandums of conversations that took place in October 1976 with the visiting Argentinian foreign minister, Admiral César Augusto Guzzetti. At the time the US Congress, concerned about allegations of widespread human rights abuses, was poised to approve sanctions against the military regime.
According to a verbatim transcript of a meeting on October 7 1976, Mr Kissinger reassured the foreign minister that he had US backing in whatever he did.
(snip)

He reportedly does not travel abroad without consulting his lawyers about the possibility of his arrest.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1101061,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's good to emphasize the fact President Kirchner publicly made the announcement

the believed "former security agents from past military regimes were believed to be behind his disappearance."

He pointed out the people who did it, and they knew they'd been "made" and coughed up their re-victimized victem before getting themselves in deeper trouble. Kirchner saved his life.

[damntexdem]

3. He's lucky they didn't sell him to the U.S. to send to Gitmo or ...

for extraordinary rendition. He would never have gotten free. Well, I guess Argentina has made some advances in human rights, while the U.S. has regressed.