Comment on Argentine town faces ghosts of its Dirty War

Argentine town faces ghosts of its Dirty War

The events that took place in 1977 now are coming to light, forcing residents of this pastoral community to examine their role in Argentina's Dirty War against those who challenged the military regime. In August, residents learned an Olavarria music teacher named Ignacio Hurban was, in fact, Guido Montoya Carlotto, the lost grandson of Estela de Carlotta, whose Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo group searches for children taken by the regime. Gutierrez is among the witnesses testifying before a judicial panel investigating the detentions of 21 people taken there by military officials. A hearing set for next year will uncover abuses allegedly committed against 40 other people at Monte Peloni by 70 defendants, including former police officers, prison officials and town leaders who served as advisers to the regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Townspeople old and young crowd into a room at the local state university, or gather outside at the windows, to hear recollections of kidnapping and torture, of being taken to the bathroom of the old farmhouse, where the most sensitive parts of one's body were fastened to electrical cables and shocked. Other communities in Argentina launched investigations into their Dirty War-era abuses years ago, but in Olavarria, there was "resistance" by longstanding social groups that continue to hold influence, according to Walter Romero, the prosecutor leading the Monte Peloni tribunal. Carmelo Vinci, a former Monte Peloni detainee who now heads the Commission for the Memory of Olavarria, says local business owners participated in the repression of dissidents, noting that the people they employed in local factories were among the first to be detained. After consulting with the club's oldest members, he told The Associated Press, "we decided not to say anything (about the charge) because that would give importance to an embittered testimony that does not deserve a response."

 

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