The oral and public trial for the appropriation of the restored granddaughter Victoria Donda Perezwhose only defendant is the repressive ex-marine Adolfo Miguel Donda Tigel, continued this Monday with the statements of Adriana Rut Marcus and Alicia Ruszkowskiboth survivors of the Clandestine Detention Center that operated in the ESMA during the last civic-military dictatorship.
Marcus and Ruszkowski testified Monday morning before the Federal Oral Court No. 6 of the City of Buenos Aires made up of judges Ricardo Basilico, Daniel Horacio Obligado and Gabriela López Iñíguez, in charge of the case against Donda Tigel for the appropriation of her niece and restored granddaughter Victoria Donda Pérez.
“You cannot be pious or condescending with the enemy, we were not with my brother who was ‘Monto’ or with my sister-in-law who was brought kidnapped to ESMA and has been transferred as you will be if you do not say what you know “That was the opening sentence of the testimony given by Ruszkowski, words that he said he heard from Donda Tigel during one of the interrogations to which she was subjected at ESMA.
In his testimony, Ruszkowski stated “with complete certainty” that he recognized the defendant Adolfo Miguel Donda Tiger like the person he saw numerous times in the largest clandestine detention camp that operated during state terrorism, which called itself “geronimo” and that he was in charge of several of the interrogations that were carried out there.
‘He remarked’there is no mercy or condescension, I’m not to blame’ and he spoke all the time of war, and he was talking about his brother, his own blood, it is frighteningly cruel,” the witness emphasized in another section of her statement to outline the defendant’s personal traits.
He also expressed his wish that it be known “what happened” to the remains of María Hilda Pérez and José Laureano Donda (biological parents of the former head of Inadi, both disappeared) “so that Victoria can resolve that duel.”
?️ “(The defendant Donda) told me that he had a brother and his sister-in-law who were ‘subversive terrorists like you,’ he said, and that they had a daughter that he was raising.” Two survivors testified in the trial for the appropriation of @vikidonda.
Note➡️https://t.co/CMgXrSSuG3 pic.twitter.com/wFG5allhtC
– Grandmothers Plaza Mayo (@abuelasdifusion) February 27, 2023
“Slave labor”: Marcus’ testimony
In her turn, witness Marcus agreed that she had repeatedly seen ex-marine Donda Tiger at ESMA, where she was kidnapped from August 1978 to April 1979.
After being “released” from her captivity, Marcus recounted that she lived under the modality of “freedom supervised”having to perform “slave labor”, “press assignments” and, in this context, in May 1979 he traveled to Mexico with ex-marine Donda Tiger.
On that trip -he recounted- during a walk through the campus of a university in the capital of Mexico, “Gerónimo” told him “‘I have a brother and a sister-in-law who were terrorists, and subversives like you'”, to later admit that ” They had a daughter that he was raising because he was the uncle.”
“About his relatives, he told me that ‘he had not been able to save them’ and that he ‘had nothing to do with it’, that ‘they were subversives and that was their turn’,” Marcus recalled about Donda Tigel’s sayings in that talk.
In addition, The witness clarified that the defendant made no reference to the fact that there had been an ongoing pregnancy in her sister-in-law and that although what she heard “profoundly moved” her, she did not issue an opinion or ask anything because such an attitude “could have consequences for one or for all of our compañeros who were still being held hostage.”
“It wasn’t a dialogue, it was just listening because we could ‘step on the stick’, we were in the process of ‘recovery’, ‘testing’ in a way,” Marcus explained.
Towards the end of her statement, the witness – who worked for 20 years as a doctor and midwifery teacher – reflected that the damage caused to mothers whose children were torn away and their babies has serious downstream consequences that should be taken into account.
“Not only in the lives of those young people who are now between 40 and 45 years old, but in several future generations, it is not only what that mother, that baby, experienced, but it is a collective damage to the whole society,” he completed. Marcus.
After the testimonies of Marcus and Ruszkowski, the defendant requested an extension of his investigative statement where he denied several of the situations and statements of the witnesses and communicated “the same interest” in knowing what happened to the fate of his brother and sister-in-law since, he stated , “unknown” his whereabouts.
Meanwhile, the Tribunal scheduled an intermission room until Monday, March 13 at 10, a hearing in which Victoria Donda Pérez will testify.
Kidnapping
María Hilda “Cori” Pérez (Victoria’s parent) was kidnapped five months pregnant in the western area of the Buenos Aires suburbs, on March 28, 1977.
María Hilda was in a relationship with José Laureano Donda, both were active in the Montoneros organization and had a five-month-old daughter, Eva, who was in the care of her maternal grandmother at that time.
José was kidnapped in May 1977 and the couple was seen at the 3rd Police Station in Castelar and, in August of that year, the young woman was transferred to the ESMA, where she gave birth to a girl whom she named Victoria, in a childbirth assisted by military doctor Jorge Luis Magnacco.
While she was in the ESMA pregnant women’s room, Cori had received a visit from a sailor, and she told her fellow captives that it was her brother-in-law and gave them the name of the repressor: Adolfo Donda.
Victoria was appropriated by the prefect Juan Antonio Azic, who together with Donda integrated the task forces that operated from ESMA.
When her niece was born, Donda Tiger was not part of the stable group of ESMA repressors, but was seen on a few occasions.
But since 1978 that was his destiny, where he came to be in charge of the headquarters of Operations and tactical intelligence of that unit dependent on the Navy.
In October 2004 Victoria was restored and learned that she was the daughter of María Hilda and José, who are still missing.
