Italian lawyers, relatives of victims of state terrorism and officials from the Human Rights Secretariat headed by Horacio Pietragalla Corti analyzed the way “to provide information to achieve progress” in the causes of crimes against humanity that are followed in Argentina and Europe, between them several investigations related to Plan Condor, the repressive coordination developed in the 1970s by the military dictatorships of the Southern Cone.
The Argentine lawyer and former Secretary of Human Rights of Corrientes, Pablo Vassel, was one of the attendees at this meeting held on Tuesday night in the headquarters of the National Archive of Memorylocated on the premises of the former Esma, and in statements to Télam he stated that it served to “support the work carried out by Italian lawyers in cases of crimes against humanity.”
“These are investigations involving Italian citizens and in which Argentine and Uruguayan repressors are accused”explained the lawyer.
In this sense, Pietragalla Corti said, through a message posted on Twitter, that “information was exchanged on the status of causes against humanity and we reaffirm our commitment to the fight against impunity and for Memory, Truth and Justice.”
The head of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, also participated; Vera Jarach from Mothers of Plaza de Mayo; Lita Boitano of Relatives of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons; Walter Calamita, from the March 24 organization; and Italian lawyers Arturo Salerni and Mario Angelelli, both members of the Progetto Diritti group.
Details of the cause of Plan Condor and then the investigation involving the retired soldier of the San Juan Mountain Infantry Regiment (RIM22) Carlos Luis Malatto, a fugitive in Argentina and resident in the European country since 2011, was exposed.
We organized a working meeting with lawyers from Italian organizations that promote trials for crimes against humanity together with relatives of victims, plaintiff lawyers, judicial officials and human rights organizations. pic.twitter.com/jtlGPy2ryo
– Horacio Pietragalla Corti (@pietragallahora) February 8, 2022
Relatives of the victims linked to the cause of the repressive Malatto in the province of San Juan also participated and provided information.
The Italian delegation also anticipated that it will attend to the development of the case referred to José Agustín Potenza, an Argentine citizen who was kidnapped in Uruguay together with his Italian partner Rafaela Filipazzi, and later murdered in Asunción, Paraguay.
The couple was captured in May 1977, in Montevideo, and were detained in the clandestine detention and torture center of Fusileros Navales (Fusna), and in June of that year they were transferred clandestinely to Paraguay, within the framework of the coordination of the Condor plan.
Vassel, stated that “data was provided to human rights lawyers so that the trial can be carried out in Italy.”
The visit
The This delegation’s trip was organized by the Italian Association March 24, that bears that name in order to commemorate three tragic events for human rights that occurred on that day: the massacre of the Fossa Ardeatina -perpetrated in 1944 by the Nazi Erich Priebke, who for years lived hidden in Bariloche-; the 1976 coup in Argentina and the assassination of Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero in Salvador, carried out in 1980.
The president of the association, Jorge Ithurburu, who supported the lawyers’ tour of Argentina from Rome, told Télam that the result of the visit -which will continue later in Uruguay- “was more than satisfactory not only because of the fruitfulness of the testimonies and experiences collected but also for the visibility of two cases that have to do with human rights violations in the provinces of Mendoza and San Juan”.
Regarding the repressive Malatto, Ithurburu pointed out that “now he is free in Sicily”, and for this reason the Italian lawyers “spoke with witnesses, relatives and visited places of torture and murder to reinforce the lawsuit in Italy”.
all weekend the delegation toured those two provinces. They visited, for example, the Palacios Bicycle Shop, in the capital of San Juan, where they kidnapped Marie Anne Erize, a French citizen, and the young student Daniel Russo, “cases that the Italian lawsuit follows and have to do with Malatto,” he added.
They also toured the Chimbas Prison, where Alberto Carvajal, another of the victims included in the file, was murdered.
The association March 24 represents the cases of Alfredo Armando Lerouc and Marta Elida Saroff, as well as those of Daniel Russo and Mariana Erize, Florentino Arias, Ángel José Alberto Carvajal, Juan Carlos Cámpora and Jorge Bonil.
All were kidnapped or killed in San Juan, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.
Another case that Italian lawyers are studying is the one linked to that of the priest Franco Reverberi, who fled the country in 2011 and settled in a small town in Italy, where the Justice rejected his extradition.
“There was an extradition request in 2012 and it was rejected by Italy. Now, in the work we are doing, we are analyzing the possibility of another extradition request, as in the Malatto case,” he said.
Meanwhile, in San Juan “our lawyers met with the director of the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the reinstated grandson Carlos Aranda, who prepared a list that shows that there were 27 disappeared in that province and not the five that we have until the moment”.
“We are also collaborating with another campaign by the Forensic Anthropological Team (EAAF) since we have 45 missing Italians who have relatives in Italy,” he said.
Regarding the Condor Plan, The lawyer also announced that they will work with the cases of Mariana Zaffaroni (kidnapped and disappeared along with her parents in 1976, located in 1983 and returned in 1993), and Lorenzo Viñas.
The delegation arrived last Thursday, the day they were received by authorities at Government House and the Foreign Ministry, after which they participated in the tribute to the head of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, which was held at Unione e Benevolenza .
