The Federal Oral Court 1 of Rosario sentenced 16 military, police and civilians to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity against 116 people, of whom more than half were murdered or remain missing. “Life for all the repressors tried in the Guerrieri IV case that investigates the disappearance of Susana and Graciela Busaniche, among others. After 46 years, justice has arrived”expressed the journalist Gisela Busaniche, niece of two of the victims, about the ruling.
The National Secretariat for Human Rights was a plaintiff in this trial, the 14th to be carried out for crimes against humanity in Rosario and the fourth debate to be carried out within the framework of the “Guerrieri mega-cause.” Former members of Army Intelligence Detachment 121 Pascual Oscar Guerrieri, Jorge Alberto Fariña, Juan Daniel Amelong, Marino González, Ariel López, Juan Andrés Cabrera, Rodolfo Isach, Walter Pagano and Eduardo Costanzo were sentenced.
In this process, former members of the Rosario delegation of the Federal Police Juan Carlos Faccendini, Oscar Roberto Giai, Juan Félix Retamozo, Roberto Raúl Squiro, Osvaldo Tebez, Enrique Andrés López and Federico Almeder also received life imprisonment. The 16 repressors were found guilty as co-authors of the crimes of kidnapping, torment, abduction, retention and concealment of minors, homicide and, for the first time in the jurisdiction, for forced disappearance. For five of them, former police officers Faccendini, Giai, Retamozo, Squiro and Tebez, this was their first conviction for crimes against humanity.
The Court, made up of María Noel Costa, Mariela Emilce Rojas and Jaime Díaz Gavier, accepted the request to expand the accusation of the prosecution and complaints, including that of the Secretariat, and sentenced the defendants for the crimes suffered by the children of the victims, who at the time of the events were minors. Regarding the execution of the sentence, the TOF ordered that the precautionary measures be maintained on the defendants and ordered that, once the sentence becomes final, all must serve the sentence in jails of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
In this section, the crimes suffered by 116 people were judged, of which 62 had never been treated in an oral trial. The victims went through different clandestine detention centers in Rosario (La Intermedia, Escuela Industrial Magnasco and the “Domingo Matheu” Military Portable Weapons Factory), in Funes (La Quinta de Funes) and in Granadero Baigorria (La Calamita). The events that occurred in the clandestine detention center that operated in the former Casa Saleciana “Ceferino Namuncurá” in the town of Funes were also tried for the first time.
During the debate, the systematic use by Detachment 121 of forged confrontations to cover up executions on public roads or of people who had previously been kidnapped and taken to a clandestine detention center. These crimes were disseminated as confrontations through official communiqués published in the newspapers, which formed part of the so-called psychological action of State terrorism against the population.
“Three brothers were active in the Busaniche family: Susana, who is missing, Graciela, who was disappeared while pregnant, and my father, who had to go south to save himself. Meanwhile, the Delgado family was a traditional family from Rosario,” the journalist explained. Busaniche in an interview conducted after the appearance of Estela Carlotto’s grandson. Graciela was in a relationship with Pedro Pablo Delgado and at the time of her illegal detention, she was three months pregnant. Therefore, this family is still looking for that grandson.
In Argentina, more than 15 oral trials are taking place in different provinces and the Human Rights Secretariat is a plaintiff in two out of three of these cases. Since the return of democracy, more than 1,100 genocides have already been convicted by justice.
“It is a day of great emotion and mixed sensations because we had a new sentence for crimes against humanity”, said Tomas Labrador of HIJOS Rosario to Radio 2. The sentence “it is important when the denialist discourses have a little more place and respond in this way with trials where the defendants had all the guarantees.
