Historia Sin Olvido

In the Officers’ quarters where the Here, in the ESMA the Navy planned Clandestine Detention Center of Torture abductions and systematically carried memory, and Extermination set up in the Naval out murders. Here, prisoners were kept Mechanics School operated. There in hoods and shackled. Here, they truth & were more than 700 places of illegal were tortured. Here, the Navy made detention during the last dictatorship them disappear. justice from 1976 to 1983. Here, in the ESMA children were Here, in the ESMA approximately 5000 born in captivity and were separated men and women were detained or from their mothers. Most of them were missing. They were members of political illegally adopted or robbed. We are still parties or social activists, revolutionary looking for many of them. organizations either armed or unarmed, workers, trade union members, Here, in the ESM a crime against students, professionals, artists and humanity was perpetrated. members of religious orders. Most of them were dropped alive into the ocean. ESMA MUSEUM AND SITE OF MEMORY Former Clandestine Centre for Detention, Torture and Extermination The ESMA Museum and Site of Memory will remain closed until further notice as a preemptive measure against the spread of Coronavirus in our country. Contents not suitable for children under 12. Del Libertador Ave. 8151 / 8571 (former ESMA) CABA, Argentina. +54 (11) 5300-4000 int. 79178/80 - [email protected] Schedule group visit: [email protected] HISTORIAS SIN OLVIDO This story is based on court documents THE CASE OF REPRESSOR CAVALLO COLLECTIVE FIGHTS AND UNIVERSAL JUSTICE Ricardo Miguel Cavallo was born in ESMA repressor Jorge Rádice. At that General Samuel del Villas. They were Buenos Aires on September 29, 1951. time, Cavallo, Rádice and Jorge Eduar- against giving a private company a da- He enlisted as a midshipman in the do “el Tigre” Acosta, all members of tabase of citizens and objected to every Navy Command in 1970. Since the be- the ESMA task force, coincided in the article in the tender. Car drivers also ginning of the last dictatorship in 1976, company Martiel SA. During the 1990s, complained because it was expensive, he worked at the ESMA and was a they were connected to officials of pre- poorly organized and they had to pay member of Task Force 3.3.2 until 1980. sident Carlos Menem’s administration, an additional tax. Assigned to the Intelligence sector, he along with Rádice and Miguel Ángel was responsible for the kidnapping, Egea, also a former ESMA repressor. In Newspaper Reforma takes notice of the torture, rape, forced labor and murder 1998 Cavallo became general manager criticism and begins an investigation. In of thousands of victims. In this context, of the company Talsud SA, in charge of Buenos Aires, Reforma correspondent he infiltrated the University of Bue- driving licenses in the City of Buenos José Vales collects information on Ca- nos Aires, where he pretended to be a Aires (through the associated company vallo. The journalist finds a list of repres- student of Exact Sciences. One of his Seal Lock SA), the provinces of La Rioja sors in a book by Alipio Paoletti, where aliases was “Sérpico” and he was also and Mendoza, and also in El Salvador, Miguel Ángel Cavallo was included with known as “Miguel Ángel”, “Ricardo” or where they won tenders thanks to their his aliases “Marcelo”, “Sérpico” or “Ri- “Marcelo”. In 1981 the Navy sent Cava- political contacts. It is a complex web cardo”. Carrying a recent photo of Ca- llo to Paris, where he led the propagan- of corporate connections established vallo, Vales met with the Association of da campaign for the de facto govern- to launder properties that were stolen Former Disappeared Detainees, who ment as a Deputy Naval Attaché at the from people who disappeared at ESMA, recognized the repressor. They believed Argentine Embassy in Paris. On June a crime that is still being investigated. his name was Miguel Ángel instead of 27, 1985 he received the National Or- Ricardo Miguel. CELS provides a pho- der of Merit with the rank of Officer, an In August 1998 he traveled to Mexico, tocopy of his State Intelligence creden- award established by Charles de Gaulle where he served as director of a con- tial, which Víctor Basterra recovered in 1963. Back in Argentina, in 1987, he sortium formed by the Argentine com- from ESMA. The credential confirms was indicted by prosecutor Julio Stras- pany Talsud SA and the French firm that the number on Ricardo’s ID was sera, with charges of 227 disappearan- Gemplus SA, winners of a tender laun- the same as in Miguel Ángel Cavallo. ces, 110 kidnappings and torture, but ched in 1999 by the then Secretary of This is how they were able to prove that with the passing of the Due Obedience Commerce and Industrial Development the Argentine man who led RENAVE in Law, he was never actually prosecuted. (Secofi) for the privatization of the Na- Mexico was the former lieutenant com- tional Vehicle Registry (RENAVE). This mander and repressor of the ESMA. Between 1987 and 1988 he enrolled in business was the result of his connec- the University of Belgrano’s Systems tions with the Menem administration Vales’ article was published on August Analyst program. In 1990 he filed for re- and the Mexican PRI. The tender was 24, 2000: “ Yesterday, five former Ar- tirement from the Navy and began his heavily resisted by society in general gentine prisoners identified the current career as a businessman. In 1991 he and the governors, especially from the director of Mexico’s National Vehicle Re- was a deputy director of London Clubs, Chief of Government of the Federal gistry, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, as their the real estate agency ran by former District, Rosario Robles, and Attorney torturer,” read the headline of the article. HISTORIAS SIN OLVIDO This story is based on court documents The same day the article came out, Cavallo hastened his trip to Argenti- na where the Law of Due Obedience would grant him impunity. When the plane in which Cavallo tried to escape to Buenos Aires made a stopover in Cancun, he was arrested with a warrant signed by the head of Interpol Mexico, Juan Miguel Ponce Edmonson. Judge Baltasar Garzón was on vacation and the alternate judge was Guillermo Ruiz Polanco. If there was no request from Judge Garzón in the following hours, Cavallo, who was held in solitary in a Mexico City jail, could have requested to be released. In Madrid, Argentine lawyer Carlos Slepoy sponsored “the people’s accusation”, an association of plaintiffs so that Spain could judge the Argentine military following the principle of international jurisdiction of crimes against humanity. The day before the extradition period would expire, he met with Ruiz Polanco, who in turn consulted with Baltasar Garzón and signed the extradition order. Court of Justice issued its ruling which Cavallo had been given the Order of Cavallo’s name had already been men- refused every point in Cavallo’s ampa- Merit from the French State. France tioned in the summary for terrorism ro, except those in connection to the declared before the Committee that a and genocide in Argentina instructed expiration of the torture charge, and law reform was necessary in order to by Garzón in the National Court in Ma- determined his extradition to Spain. It suppress the award, as it was not legal drid in 1996, based on the statements was an unprecedented sentence in the to strip foreign beneficiaries away from of several survivors, including Juan world in terms of transnational justice. it, although a conviction of Cavallo in Gasparini, who pointed him out as the For the first time, a state extradited a Argentina would make it easier to initia- person responsible for the murders of citizen accused by another state for te a procedure for its removal. In May his wife Mónica Jáuregui and Azucena crimes committed in a third state; and 2010, French president Nicolas Sar- Victorina Buono, as well as the torture it was the first time in the history of kozy signed a decree to establish a le- suffered by Thelma Jara de Cabezas. Mexico that the court endorsed an ex- gal basis to proceed with the abolition Víctor Basterra, also a survivor, provi- tradition for crimes against humanity. of the award for a foreign citizen. In July ded Judge Garzón with a copy of Ca- On June 28, 2003, he was extradited 2010, French Foreign Minister Bernard vallo’s photograph, which he had ob- to Spain. Kouchner confirmed that Cavallo had tained while doing forced labor in the been distinguished in 1985 with the ESMA Basement, and which he was While imprisoned in Spain, on August National Order of Merit with the rank able to hide together with other photo- 12, 2003 the laws of Punto Final and of Officer. The French government no- graphs up until the time he was able to Due Obedience were annulled in Ar- tified Cavallo in writing in 2014, but he extract them from there. gentina. When the judicial accusa- never responded. In March 2019, once tions resumed, the National Court of Cavallo’s sentence to life imprisonment Finally, on September 1, 2000, Judge Spain decided that it was appropriate was ratified by the Argentine Supreme Garzón signed Cavallo’s indictment for Cavallo to be tried in his country. Court, Gasparini submitted the comp- and requested his extradition to Spain He arrived in Buenos Aires in March laint to the French government through under the principle of universal juris- 2008, due to appear in federal courts. a letter to the French ambassador in diction.

Load more