Miguel Etchecolatz

Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (1 May 1929 – 2 July 2022) was an Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship of the 1970s, known as the National Reorganization Process , which Etchecolatz was deeply involved in. He was first convicted of crimes committed during this period in 1986; the full stop law, which passed that year and created amnesty for security officers, meant that he was released without a sentence. In 2003, Congress repealed the law and the government re-opened prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War.

In 2004, Etchecolatz was one of the first two officials convicted and sentenced for child abduction: taking a child from "disappeared" parents, passing it on for adoption by officials of the regime, and hiding the child's true identity. He and Jorge Berges were each sentenced to seven years.

For his actions in the Provincial Police during , in 2006 he was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, on numerous charges of homicide, illegal deprivation of freedom (kidnapping), and torture. The tribunal in passing the sentence said that Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina". This was the first time that the term "genocide" had been used to characterize the crimes committed against political prisoners during the Dirty War.

Return to democracy In 1983, democratic rule was restored in Argentina. The Trial of Juntas began in 1985, and numerous top figures were prosecuted, including General Ramón Camps, who was convicted and sentenced to life. In a 1986 trial, Etchecolatz was convicted and sentenced to 23 years for several counts of illegal detention and forced disappearances.

After his release, Etchecolatz wrote a book defending his actions, called (The Other Never Again Campaign). The title referred to (Never Again), the report produced by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, which had heard testimony about the disappeared and survivors of state terror. Jorge and Marcelo Gristelli, owners of a Catholic publishing house, released the book in 1998 at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair.

In his book, Etchecolatz stated: "I never had, or thought to have, or was haunted by, any sense of blame. For having killed? I was the executor of a law made by man. I was the keeper of divine precepts. And I would do it again."

Etchecolatz also faced civil trials, which were outside the purview of the Pardon Laws (these had covered acts that were committed in the context of military or police procedure). In 2004, both he and Jorge Berges were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for the abduction of a "disappeared" couple's child, handing it on for illegal adoption, and the suppression of the child's true identity. They were the first officials convicted for "baby snatching", but estimates are that 400 children were taken from political prisoners. Seventy-seven have had their identities restored to them.

The 2006 trial In 2003, Congress repealed the 1986 "Pardon Laws" (Ley de Punto Final), and re-opened investigation and prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War. Human rights activists said that potentially hundreds of people could be brought to trial. Etchecolatz was the first official of that era to be prosecuted.

Etchecolatz criticized the procedures of the trial as biased and the judges as obedient to other powers. He said he was "an old man who is ill, with no money and no power", and "a part of a war that we [won] with the arms and that we're losing politically." He refused to acknowledge the authority of the judges, telling them "You are not the judge. The supreme judge awaits us after death. [...] It's not this tribunal that sentences me, it's you." The last thing he said before hearing the sentence was to claim he was "a prisoner of war" and "a political prisoner".

On 6 October 2006, a demonstration of tens of thousands at the Plaza de Mayo, demanded López be found.

Suspicions about the cause of López's disappearance were strengthened in 2014, when Etchecolatz and 14 others were convicted in a trial addressing crimes committed at the 'La Cacha' clandestine detention centre, the place where, among others, Laura Carlotto, the daughter of the head of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, was held. As the judge handed down sentences, Etchecolatz took a piece of paper and wrote on it: "Jorge Julio López." The moment was captured by photographers and when the images were inspected, the other side of the piece of paper could also be read. It said the missing person's name, again, along with the addition of one other word: "Kidnap."

Threats to judges On 27 September 2006, judge Carlos Rozanski, president of the court that sentenced Etchecolatz, confirmed he received a long letter that claimed judges were being pressured by the national government and denounced those who "from the offices of power do not look for justice but for revenge against those who defended the Nation."