Part
I
The Repression
Nunca Más
(Never Again) - Report of Conadep
- 1984
Location
of the Secret Detention Centres
In
some cases they were premises which alreadv functioned as
detention centres. In others, they were civilian buildings,
police offices, and even the Armed Forces’ own establishments,
adapted for use as SDCs. All these were handed over to the
corresponding regional military authority.
Examples
include military premises such as the Navy Mechanics School in
Buenos Aires; La Perla in Córdoba; the Mendoza Military School
and Campo de Mayo.
Those
which were used most often as concentration camps were police
stations and posts. This was the case with the 1st Army Corps,
given that - in spite of the existence of testimonies showing
that some disappeared persons passed through there - between
1976 and 1979 they kept the majority of their prisoners in
buildings controlled by the Federal and Buenos Aires Province
Police. We are referring to COT I Martínez, Puesto Vasco, Pozo
de Minfield, Pozo de Quilmes, La Plata detective squad
headquarters, Arana, Atlético, Banco, Olimpo, Monte Pelone, El
Vesubio or Automotores Orletti, all within their area of
operation. Amongst the exceptions to this general rule we can
include that of Señor Federico Vogelius, Argentine,
entrepreneur and landowner, who was kidnapped in September 1977,
and was kept in the 1st Army Corps headquarters. He was released
after spending twenty-five months in captivity in various SDCs
and having been sentenced by a Military Court.
In
the case of premises used for the incarceration of common
criminals before the sudden influx of people brought in by the
gangs, the conditions of imprisonment worsened, turning those
places into sheer hell. Adriana
Calvo de Laborde (file No. 2531) states:
We
slept in the cells in groups of two, three or four, according
to how many of us there were, on the concrete floor, without
any kind of covering. In Police Station No. 5 of La Plata the
doors were kept padlocked, each cell measured approximately 2
metres by 1.5. Later I was transferred to the Pozo de Bánfield
...
There,
the conditions of imprisonment were no better; on the
contrary, the regime was much harsher than in the police
station. We were only let out to eat once every two days.
There were three or more women in each cell and the lavatory
consisted of a bottle of bleach with the top cut off.
|