|
Part
I
The Repression
Nunca Más
(Never Again) - Report of Conadep
- 1984
Hygiene
Conditions
during the period of detention were deplorable. Prisoners were
left lying on mattresses filthy with blood, urine, vomit and
sweat. In some cases, they had to relieve themselves in pots,
which were later removed. In others, they weren’t even given containers and had to relieve
themselves on the spot. Daniel Osvaldo Pina (file No. 5186),
abducted in Mendoza, says:
At
one point when I was asleep they awoke me with a kick. I
should explain that we slept on the floor, lying in urine.
Lack
of hygiene would worsen in the over-populated premises
improvised as SDCs. Again, Héctor Mariano Ballent reminds us
that in COT I Martinez those who had been ’picked up’ had to
clean out the shed they were in, by shaking out the rags they
had and the only (single) mattress there was for eight of them
to sleep on, four with their heads on it and four with their
feet on it.
The
prisoners had to ask permission of the guard, who waited until a
lot of them had raised their hand so they did not have to go to
the bathroom more than twice a day. They would be led in ’a
train’ holding the one in front by the waist or shoulders, as
they couldn’t take the hoods off. This was repeated in nearly
all the camps and was one of the occasions the guards took
advantage of to satisfy their sadistic impulses, hitting the
prisoners indiscriminately. Both men and women had to shower or
see to their bodily needs in the presence of their gaolers. In
some camps the prisoners were hosed down in a group, always with
their hoods on.
Hygiene
in the toilets and cells depended on the good or bad disposition of whoever was on guard duty. There were cases where the
women were made to clean by hand the urinals in the men’s
toilets. The extreme lack of hygiene would lead to infestation
with lice and the prisoners would sometimes be sprayed
with insecticide like cattle.
|
