Part I
The Repression

Nunca Más (Never Again) - Report of Conadep  - 1984
 

Secret detention centres 
within the jurisdiction of the 2nd Army Corps

Misiones

The Misiones secret detention centres registered by the National Commision are: the 8th Squadron 'Alto Uruguay' of the Gendarmeria, the Casita close to the Posadas Rowing Club, the Provincial Police Information Service, Police Station No. 1 and the Federal Police Office. Some of these were only used as transit stops for secret prisoners. The Misiones centres were closely linked with others in the neighbouring provinces, and above all with the Detective Squad in Chaco, but were all under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Army Corps, based in Rosario. Even if they were not big camps like the others situated in more densely populated zones of the country, they were very similar as regards the cruelty of the techniques used, with indiscriminate torture their common denominator.

I was a representative of the Argentinian Federation of Rural Workers and Stevedores in Apóstoles. I was detained on 8 December 1975 and moved to a branch of the 30th Rural Infantry Regiment, from where they took me to the military regional headquarters of Misiones. I was interrogated by officers who, on obtaining no answers from me, took me to an 'operations' house where I was tortured for two days, They then took me to the 8th Police Squadron of 'Alto Uruguay'. They tortured me again and forced me to sign their confessions. (Raúl Torads Jiménez, file No. 6947.)

I was seized on my way out of work at Posadas by plainclothes members of the Provincial Police information Service, on 5 October 1976. . .. I was put into the boot of a car and driven to a house on the outskirts of Posadas city, located in the vicinity of the Rowing Club. This place was used for interrogations, together with the customary torture of applying electric prods, also beatings, simulated firing squads, cigarette burns and hanging prisoners up by their arms or feet. I underwent all these tortures. When I was on the edge of delirium through thirst one of the guards came and emptied a packet of pepper into my mouth. Then I was once more taken to the Information headquarters and tortured with electric shocks to force me to sign a confession, something I found totally impossible as both my arms were paralysed. They threatened to take me back to La Casita, or the 'School for the Dumb' as they nicknamed it. This took place two days before they took me to Resistencia jail. (Ricardo Caceres, file No. 7698.)

I was seized on 20 October 1976. The kidnappers tied my hands with my own belt, and put me half-dressed into a truck and hooded me. They took me to a place I was unable to recognize, where there were a considerable number of people. There I was given electric shocks. Before being taken to the Provincial Police Information Office, I was lodged somewhere that I later learnt was the Posadas Federal Police building. There I was subjected to another torture session of beatings and electric shocks. That time I lost the big toenail from my right foot, in circumstances I can't recollect. (Aníbal Rigoberto Velázquez, file No. 7699.).