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Part I
The Repression


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

 

The kidnapping of Drs. Hipólito Solari Yrigoyen and Mario A. Amaya


Two extreme cases among those 'arrested' and placed at the disposition of the National Executive demonstrate how arbitrary the process was. The decree which placed them in that situation was preceded by the kidnapping and disappearance of both and followed by the death of one of them.

Drs Hipólito Solari Yrigoyen and Mario Abel Amaya, both parliamentary representatives, lost their posts with the coup d'état of 24 March 1976. They retained their position of political representation and prestige as defence lawyers who sponsored the rights of political detainees. Dr Solari Yrigoyen was formerly a university professor and like Dr Amaya had frequently made parliamentary representations in cases of arbitrary police action and abuse of prisoners. Both were kidnapped on 17 August 1976 and housed in the 181st Communications Regiment of Bahía Blanca where they were cruelly treated. On 30 August 1976, as a result of a petition made to the Argentinian government by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, they were transferred to the city of Viedma where they were thrown by the roadside. They were immediately picked up by a police unit.

The government published a version of events in which the police car exchanged gunfire with the 'kidnapping car' after which they were finally able to recover the victims. Solari Yrigoyen and Amaya declared that they never heard a single shot fired.
From that moment they became 'official detainees' and in order to legitimize the whole sinister procedure they were accused of being 'linked with subversive activities' and were placed under arrest at the disposition of the Executive Power by Decree No. 1831/76. On 11 October 1976 they were taken to Rawson Prison. On arrival they received such a beating that Dr Amaya was fatally injured. As his condition deteriorated drastically within a few days, he was taken to the Central Prison Hospital -Devoto Prison, in Buenos Aires- where he died on 19 October 1976. Dr Solari Yrigoyen remained imprisoned in Rawson until nine months later he was authorized to leave Argentinian territory by presidential Decree No. 1098/77 (he was virtually expelled).

 

 

 


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