Part I
The Repression

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

Documents recording the existence of secret detention centres.

The existence of secret detention centres was repeatedly denied by the military authorities.

Proof of this was given by the information submitted to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the OAS which visited Argentina in 1979 to investigate the activities at the civilian detention centre at the military prison Campo de la Ribera in Córdoba province, and also by the blank and repeated refusal to acknowledge the existence of the secret detention centres located in the headquarters of the 3rd Army Corps in the same province, known as La Perla.

The Commission on the Disappeared delegation for Córdoba province was able to gain access to files of detainees who were kept in the provincial prisons at the disposition of the National Executive or serving their sentence. On those 'cards for sentenced prisoners, provincial penal service, capital penal unit' (drawn up for each inmate) reference is made in 'item 18' to establishing whether the prisoner comes from La Perla or the Military Prison Campo de La Ribera. In the same files various transfers of people from the Prison Unit No. 1, Córdoba, to the secret centres of La Perla and La Ribera for interrogation are documented.

We transcribe some of these orders from file No. 4210:

I received from Unit No. 1, Córdoba Prison, the internee Hugo Victoriano Hernández, at the disposition of the National Executive, for his transfer to Campo de la Ribera, by order of Colonel Vicente Meli (Commander of 4th Air Brigade) with the knowledge of the Provincial Prison Service Inspectorate, Judicial Division. (Córdoba,
26 October 1976. Alejandro Rodolfo García, First Lieutenant.)

I received from Unit No. 1, Córdoba: Lújan de Molina Sara Rosenda, Scalet José Ricardo, Sarnado Ricardo Santiago, Sorello Ricardo Mario, De Oro Eduardo Raúl. Internees who have been tried, transferred to the military prison of Campo de La Ribera. By order of Major-General Ricardo Perazolo. (Judicial Division. Córdoba 22-2-77. Anastasio González, Assistant Sergeant.)

An investigation into the death of Amelia Nélida Inzaurralde, leading to the deposition lodged before the Federal Appeal Court in Córdoba, made apparent the operation of the Campo de La Ribera Military Prison as a secret detention camp. A relevant part of the legal deposition made by the Commission on 17 May 1984 is transcribed below (file No. 4317):

The Córdoba Delegation of the National Commission on the Disappeared received from the Córdoba Prison Service a set of authenticated photocopies of the detainee's criminal record.

This personal record reveals that the woman referred to above was admitted to the Buen Pastor Prison on 9 April 1976 and on 11 April 1976 a note signed by the then Colonel Juan Bautista Sasiaiñ was received at that prison which ordered that the prisoner be handed over for her transfer to the military prison of Campo de La Ribera.

in the book at the morgue in Córdoba (p. 244) there is entry No. 351 dated 13 April 1976 at 19.45 hours 'Originating from the Armed Forces' the body of a woman by the name of Inzaurralde, Amelia. Under the entry 'Reason for admission' it reads 'Died at Campo de La Ribera' and under the heading 'Diagnosis' it says 'cervical dislocation'.

The death certificate dated 12 April 1976 says that she died in the San Roque Hospital with a diagnosis which coincides with that of the morgue.