Part I
The Repression

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

Disappearance of María Cristina Lennie - File N° 7382

María Cristina Lennie has been missing since 18 May 1977. Her mother Nilva Berta Zucarino de Lennie tells us:

... since before María Cristina's arrest, people from the Navy Mechanics School had been trying to find her, which explains why on 16 January 1977 at five in the morning my home in Bell City was raided and my husband, myself and my youngest daughter, Sandra, aged seventeen, were arrested. We were all tied up with strips of sheets taken from the house from which they stole everything of any value. Our caravan was parked at the back of the property; they asked me for the keys and after smashing everything they went through every last inch just as they'd done in the main house - then stole everything they could. My youngest daughter was transferred to the Navy Mechanics School in one of the ten cars the group was using and my husband and I were taken directly to the same place in our own car - a Dodge Polara - which we never got back either. Although my husband and I were not tortured at the Navy Mechanics School, we had to watch while Sandra was tortured. At the Navy Mechanics School I was able to contact Silvia Labayru, my daughter-in-law, wife of my son Alberto Guillermo Lennie. She was about seven months pregnant, had been arrested earlier and was at that time translating documents for the Navy Mechanics School. From what she said we were able to confirm that we were being held at the Navy Mechanics School. Once when my husband was being taken to the lavatory, he was able to see under his bandage that a towel had a small anchor on the border, the emblem of the Navy Mechanics School. My grand-daughter was handed to me nine days after she was born and was registered by her mother Silvia Labayru and by Captain Astiz, who with the help of a false document was able to pass as my son Alberto Guillermo. Having been able to recognize the place we were being held at saved my daughter Sandra's life, because she was kept as a hostage when we were set free. My husband was able to talk to a high-ranking naval officer and nearly a month later Sandra was released. We never heard of our daughter María Cristina again.

.