Part II
The Victims

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

Families who disappeared

Such was the impetus of the repression that it exceeded even the use of relatives as hostages and the total lack of respect for family values. This Commission has depositions which are proof of the disappearance of entire families, without the existence of any reasons, however distorted, that may have influenced such an action. We think it important to mention three such cases:

1. The Rondoletto family (file No. 2196):

On 2 November 1976, at about 2 p.m., a group of men, some hooded, who had previously cordoned off the block and diverted the traffic, broke into the house at San Lorenzo 1666, San Miguel de Tucumán, seized the five members of the Rondoletto family, and took them away to an unknown place.
The people who were seized were: Pedro Rondoletto, María Cenador de Rondoletto, Silvia Margarita Rondoletto, Jorge Osvaldo Rondoletto and Azucena Ricarda Bermejo de Rondoletto. The kidnapping was carried out when all these people were at home and Pedro Rondoletto was working in a print shop, situated at the front of the house. The five were taken away blindfolded with bags over their heads. The parents were put in an estate car and the younger members in a black car (according to neighbours). Before leaving one of the men told the partner of the shop that he had twenty four hours to get the printing equipment out of the building or a bomb would be planted there. That same day a deposition was presented to Police Station No. 8, and the father of Azucena requested an audience with the provincial governor, General Bussi, via an accountant, Elías, who was working in Bussi's office, and was at the same time a friend and a business colleague of the Bermejo family and of the Rondolettos. The meeting never took place. Later requests of habeas corpus were registered, some of which were rejected and others answered negatively. At the same time, action was taken through third parties with the President of the Nation, General Videla, with the same result as the requests for habeas corpus. According to neighbours, the house continued to be ransacked for several days afterwards, and some kind of custodian was left there. (A neighbour who was not aware of what had happened went to the house and was met by this person.) Later on, Pedro Rondoletto's car was also stolen, and there are accounts that Jorge Rondoletto's car, which was in the garage at the time, was taken away by people who identified themselves as belonging to Army Intelligence. The ransacking went on for a long time. In spite of the fact that someone had put chains over the front door it was always broken into.

2. The Gallina family (file No. 7401):

Silvia Beatriz Gallina was seized on 12 November 1976, at her house, according to neighbours of her father, Dr Eugenio Félix Gallina. During the raid many objects of value were taken:

Dr Gallina started inquiries to find out where his daughter was and placed a deposition with the Courts denouncing illegal deprivation of liberty. The magistrate went ahead with the investigation and found out that the raid had been perpetrated by the Army. At the same time, Dr Gallina presented a writ of habeas corpus at the Federal Court, indicating the names of those who were presumed to be responsible for his daughter's detention.

On 24 February 1977, Dr Eugenio Gallina, aged sixty-five was arrested in his home together with his twenty-one-year-old son, Mario Alfredo. Most of the furniture was wrecked, and his car and numerous possessions looted. That same day Eugenio Daniel Gallina and his wife Marta Rey de Gallina were abducted on their way to work. Not one of the five members of this family has ever appeared since. There was nobody left to continue the legal proceedings in which the Army's responsibility for the detention of Silvia Beatriz was documented (file Nos. 7398, 7399, 7400, and 7401).

3. The Coldman family

This family, well-known in Córdoba, lost three of its four members in a single operation:

On 21 September 1976 David Coldman, his wife and their daughter, were violently dragged from their home. The abductors stole equipment that was used for work purposes and other objects. They left only the younger son, aged eleven, who was sleeping. On waking up he called for his parents, but all he found was disorder in the house, the lights turned on and the doors wide open. (Testimony of Perla Wainstein on the disappearance of her sister, her brother-in-law and her niece, file No. 2250.)

On 21 September 1976 at 4 a.m. the house of the Coldman family in the Suipacha neighbourhood of Córdoba was raided by people dressed in military uniform who arrived with three or four cars, without numberplates, including two Ford Falcons and a Dodge 1500. After ransacking the house, they took - or kidnapped David Coldman, his wife Eva, and their daughter Marina, aged eighteen, leaving only Rubén, aged eleven, their younger son, behind. (From the deposition on illegal deprivation of liberty presented to the Federal Court of Córdoba in the case of Coldman and others, file No. 2249.).