RIGHTS-ARGENTINA:
Tortured Labour, Stolen
Newborns
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS)
- "Torture with the
electric prod when she
was close to term
induced accelerated
labour," says the report
"Maternidades
Clandestinas"
(Motherhood in
Clandestine Prisons),
which tells the stories
of dozens of women
illegally imprisoned
during Argentina’s
1976-1983 dictatorship.
The study by the
non-governmental
Grandmothers of Plaza de
Mayo Association was
published on the
Internet this year, and
is updated whenever new
evidence arises or young
people born to political
prisoners in captivity
are reunited with their
families, three decades
later.
Since they formed the
association to look for
their grandchildren who
disappeared during the
dictatorship, the
Grandmothers have been
able to restore the
original identities of
88 young people. But
they are not satisfied,
as another 400 were
kidnapped together with
their parents, or were
born in torture camps
and given secretly in
illegal adoptions.
Vanina Wiman, a member
of the research team at
the Gradmothers branch
in La Plata, the capital
of the province of
Buenos Aires, told IPS
that "for the moment"
work is focused on eight
illegal detention
centres that operated in
the province, but they
know that there are
"many more cases," and
hope to investigate them
all.
Their report documents
the histories of 77
pregnant women in the
eight prison camps. Out
of these, 43 are still
disappeared, 16 were
released and 18 are
unidentified. It is a
particularly harrowing
reconstruction, as the
women gave birth in the
worst conditions
imaginable.
"The aim is to
reconstruct individual
histories, build up a
description of the
clandestine ‘maternity
wards,’ and obtain a
complete list of the
detainees who were at
each prison and the
personnel who
participated in the
deliveries, to help
search for the
grandchildren," said
Wiman.
After a general
introduction, the report
is divided into eight
chapters describing
conditions at the eight
clandestine detention
centres. The histories
of women abducted while
pregnant and who gave
birth or miscarried in
prison are examined in
detail.
"Treatment of pregnant
women was no different
from that of the other
captives," says the
report on the La Cacha
centre. "In general they
were beaten and
subjected to physical
and psychological
torture." According to
witnesses, torture
undergone by Lucía
Marroco resulted in a
miscarriage.
The researchers say that
91 detainees, including
six pregnant women, were
held at the Brigada de
Investigaciones premises
in La Plata. Liliana
Galarza, still
disappeared, gave birth
there to a baby girl who
was baptised by
Christian von Wernich,
the Catholic priest
convicted of genocide on
Oct. 9 for his
activities as a police
chaplain.
Meanwhile, Police
Station No. 5 in La
Plata housed 180
political prisoners,
among them 10 pregnant
women. When they went
into labour the women
were taken to a nearby
hospital, but one of
them, Inés Ortega, had
to give birth "on a
dirty kitchen table,"
according to the report.
"Penned in, her wrists
bound and in front of
all the prison guards,
Inés gave birth to a son
whom she named
Leonardo," the report
says. Five days after
the birth, the baby was
taken from her. Her son
found out who he really
was at the age of 28,
thanks to the work of
the Grandmothers of
Plaza de Mayo.
In La Cacha there were
158 detainees, both male
and female, including 14
pregnant women. The
state Olmos prison,
which held another 10
expectant mothers, was
located on the same city
block and had a
hospital. The report
points to the large
number of medical
personnel who attended
these women.
Paediatricians,
anaesthetists, midwives,
obstetricians and
nurses; they all knew
that these women were
kidnap victims, and many
of them were accomplices
in the theft of the
newborn babies. But some
midwives and nurses were
themselves disappeared
by the dictatorship for
telling relatives of the
women what had happened
to their loved ones.
"When childbirth was
imminent, the pregnant
woman was taken to a
labour room on the first
floor which was used as
a sickbay," says the
report, describing the
Pozo de Banfield,
another detention centre
where 182 prisoners were
held illegally for
periods of time, and
where 16 births took
place in captivity.
"Handcuffed to a
stretcher and without
even the most minimal
hygiene, the women gave
birth amid the insults
of police doctor Jorge
Bergés and other staff.
Immediately after giving
birth, the women were
forced to clean the
sickbay," the report
says.
Another woman held in
the Banfield centre was
Laura Carlotto, daughter
of the present head of
the Grandmothers of
Plaza de Mayo
Association. Kidnapped
in 1977 when she was two
months pregnant, she
gave birth to a boy she
named Guido shortly
before being murdered by
her captors.
Estela Barnes de
Carlotto’s grandson is
still missing.
The Grandmothers of
Plaza de Mayo
Association was founded
in October 1977 by the
mothers of young adults
who had disappeared, who
vowed to find the
children of their sons
and daughters. A little
earlier, on Apr. 30,
1977, the Mothers of
Plaza de Mayo
Association had been
formed to search for
their missing sons and
daughters.
Plaza de Mayo is a
square in front of the
Argentine government
house in Buenos Aires
where the mothers would
hold a protest every
Thursday, walking
steadfastly round the
square, in spite of the
climate of brutal
intimidation.
These and other human
rights organisations
have not rested in their
pursuit of lawful
punishment for the
crimes committed during
the dictatorship, which
left 30,000 people
disappeared after
illegal detention,
according to their
estimates.
At first the
Grandmothers were only a
dozen women, who in
desperation delivered a
letter to then U.S.
Secretary of State Cyrus
Vance (1977-1980),
serving under President
Jimmy Carter
(1977-1981), during
Vance’s visit to
Argentina in 1977.
They have created a
National Genetic Data
Bank to match people
with their relatives and
restore their identity,
and have devised a large
number of projects for
education on human
rights and raising
awareness on the right
to identity.
In the early 1990s, it
appeared likely that the
amnesty laws and
presidential pardons
would allow perpetrators
of atrocities during the
dictatorship to escape
prosecution for good.
But the Grandmothers’
lawyers, among others,
were able to reopen
prosecutions of former
military officers with
evidence that the
children of political
prisoners had been
systematically stolen
under the military
regime.
Now only about twenty
Grandmothers are still
active. Many have died,
or are too old to
continue their search.
But their work lives on.
In July 2007, Belén
Altamiranda, born in
1977 in the Campo de
Mayo barracks hospital
on the outskirts of
Buenos Aires, was found.
Her mother, Rosa Luján
Taranto, was kidnapped
when carrying Belén, and
held in the El Vesubio
detention centre,
together with 15 other
pregnant women. When she
went into labour she was
taken away, and
according to witnesses
she came back and told
them she had had a baby
girl. After that, Luján
was never seen again.
Her story is known
because Elena Alfaro,
another detainee at El
Vesubio, survived and
was able to tell the
tale. Alfaro, too, "was
tortured with electric
prods, beaten, whipped
and burned with
cigarettes, in spite of
her obviously pregnant
condition."
"They constantly told
her that they would kill
her baby," the report
says.
While she was carrying
her child, Alfaro was
also raped by the head
of the clandestine
centre, Pedro Durán
Sáenz. In spite of it
all, she gave birth to a
son, Luis Felipe, in
captivity. Later they
were both freed and went
into exile in France.
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