Miguel Etchecolatz

Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (1 May 1929 – 2 July 2022) was an Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship of the 1970s, known as the National Reorganization Process (El proceso), which Etchecolatz was deeply involved in.

He was also deemed responsible of the "Night of the Pencils", where 10 high-school students were abducted by security forces in the city of La Plata near Buenos Aires in September 1976.

Six of the 10 were "forcibly disappeared", with their fate remaining unknown.

The four survivors said they were tortured.

The term "Dirty War" refers to the widespread state terrorism and atrocities committed under the military dictatorship of Argentina during 1976 to 1983.

A military junta was established, led by General Jorge Rafael Videla, after a coup d'état against President Isabel Perón.

During the military rule, tens of thousands of political dissidents were killed or "forcibly disappeared".

Etchecolatz served as Commissioner General of Police, directly reporting to Police Chief Ramón Camps.

He served as Director of Investigations of the Buenos Aires provincial police from March 1976 until late 1977.

During his period in office, Buenos Aires Province had the highest number of illegal detentions in the country.

Etchecolatz was second in command during the "Night of the Pencils", when several high school students were detained and tortured, and some murdered.

In 1983, democratic rule was restored in Argentina.

The Trial of Juntas began in 1985, and numerous top figures were prosecuted, including General Ramón Camps, who was convicted and sentenced to life.

He was first convicted of crimes committed during this period in 1986; the full stop law, which passed that year and created amnesty for security officers, meant that he was released without a sentence.

In a 1986 trial, Etchecolatz was convicted and sentenced to 23 years for several counts of illegal detention and forced disappearances.

He was spared a prison sentence because that year Congress passed the "Full Stop Law" (Ley de Punto Final) and the "Law of Due Obedience", which halted prosecution of officers for crimes committed during the Dirty War.

After his release, Etchecolatz wrote a book defending his actions, called La otra campaña del Nunca Más (The Other Never Again Campaign).

The title referred to Nunca Más (Never Again), the report produced by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, which had heard testimony about the disappeared and survivors of state terror.

Jorge and Marcelo Gristelli, owners of a Catholic publishing house, released the book in 1998 at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair.

In his book, Etchecolatz stated: "I never had, or thought to have, or was haunted by, any sense of blame. For having killed? I was the executor of a law made by man. I was the keeper of divine precepts. And I would do it again."

In 2001, the Gristellis were seen shielding Etchecolatz as he left court in Buenos Aires; they reportedly used violence against left-wing demonstrators who allegedly confronted and insulted the former police officer.

Etchecolatz also faced civil trials, which were outside the purview of the Pardon Laws (these had covered acts that were committed in the context of military or police procedure).

In 2003, Congress repealed the law and the government re-opened prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War.

In 2003, Congress repealed the 1986 "Pardon Laws" (Ley de Punto Final), and re-opened investigation and prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War.

Human rights activists said that potentially hundreds of people could be brought to trial.

Etchecolatz was the first official of that era to be prosecuted.

In 2004, Etchecolatz was one of the first two officials convicted and sentenced for child abduction: taking a child from "disappeared" parents, passing it on for adoption by officials of the regime, and hiding the child's true identity.

He and Jorge Berges were each sentenced to seven years.

In 2004, both he and Jorge Berges were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for the abduction of a "disappeared" couple's child, handing it on for illegal adoption, and the suppression of the child's true identity.

They were the first officials convicted for "baby snatching", but estimates are that 400 children were taken from political prisoners.

Seventy-seven have had their identities restored to them.

He was imprisoned in Villa Devoto in 2004 and 2005.

He was later allowed to continue the sentence under house arrest due to his advanced age (over 70 years old at the time).

For his actions in the Provincial Police during El proceso, in 2006 he was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, on numerous charges of homicide, illegal deprivation of freedom (kidnapping), and torture.

The tribunal in passing the sentence said that Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina".

This was the first time that the term "genocide" had been used to characterize the crimes committed against political prisoners during the Dirty War.

Although Etchecolatz's lawyers claimed he had a terminal illness, after police found a firearm in his home in 2006 in violation of the terms of house arrest, he was transferred to the Marcos Paz prison.

Beginning in June 2006, he was tried for human rights abuses, in a case that drew international attention.

On 19 September 2006, he was found guilty of the detention and torture of Jorge López and Nilda Eloy, and the homicides of Ambrosio Francisco de Marco, Patricia Graciela Dell'Orto, Diana Teruggi de Mariani, Elena Arce Sahores, Nora Livia Formiga and Margarita Delgado.

In passing sentence, the tribunal said that Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina".