+Reynaldo+Bignone+(AFP,+Juan+Mabromata).jpg) |
Rafael Videla (L)
Reynaldo Bignone (AFP, Juan Mabromata)
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BUENOS
AIRES — A verdict was expected Thursday in the trial of two Argentine former
dictators accused of "systematically" kidnapping hundreds of babies
from leftist activists killed during this country's 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Jorge
Videla, 86, and Reynaldo Bignone, 84, are on trial, along with nine other
defendants, for allegedly kidnapping 35 babies from parents who disappeared
during the dictatorship.
"We have
presented evidence showing that the kidnappers plotted to steal the children
borne to women in captivity," Estela de Carlotto, Carlotto is president of
the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, told AFP.
The rights
group has fought in court since 1996, demanding restitution for the stolen
children.
The group
says in total some 500 children were kidnapped and then raised as their own by
families close to the regime.
Videla
defended his actions last week, saying in court that the children's mothers
were "terrorists."
"All
those who gave birth, who I respect as mothers, were active militants in the
machinery of terrorism. They used their children as human shields," said
the former general, who has already been sentenced to life in prison for crimes
against humanity.
The former
dictator also has railed about "false" accusations against him
declaring that there were "firm written orders to return destitute
children to their families."
A former US
State Department assistant secretary for human rights, Elliot Abrams, revealed
in January that the United States was aware of a systematic practice of
stealing children.
"We
believed there was a plan, because they were arresting or assassinating a lot
of people, and we got the impression that the military government had decided
that at least some of the children of those people would be given to other
families," he testified from the Argentine consulate in Washington.
"We
knew that certain children had been given away while their parents were in
prison or deceased," Abrams said. "They took them and gave them
away."
A Birthday
Verdict
The
expected verdict falls on the 35th birthday of one of the victims, Francisco
Madariaga Quintela, who learned of his real identity and was reunited with his
biological father just over two years ago.
Quintela
said he is confident that "justice will be done" as he pulled from
his wallet a faded black and white photo of his mother, who was kidnapped at
age 28, while pregnant, and whose body has never been found.
"My
dad told me she was a doctor. And sometimes I think about how I am now older
than her," he said, looking at the image.
He said
that another inmate from the same secret "El Campito" detention
center where his mother had been detained escaped and told him how she was
"tortured while I was in her belly."
"The
theft of babies was the most evil thing the dictatorship did," he said,
adding: "I have a black spot in my heart, but we must continue filling it
with love."
The woman
accused of robbing him of his past by raising him as her own son, Susana
Colombo, told the court that "at no time" did she suspect that her
adopted son had been stolen from a leftist activist, who presumably had been
killed.
Nevertheless
she regretted "not having done differently," said Colombo who faces
15 years in prison for her alleged crime, while her husband Victor Gallo could
be sentenced to 25 years.
The Avenue
of Happiness
In the 35
abductions detailed during the trial, most of the mothers were held at ESMA --
Argentina's Marine School of Engineering -- a notorious torture center located
in the heart of Buenos Aires.
The
maternity ward was on the second floor, where there was hallway leading to the
torture rooms that the executioners cruelly dubbed "The Avenue of
Happiness."
The inmates
gave birth while shackled and hooded. Very few were ever allowed even to see
the faces of their babies, according to survivor testimony.
In most
cases, the baby was given to a soldier or the friend of a soldier, while the
mother was later thrown from a military plane into the sea, naked and still
alive.
Argentina's
amnesty laws of the late 1980s were annulled after the election of former
president Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007), who died in October 2010. That annulment
allowed the Latin American nation's judiciary to reopen a number of cases.
To date,
all the people prosecuted for the kidnappings have been found guilty.
Some 30,000
of the regime's opposition were killed or disappeared during the military
dictatorship, according to human rights organizations.
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