A new trial for dictatorship crimes against two former court officials began Friday in a federal court in Neuquén. Former federal judge Pedro Laurentino Duarte and prosecutor Víctor Marcelo Ortiz are being tried as accessories to crimes against humanity committed between 1976 and 1983.

The trial will focus on accusations that Duarte and Ortiz did not investigate the whereabouts of 22 people who had been illegally detained and whose families had filed habeas corpus complaints, thus guaranteeing the impunity of repressive forces. The trial is known as Escuelita VIII, given that it is the eighth court proceeding to deal with crimes against humanity committed in a clandestine detention center known as “La Escuelita.”

Duarte and Ortiza are charged with failing to conduct criminal prosecution and as secondary participants in kidnapping. Duarte is also accused of malfeasance, since he closed investigations and issued dismissals based on allegedly false facts.

The 22 victims were mostly held captive in “La Escuelita,” which operated in Neuquén on an Army property run by Intelligence Detachment 182 and the VI Mountain Infantry Brigade. More than half of the victims are still missing.

Although this is the eighth trial held in the province for crimes against humanity, it is just the first that focuses on the responsibility of judiciary officials during the dictatorship.

“It is so important that this trial is taking place within the denialist context of fascist discourses we’ve been hearing recently,” said head of the Neuquen Human Rights Assembly (APDH) Walter Pérez in a press conference.

For Pérez, the best answer in this context is “a new trial for crimes against humanity, which in this case will focus on the behavior of the Federal Judiciary during the last dictatorship.”

Duarte was an Army member who served as head of the Justice section in the VI Mountain Infantry Brigade of Neuquén with the rank of Major until a few days before being appointed in charge of Neuquén Federal Court on August 2, 1976, a position he held until September 30, 1984. Ortiz was appointed federal prosecutor on September 23, 1976. He remained in office until April 1, 1985.

According to the prosecutor’s request for indictment, Duarte and Ortiz’s actions provided indispensable collaboration to military officials as well as local, federal, and penitentiary police personnel who committed crimes such as illegal detentions, kidnapping, torture, and the disappearance of people, followed by murder.

Since the return of democracy, more than 1,200 people have been convicted for crimes against humanity committed during the last dictatorship. There are currently 20 trials of this nature being held across the country. 

– With information by Télam