This Tuesday the painful chapter of the military dictatorship in our country adds one more fact. This, despite the years that have elapsed and the always latent poignant absences of the disappeared, seems, in a certain way, to add one more small silent triumph, which tends to tip the balance to the side of Memory and Justice. The Federal Oral Court 2 (TOF2) of Córdoba sentenced the former members of Intelligence Detachment 141 of the Third Army Corps Ernesto Guillermo “Nabo” Barreiro (75), Carlos Enrique Villanueva (73) and Carlos Alberto Díaz (76) to the sentence 24 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during August 1979 in the clandestine detention center “Casa de Guiñazú”.
This event is especially important in a province like Córdoba, which, far from enjoying the central gaze of Buenos Aires, also reaffirms its history, its pains and its freedoms.
The three repressors faced charges for “unlawful aggravated deprivation of liberty“, “imposition of aggravated torture“e”imposition of aggravated torture followed by death“.
According to the reconstruction of the facts of the public prosecutor’s office, it all began on August 12, 1979 when Palazzesi and García Vieyra were reduced, blindfolded and tied hand and foot by a group of armed civilians, among whom Villanueva and Díaz were identified. . The two detainees were transferred to a country house located in Guiñazú, used as an “operative house” for the clandestine detention of people. Ten days later, Cavigliasso, Palazzesi’s brother-in-law and union delegate, was illegally deprived of his liberty by unidentified personnel and transferred to the same country house.
The prosecution maintained that, during the time they were in this situation, the three defendants, among other people, subjected the victims to permanent physical and mental torture, in order to undermine their moral resistance and obtain the greatest possible amount of information about them. their political activities, trade unions or their organizations. The torture consisted of keeping them hanging by their hands tied to hooks on the ceiling and subjecting them to blows with their fists and feet with blunt force elements and simulated firing squads.
Approximately on August 25 of that year, two repressors from Buenos Aires arrived at the scene, presumably from the Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA), who subjected Palazzesi to strong and repeated blows for the same purpose. This, added to the deteriorated state of his health that the victim presented as a consequence of the torture of the previous days, caused his death that same day. To cover up the causes of death, an official statement was issued informing that Palazzesi’s death had occurred in an escape attempt while he was being transferred to Buenos Aires, when the vehicle had caught fire. His charred body and without his limbs was handed over to his relatives at the Campo de Mayo Military Hospital.
García Vieyra and Cavigliasso were transferred to the Intelligence Directorate of Córdoba, and later transferred and housed in units of Penitentiary Unit No. 1 of that province. They remained there until September 16, 1980, the first, when he was released, and until February 5, 1981, the second, the date on which he was transferred to other prison units of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
During the trial, shocking days were lived where the testimony was heard as witnesses of Cristina Guillén, wife of Palazzesi; her sister-in-law, Stella Maris Palazzesi, who is also Cavigliasso’s widow; Silvio Octavio Viotti, son of the owner of the country house where the torture was reportedly perpetrated, and George Saadé, Palazzesi’s brother-in-law; Consuelo Orellano de Ardeti, wife of the late Enrique Ardeti and Palazzesi’s militant partner; and Marcelo Ardeti, son of the woman and Enrique.
The verdict was announced in the siesta this Tuesday after several hearings that the defendants followed from their homes, where they are serving house arrests after previous convictions.
Barreiro is particularly known in Córdoba because he was one of those in charge of carrying out his most bloodthirsty actions in the clandestine detention center that operated in La Perla, where he was head of torture, and in 1987 he led the military barracks in the Córdoba Garrison that unleashed the face-painted rebellion of Holy Week.