\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The names and pictures shifted across four TV screens inside the packed conference room at C\u00f3rdoba\u2019s main federal justice building. When Judge Hugo Vaca Narvaja read out each of the persons\u2019 names, the crowd shouted, \u201cPresent!\u201d<\/p>\n
The scene played out in a press conference on Wednesday as C\u00f3rdoba\u2019s judiciary released the identities of 11 of the 12 remains of desaparecidos identified in La Perla concentration camp, with family members and human rights activists in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the families chose not to disclose their relative\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
The names were Carlos Alberto D\u2019Ambra, Jos\u00e9 Nicol\u00e1s Brizuela, Ra\u00fal Oscar Ceballos Canton, Mario Alberto Nivoli, Alejandro Monjeau, Ramiro Sergio Bustillo, Adriana Carranza, Cecilia Carranza, Oscar Omar Reyes, Eduardo Valverde, Sergio Julio Tissera, and Elsa M\u00f3nica O\u2019Kelly.<\/p>\n
This work was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Province of C\u00f3rdoba, the City of C\u00f3rdoba, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), the University of R\u00edo Cuarto, and the Judiciary. A 1979 satellite image shot analyzed by geologist Guillermo Sagripanti confirmed testimonies by a lieutenant colonel and a rural worker, who said that bodies had been removed from an area called Loma del Torito (Little Bull\u2019s Hill).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we interviewed [Lieutenant Colonel Bruno] Laborda at the time, he told us that the cleanup had been very systematic and carried out using heavy machinery,\u201d forensic anthropologist Anah\u00ed Ginarte told the Herald.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I asked him, \u2018Why should I look for anything if it was so systematic?\u2019 and he replied, \u2018When you clean your house, you clean every nook and cranny\u2014there\u2019s bound to be something there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Archaeological excavation work at Loma del Torito will resume once the rains have ended, and laboratory analysis will continue throughout the year.<\/p>\n
A room of mixed emotions The IDs kick-started different reactions among the relatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis brings a sense of relief \u2014 a bittersweet relief, if you will, but relief nonetheless \u2014 to be able to remove him, to remove his remains from that place of horror and bring him close to us,\u201d said the sister of Fernando Monjeau, a door-to-door salesman of silverware and Peronist University Youth (JUP) \u2013 Montoneros activist whose remains were identified.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all knew our relatives might be there. Finally, thankfully, we have confirmation. It\u2019s painful and sad, too. But it\u2019s a relief, as our colleague over there said. It\u2019s a relief to know that we can now lay her to rest alongside her brother at San Vicente Cemetery,\u201d said a relative of Elsa M\u00f3nica O\u2019Kelly.<\/p>\n
Hip\u00f3lito Atilio Valverde, son of Eduardo Jorge Valverde, said people sometimes ask him if this will \u201cheal the wounds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he answered. \u201cI want that blood to be visible, and I want future generations to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking with the Herald after the conference, Valverde added that \u201cthe fact is that those wounds are there, that our blood has been shed, and that\u2019s not something we want to hide or heal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want people to see how badly we were hurt and that it happened in Argentina. State terrorism affected every single Argentine man and woman \u2014 the damage that\u2019s been done has to be seen, and it has to lead to remembrance, truth, and justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Graciela Geuna was a prisoner in La Perla together with her husband, Jorge Cazorla, who was murdered shortly after their capture. Cazorla\u2019s remains were not among those identified, but in Loma del Torito, researchers found a medal that she had given her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cHiding the bodies is tantamount to torturing their families. So the violence isn\u2019t just directed at those bodies\u2014it\u2019s directed at our bodies,\u201d Geuna said in a conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The names and pictures shifted across four TV screens inside the packed conference room at C\u00f3rdoba\u2019s main federal justice building. When Judge Hugo Vaca Narvaja read out each of the persons\u2019 names, the crowd shouted, \u201cPresent!\u201d The scene played out in a press conference on Wednesday as C\u00f3rdoba\u2019s judiciary released the identities of 11 of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1335,11207,1442,11208,59],"tags":[2242,11205,2188,11206,86],"class_list":["post-44383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-desaparecidos","category-eaaf","category-human-rights","category-la-perla","category-politics","tag-desaparecidos","tag-eaaf","tag-human-rights","tag-la-perla","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}