Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (1 May 1929 – 2 July 2022)[1] 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 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 In 2003, Congress repealed the law and the government re-opened prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War.
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.[2] 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.[3]
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".[4][5] This was the first time that the term "genocide" had been used to characterize the crimes committed against political prisoners during the Dirty War.[4][5]
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".[6]
^"Murió el genocida Miguel Etchecolatz" (in Spanish). América. 2 July 2022. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
^Cite error: The named reference baby was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Argentina Dirty War: Killer Etchecolatz gets house arrest". BBC News. 28 December 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
^ abCite error: The named reference condenaron was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abKlein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Macmillan, 2007; ISBN 0-8050-7983-1, ISBN 978-0-8050-7983-8, pp. 100–102: "The presiding member of the court, Carlos Rozanski, described the offences as part of a systematic attack intended to destroy parts of society that the victims represented and as such they constituted genocide. Rozanski noted that the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) does not include in its list of offences the elimination of political groups (that category was removed at the behest of Stalin), but the court based its decision on the 11 December 1946 United Nations General Assembly Resolution, unanimously adopted by member-nations, barring acts of genocide 'when racial, religious, political and other groups have been destroyed, entirely or in part', adding that the court considered the original UN definition to be more legitimate than the politically compromised CPPCG definition."
^Cite error: The named reference clarin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
and 20 Related for: Miguel Etchecolatz information
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...
Etchecolatz case. In late August 2023, it was made public that Villarruel's name and mobile phone number were written down in handwriting by Miguel Etchecolatz...
convictions for human rights abuses. In 2006, the government tried MiguelEtchecolatz, the first to be prosecuted of potentially 600 defendants. Witnesses...
genocide by a court of law for the first time during the trial of MiguelEtchecolatz, a former senior official of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police. Crimes...
involved the former Buenos Aires Provincial Police second-in-command MiguelEtchecolatz, ended in September 2006 and laid down jurisprudence by acknowledging...
the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, and Director of Investigations MiguelEtchecolatz were tasked with eliminating the UES. On 16 and 17 September 1976...
Reorganization Process (El proceso) (1976–1983). Wernich worked in MiguelEtchecolatz's Direction of Investigations of the provincial police with the rank...
the stealing of babies of the disappeared. The first major figure, MiguelEtchecolatz, was convicted and sentenced in 2006. Most of the members of the Junta...
imprisonment on more than one occasion for multiple crimes against humanity, MiguelEtchecolatz, The Other Camper of Never Again , where he stated that the CONADEP...
(Rio Lobo, Day of the Assassin, El Juramento), pancreatic cancer. MiguelEtchecolatz, 93, Argentine police officer (National Reorganization Process) and...
against the former Buenos Aires Provincial Police second-in-command MiguelEtchecolatz, ended in September 2006 with his conviction on several counts of...
legally interned at the Magdalena penitentiary. Both Ramón Camps and MiguelEtchecolatz were later indicted and convicted for their involvement in widespread...
persons case of Jorge Julio Lopez, a key witness in the case against MiguelEtchecolatz, former commissioner general of the Buenos Aires Province police....
Kirchner after testifying in trial against the convicted murderer MiguelEtchecolatz. As of 2022[update], Jorge Julio López remains missing. A scandal...
following the disappearance of Jorge Julio López, a witness of the MiguelEtchecolatz trial who is missing since September 2006. Two others who testified...
detained by Buenos Aires Province Police, specifically Chief Detective MiguelEtchecolatz and the Commissioner, Ramón Camps. Conarepa, the state entity formed...
criminals such as the priest Christian von Wernich and the policeman MiguelEtchecolatz, together with other perpetrators of State Terrorism committed in...
his legs. Bravo recognized Buenos Aires Provincial Police officer MiguelEtchecolatz and General Ramón Camps as his torturers. Once freed, he became a...
truck driver is shot by a store manager 21 June: The trial begins of MiguelEtchecolatz, a former senior police officer accused of murder, torture and forced...
dictatorship who disappeared in 2006 after testifying against Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and charged with genocide...
Global Information