Part
I
The Repression
Nunca Más
(Never Again) - Report of Conadep
- 1984
Personnel
Conscripts
were for the most part kept on the fringes of SDC
activity. The centres at Formosa and El Palomar Air Base
were exceptions, since some of them were made to participate in
the camp’s operation. Nor did the whole of the military or
security personnel take part. The order was to keep the SDCs
isolated, as a secret structure.
Personnel assigned to guard such centres comprised members
of the Gendarmeía, of the
Federal Penitentiary system, or of the
police, always under the command of armed forces officers.
This guard personnel was not generally the same as those who
tortured in the systematic interrogation sessions designed to
obtain information. Testimonies have been gathered from which it
is clear that some of the soldiers assigned to guarding the
camps demonstrated signs of humanity, showing concern for the
appalling condition of the prisoners:
I
was abducted and held in the Pozo de Quilmes from 12 November
1977. On one occasion, when they couldn’t bring our daily
rations as usual from a nearby army unit, the corporal on
guard, nicknamed ’Chupete’, bought food with his own money
and cooked it for us himself. In addition, the corporal on
duty, Juan Carlos, who seemed to belong to the Army, would
give us cigarettes when conditions of imprisonment
improved…(Fernando Schell, file No. 2825.)
However,
this is not the case with the majority of personnel attached to
the SDCs, who generally contributed to the physical and mental
breakdown of the prisoners, punishing them unnecessarily and
capriciously justifying it.
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