Argentina English

President of the Chamber of Deputies of Santa Fe in 1973 at age 26, Ruben Dunda told this newspaper why the Bicameral Commission created to investigate the kidnapping, torture and murder of student Brandazza Angel. The case was moved to Rosario in 1972. A pattern of conduct that would massively in 1976 and a key figure: Colonel Luis Sarmiento.

At 63, Ruben Dunda is reconstituting component parts of your life and remember a name, Colonel Luis Alberto Sarmiento, in 1972 and military intelligence magazine, and after the 1976 coup continued to do so through specialty was an expert in interrogation with electric shocks.

Dunda, sociologist, Santa Fe municipal judge in Fighiera, a village near Rosario, teaching material and Creativity in Leadership Race Relations, was President of the Chamber of Deputies of Santa Fe in 1973 at age 26. One of its decisions was to create and encourage the work of a bicameral commission that same year decided to investigate the kidnapping and murder of college student Brandazza Angel.

- Why is the Commission? Asked yesterday Página/12 a Dunda.

-In November 1972 the province of Santa Fe were moved by a fact. A young man managed to open the lid of the trunk in which it took and cried, "I'm Brandazza and kidnap!". It was in downtown Rosario.

- In a crowded place?

"Very busy: Boulevard Orono and Cordoba. Heart.

- "At night or day?

"In the daytime. On top of day ...

- What could help him?

"No one could. The forces that had put him in the trunk of another car and followed. It was a scandal and everyone learned in Rosario in the province.

- Could not find anything?

"The relatives tried to find it and know what had happened, and nothing.

- How old were you when Brandazza kidnapped?

"I was 21. A kid Peronist Youth University. Well, was the complaint in court and all remained unchanged until the recovery of democracy.

"We're talking 25 May 1973, when Hector Campora becomes President of the Nation and Charles Sylvestre Begnis as governor of Santa Fe in the formula Justicialista Liberation Front.

"Exactly.

- And how old were you in '73?

"I, 26. I was elected provincial deputy for Peronism. The case obviously still ringing and we felt very distressed by the abduction of Brandazza and very committed to their enlightenment. Lo de Brandazza had spent only a short time. We decided to constitute a committee of Parliament Bicameral Santa Fe. Presided Juan Lucero, a Peronist, and vice Pochettino was Sunday, the same who was secretary of Human Rights in Santa Fe when he was governor Jorge Obeid. Ruben Martinez was also a radical.

- Does the figure of the Bicameral Commission seemed more effective?

"We thought the most reliable way to reconstruct what had happened, but after you play to Justice evaluation of evidence and prosecution of those responsible. And, really, we had much support from the government of Santa Fe, the national government, our national legislators, but collided with the obstacles that always face the investigating committees of Parliament. What powers do you have? How can pave? What validity will then collect the items? If the Court fails to get things done outside the law, what will happen to legislators? The Supreme Court's Office told us that the Bicameral Commission could not go further on military personnel. They established that military personnel should be identified reported to military jurisdiction. They invoked Article 108 of the Code of Military Justice.

Article 108 provided for a real military jurisdiction. Under Raúl Alfonsín was reformed so that civil court is compulsory in crimes that were punishable under the Penal Code. Matar ceased to be a military need to be just, fully, homicide, and the courts and penalties. The Code of Military Justice was repealed less than two years ago, in September 2008.

-The Supreme Court referred us to a case of 1971, Gil, Joaquin and other "relates Dunda. So we would take the case and because they threatened to sue the legislators for alleged excess of authority. We were going to end up prisoners researchers and not those who had kidnapped and killed. It was the first Commission of Inquiry in Santa Fe wanted to make fully operational in the same province where he was Senator Lisandro de la Torre when he investigated the meat trade.

Over obstacles

Born in 1868, co-founder of radicalism, in 1935 the Progressive Democrat and De la Torre had come to discover in the books of the Anglo Fridge Company, a fraud on the nation state by the British cold. Their research put him at odds with the then president, Augustine P. Justo, with Finance Minister Federico Pinedo and Agriculture Minister Luis Duhau and in between the assassination of Senator Enzo Bordabehere. Indeed, as has Dunda, Anglo, Armor, Sansinena, The Smithfield & Argentine Meat Co., Wilson, Swift refused to help investigators. Only after the approval of the Senate to the Commission that inquired, among other things, about the price of calves exported, the effect of the devaluation of 1933 on farmers, lawmakers were able to examine the books and enter premises using the police. It was then produced the famous discovery of accounting papers hidden on the ship by Anglo Norman Star under the banner of Corned beef ". That episode was captured Richard Tootell, chairman of Anglo. To leave no doubt about the link between research, the role of de la Torre and reform that the governor was facing Luciano Molinas Progressive Democrats in Santa Fe, Just speaking province in 1935.

In 1973 the Chamber of Deputies investigating committees formed (the phones were an issue, and also the Italian electricity company) with similar difficulties faced De la Torre. The Santa Fe Commission combined the obstacle that arose from investigating an act of repression of the dictatorship between 1966 and 1973 led Juan Carlos Ongania, Roberto Levingston and Alejandro Lanusse. In 1973 had been 38 years since the investigation of Lisandro de la Torre. A long time, but not enough to leave no traces and protagonists in the political culture of Santa Fe. They also spent 38 years from 1972 to today. Much, but not both. Today Dunda is tying the pieces of his life and reassemble the pieces of the case Brandazza and systematic plan of extermination that began after the 1976 coup.

Dunda The Commission made progress in research:

"At least we discover very quickly what was to review police personnel on the abduction of Brandazza, and what was the shape. The structure was on SAR Rosario Service Area, run by the military and with the participation of not only military personnel but the provincial police and the Federal Police. Such a group kidnapped Brandazza.

- Where did you take?

"To a dependency of the SAR, the Fifth Police Station, 800 Dorrego street. From the inquiries we make Brandazza emerged that he had stolen the watch. We follow the track. We sent a plane to search for the suspect, Angel Jesus Farias, police officer, to Villa Gesell and we brought him. As you posted on Página/12, Farias eloped with his sister and wife then complained that Farias had participated in the kidnapping and had stayed with the clock to sell. Brandazza's father had the bill, so it was easy to see that it was the same apparatus and had been robbed Brandazza. That made it clear that Brandazza, who at the beginning of the repression forces had denied their presence, it had been there. That was an important fact. Another, that the statements appeared a very strange.

- Who?

"I'm going to read verbatim what he says Farias, the subordinate group in the SAR. Listen: "Asked to say whether he was tortured (a Brandazza) while the deponent (Farias) was on duty, he understood that a soldier had called Sarmiento, who was very efficient to 'move the machine'. When the deponent did not feel cared for whining, nothing. At the rate they have grill in the time at which the deponent was not ".

"So Farias Sarmiento knew it was the torturer, but said he had not witnessed torture.

"Yes. That's his version. Listen to this: "Asked to say what you mean 'grid', replies that means pass the electric prod.

"Those were the questions of the Bicameral Committee.

"Exactly. I still have another part: "Asked to say whether he went directly to 220 volts, replied that Sarmiento was a magician, who came with a small suitcase, small suitcase that this is a device that regulates the tension of the electric prod, which was Sarmiento a specialist in the case, that the small suitcase, or rather the apparatus, was equal to that seen in the movie The Siege. Asked to say if he saw this movie, yes, Colonel Sarmiento entered with a small suitcase as well (makes hand gestures indicating the size of it, approximately 40 by 30 by 20 in depth).

Dunda then certified copy of the statement as chairman of the House of Representatives.

The film State of Siege, Costa-Gavras Greek, was released in 1972. The starred Yves Montand in the role of Dan Mitrione, a CIA agent operating in Uruguay. One scene shows the teaching of torture as a form of interrogation by U.S. military disciples of Latin America.

"I came back to be a deputy in 1991, now has Dunda. I went to get that copy certifying, and of course had disappeared. But I have in my possession a copy of that copy, and I still remember very clear some feelings.

- For example what?

"I remember the liberation felt by the custodians of the power SAR tell the stories of Sarmiento. When they spoke of Sarmiento said it was the only one who drove the cattle prod.

-Sarmiento was born in 1925. In 1972 she was 47 years and was a colonel. Normally the torturers were younger and had lower grades.

"It is. So I had and I feel that Sarmiento was a specialist. Appeared repeatedly in statements that "the machine" was the cattle prod, and "Colonel Sarmiento came with a small suitcase. Another fact that the witnesses remembered was that Sarmiento always attended by a doctor, an Army major who had a nervous tic. We never could identify it.

- What happened with Branda-zza?

"We know that when I got out of the car in the SAR was fine. But not yet know how he was killed and what happened to his body.

- How long worked the Bicameral Commission?

-From 1973 to 1975. Then I finished both Lucero as prisoners. I was almost three years in the criminal Coronda. And flew home.

- After the military coup of 24 March 1976?

"No, before, on March 10. I was still president of the Chamber of Deputies. In the morning I called the police chief, surnamed soldiers but police, and says: "Go away because you're going to kill". I said, "Well, thank you, tomorrow I'm leaving". And he answers: "No, no, go home already because I can not hold more custody. In 1998 I was appointed Ombudsman in the Province of Santa Fe I started to look at Armor. I was on Sastre. I came to see her and her son. I gave him a gold pen for the gesture and he told me what had happened that day. He said he was circumstantially in command of the Second Army Corps, based in Rosario, a colonel and said: "Today I kill Dunda. He left, went to a bar and called me. And so I was saved.

- And Lucero?

"When I was a prisoner at the disposal of the executive branch asked to leave the country. I never heard from him. I still think in the case of Brandazza, it is revealed that the entire method would be used later: the integration of law enforcement bodies, hierarchies, theft of property of the hostages, kidnapping, concealment of evidence, the murder ... For that Sarmiento specialists as needed. Do you know who replaced Soldier? Feced.

Gendarmerie Commander Feced Augustine, now deceased, was another of the specialists of the repression of the dictatorship in Rosario. He responded to a structure topped by the regional summit in the Ramon Genaro Diaz Bessone, then Minister Jorge Videla, was head of the Second Army Corps, accompanied by General Otto Paladino, a member of Propaganda Due fascist group which then occupy the Secretariat State Intelligence. Sarmiento, the wizard of the electric prod, and had become chief of intelligence in Misiones.

The sheriff of San Nicolas Hugo Prado, who assisted in the operation, said the situation "is contained". About 2,000 residents burned the city, among other public buildings in retaliation for the deaths of two youths who clashed this morning on a van driven by a transit inspector that chased for fines and would have locked up.

Slowly and not without fear of renewed unrest, began after noon Baradero regain its usual calm. The Buenos Aires district was the scene this morning of extremely fiery riots that destroyed neighboring buildings and attacked public officials. The origin of the anger is in the death of two young motorcyclists who collided early this morning a patrol occupied by freight that would have locked in hot pursuit for a penalty.

The situation "is contained" the commissioner said this afternoon Hugo Prado, head of the Departmental of St. Nicholas, who assisted in the operation to disperse about 2,000 protesters, enraged, jumped out of bed this morning to hear the news death of two teenagers and went to the town square. First they burned the truck that would have caused the crash of the boys and then went back for more: fire to the building of the municipality, the Court of Misdemeanors and the headquarters of the Traffic Division. In addition, stoned the police chief.

"This is total chaos, I've lived here for years and never seen anything like that," had, in amazement and concern this morning Caesar Scollie journalist FM Weather in dialogue with TN. Moments later, the building of the radio would also become a target for destruction.

Fire and heavy smoke completed the landscape of destruction. The rich neighboring column that caused riots in the city prevented the arrival of firemen. "We have an overflow of family and people who burned the city unfortunately," explained the mayor of Baradero early Carossi Aldo.

Later would come the reinforcements would return gradually Baradero calm. The Buenos Aires police chief, Juan Carlos Paggi, confirmed that was sent to the area of the incident "a very significant amount of cash." "We needed to move reinforcements to contain the situation and cooperate with authorities and regain the public peace."

The fury unleashed by the death of two young motorcyclists-a girl and a boy, 16 and 17 this morning crashed into a truck from the Traffic Division. According to several witnesses, the teens were chased by troops who were pursuing them for a penalty. At the crossroads of Gallo and Belgrano, the patrol would have locked up and caused the fatal crash. The victims violently flew off the bike and died as a result of the heavy blow. Neither was wearing a helmet.

"I can not understand why they stopped it instead of killing him," asked Hugo Portugal this morning, the father of one of the boys, returning from a party of 15.

The mayor confirmed that the two Carossi inspectors involved in the accident were detained. "If you really are guilty of Justice will punish them," he said.

Once again, Senator Roxana Latorre Santa Fe was in the eye of the storm. As happened last year when his single signature to a majority opinion allowed the government to extend the delegated powers, the lawmaker returned to topple the fragile scaffolding panopositor: this time by announcing it would support the statement of the Central Bank president, Mercedes Marco del Pont, considering that the economist "was transformed into a scapegoat who was in the midst of the shootout between government supporters and opposition" and who "is committing a terrible injustice." Furthermore, charged that "in Parliament breathes a spirit coup. Thus, Latorre, but reaffirmed its opposition stance, just with an announcement once again left bare cracks antikirchnerista conglomerate who, seeing that he had the numbers to reject the contract decided not to quorum at the meeting and made everything ready for that next Wednesday, when I return to this issue, the Government seek to obtain approval of the staff.

"With Marco del Pont is committing a terrible injustice, I spent the Kirchnerism, but Cristina has to finish his term," said the Senator said. Care that Parliament coup breathes a spirit that has to go before. "With these words, Latorre specified the earthquakes that scuttled a new advanced opposition and came to adding uncertainty to the legislative map. And while it remains part said "the arch opponent, his actions showed that blindly follow the decisions of the fabric antikirchnerista, because he feels some interest in that sector have destituyentes intentions: it should be noted that" great care because there are many legislators who aim at the early handover of power ", he insisted, although he declined to name names.

"I am not captive to any space," said the Santa Fe. Honestly I am still part of the arch opponent, but my vote is not held captive, my vote is for the benefit of the Argentine people. "He added, not without irony:" Even as a Peronist, not come here to drive me Carrio. In an interview with Pagina/12, Latorre pointed out that the functioning of democracy "is a thin red line that must not be crossed ever and there are some sectors in which no such limit."

"Beyond the political decision to support the Central Bank president, the most troubling is his claim that there is a" spirit coup "in Congress. Who and how they promote it?

"I'm a national senator since 2001, I scored a fire that experience, it was the first promotion that came through direct vote and also inherited the failure of the Alliance and the unfortunate history of the old Senate, so I think that monitored the sake of democracy and caring for the relationship between Parliament and the Executive Branch is our great responsibility. Not for me to accuse anyone by name, but there is a section which states that "if Kirchner will have to go, let them go now," not recognizing a government elected by the polls. I am clearly oppositional, very critical of the ruling, I have demonstrated over the years. But before that I am an advocate of democracy.

"Specifically, what do you mean when you say some lawmakers who aim at the early handover of power?

"I will not point to any legislator in particular, but through the attitude of how they vote and behave within the committees and in the forum marked a line on the executive. There is a thin red line that must not be crossed ever and there are some sectors in which no such limit. It is also true that it was a degree of disrespect between the Government and Parliament, given that there was long a majority bloc with special majority of which were ignored so many proposals of the opposition and even dissenters within the officialdom. Now we face an era of consensus and dialogue, understanding the differences but spreading democracy.

- Does the current climate that is breathed in Congress will work on that?

"I think yes, there will, and I think in each of the sessions are going to go see. Going to have to work issue by issue, session by session. The arc consists of multiple opposition voices. Basically, be ignored the star and the nominations for 2011. This is a time of construction.

"Last week it was decided the new distribution of commissions that the officer considers progress on governance, why at that time supported the initiative dissident?

"The government abused its comfortable majority in Parliament, especially in the Senate, and moved with the arrogance of the vote. Somehow the fact that it has formed an arch opponent who has prioritized heterogeneous I find that healthy balance of the Nation.

- That's not arrogance to combat bullying?

"We ought to do in particular, but basically except in some isolated cases like that of Senator Carlos Menem, who took the negotiations to proceed on charges that he belonged to the ruling, I think it was related to a structuring of the representation of forces within Senate.

Interview: Nicolás Lantos.

The Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, was crowned as the world's richest man ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, according to the annual ranking by Forbes magazine.

It is the first Latin American and the first non-American since 1994 to be placed in the top of the list of Forbes billionaires club.

Slim's fortune, who is the principal shareholder of Telmex, the first fixed telephone company of Mexico, as well as other enterprises, grew and reached 18,500 million current U.S. $ 53,500 million which is valued their heritage.

Gates, Microsoft founder abdicated for the second time since 1995 and was placed in second position (with assets valued at 53,000 million), followed by finance guru Buffett (47,000 million).

The richest man in Europe, however, is Bernard Arnault, seventh overall in the standings with 27,500 million dollars.

In addition to Carlos Slim also highlight among Latin Americans, Brazilians Eike Batista, Jorge Paulo Lemann and Joseph Safra, and the new Chilean president, Sebastian Pinera.

Among the Latin American drug trafficker is also Guzman Loera, who repeated for the second year in the club of the richest people in the world.

"The economy is recovering and this is reflected in the classification since the number of billionaires grew from 2010 to 1011 on the 793 in the above list, the magazine said.

The list this year reflects the strength of the Asian economy on such data as the number of Chinese billionaires, who went from 28 in 2009 to the current 64.

Roman Diaz began his career in Chacarita and also played for San Lorenzo, Lanus, Rosario Central, Atlas (Mexico), Deportes Quindio, Almagro and Institute. On Saturday in the match between Almirante Brown and Defensores de Belgrano, which ended 0-0, a bar criticized the player. He reacted and threw a pine cone.

Yesterday a group of admirals appeared swollen in practice. They could not enter but waited for Diaz to exit. When the players finished training, they found that the bars were waiting. "I'm not going to patota, Diaz would have cried. It was then pulled a gun and fired a shot into the air. Then he marched in his car. Now the squad is training police custody.

The Planning Minister said that "the oil companies Shell and Petrobras oil refining are reluctant to undersupplies market and forcing YPF to raise their prices. De Vido found that the maneuver is combined with "a media campaign aimed at creating uncertainty among users" and said that "the State will intervene to ensure that these refiners to use their facilities at maximum capacity


De Vido said that "there is lack of capacity but there is a decision by those less oil refining companies to cause shortage scenario."

Therefore, the minister said in a statement, "the State will intervene to ensure that these refiners to use their facilities at maximum capacity.

From France, where part of the International Conference on Access to Civil Nuclear Energy Minister said that "as a company with national participation, YPF maintains a witness at the market price, that the irresponsible attitude of Shell and Petrobras seeks to alter, what will cause consumers to pay higher prices.

De Vido said that "the only way means that those companies that are cartelized, remain idle while losing market share held by YPF and do nothing to retrieve it.

In this context, the holder of the portfolio of Federal Planning, did not rule out "if necessary regulating fuel exports to the effect that the local market is well supplied."

Also, De Vido said that his staff will be send to the Embassy of Brazil, the Argentine government's concern "by the unethical attitude of Petrobras.