Miguel Etchecolatz
| Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 1, 1929 Argentina |
| Occupation | Former senior Argentine police officer |
| Criminal charge | Homicide, torture, kidnapping |
| Criminal penalty | life imprisonment |
| Criminal status | 2006, in prison |
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (born 1 May 1929) is a former senior Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship of the 1970s. Etchecolatz was deeply involved in the "anti-subversion operation" known as the National Reorganization Process (El proceso). He was first convicted in 1986 of crimes committed during this period, but passage that year of the Ley de Punto Final, which 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 In 2003 Congress repealed the law, and the government re-opened prosecution of crimes during the Dirty War.
In 2004, Etchecolatz was one of the first two officials convicted and sentenced for baby snatching: 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.
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". This was the first time that the term "genocide" had been used to characterize the crimes committed against political prisoners during the "Dirty War.
The "Dirty War" is the term for 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".
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