Jorge Videla, dictator of Argentina between 1976 and 1981 forced from their mothers immediately after birth and handed over to the torturers of their parents for adoption force that adds horror to horror. So ended many of the children born in Argentina between 1976 and 1983, the seven terrible years of military dictatorship, when the sons of men and women that the government considered "subversive" or suspected of having links with political opponents.
Stories of children (about 500, according to the association Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, which, compared to the most famous Madres also seek the grandchildren of the disappeared) that often have never known their real parents, many of whom are still missing. Fifteen years after the first complaint of Abuelas, eight defendants will be tried for "abduction, detention, concealment of children and mistaken identity." To bar representatives of the political and military leaders of those years, including Jorge Videla, who was driving the coup that gave rise to the regime and then President of the Republic from 1976 to 1981, and Reynaldo Bignone, president from 1982 until return of democracy.
At the heart of the process, which promises to be very long and that will rely on testimony of more than 300 people, 34 cases of "stolen children and mistaken identity." It is the first time Videla and other members of the junta are tried on charges of having planned the systematic abduction of children of the disappeared.
The country has welcomed the news with excitement and hope on day of trial, Monday, Feb. 28, hundreds of people filled the lobby of the Federal Court of Buenos Aires 6 for a process that, according to the federal prosecutor Federico Delgado, aims to do justice to "one of the more obscure cases of Argentine history".
The investigations showed that the babies were taken from their mothers held in clandestine detention centers, delivered to members of the armed forces or other person with "the obligation of parents to hide them legitimate." For the children was then removed and replaced with the status "false birth certificates to reconstruct its identity." Deported and made "born again" in the barracks as Esma and Olympus, also made famous from movies and documentaries, the same as their fathers and their mothers were tortured and sometimes made to disappear.
Among the dead were also Members Cabandié Juan and Victoria Donda Perez, who only recently discovered the identity of their fathers, who are still missing. Hundred and two people have regained their identity through the work of investigation of the Abuelas, and 25 of these are part of the 34 cases referred to will the Court of Buenos Aires in the coming months.
Videla had already been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1985 but a year later, with the objective of national reconciliation, President Raul Alfonsin launched the laws and obedencia debida final point, which effectively froze the procedures and penalties against those involved in crimes committed until 1983.
Then, in 1990, President Carlos Menem launched a series of decrees amnesty for crimes committed during the dictatorship. Impunity lasted until 2003, when Congress declared null and void the laws wanted by Alfonsin, and in 2007 the Constitutional Court also revoked the measures of Menem.
Jorge Videla was arrested, and soon after was granted house arrest for health reasons. In 2010, Videla was again sentenced to life imprisonment for the shooting of 30 political prisoners in 1976. Also last year, Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
According to the CONADEP (Comisión Nacional sobre la desaparicion de personas), the body which had the task of investigating violations of human rights and the fate of the disappeared are 9 000 people of which has not been heard from again. According to unofficial data instead of 30 000 political opponents (or regarded as such) would have disappeared or died between 1976 and 1983. 
Stories of children (about 500, according to the association Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, which, compared to the most famous Madres also seek the grandchildren of the disappeared) that often have never known their real parents, many of whom are still missing. Fifteen years after the first complaint of Abuelas, eight defendants will be tried for "abduction, detention, concealment of children and mistaken identity." To bar representatives of the political and military leaders of those years, including Jorge Videla, who was driving the coup that gave rise to the regime and then President of the Republic from 1976 to 1981, and Reynaldo Bignone, president from 1982 until return of democracy.
At the heart of the process, which promises to be very long and that will rely on testimony of more than 300 people, 34 cases of "stolen children and mistaken identity." It is the first time Videla and other members of the junta are tried on charges of having planned the systematic abduction of children of the disappeared.
The country has welcomed the news with excitement and hope on day of trial, Monday, Feb. 28, hundreds of people filled the lobby of the Federal Court of Buenos Aires 6 for a process that, according to the federal prosecutor Federico Delgado, aims to do justice to "one of the more obscure cases of Argentine history".
The investigations showed that the babies were taken from their mothers held in clandestine detention centers, delivered to members of the armed forces or other person with "the obligation of parents to hide them legitimate." For the children was then removed and replaced with the status "false birth certificates to reconstruct its identity." Deported and made "born again" in the barracks as Esma and Olympus, also made famous from movies and documentaries, the same as their fathers and their mothers were tortured and sometimes made to disappear.
Among the dead were also Members Cabandié Juan and Victoria Donda Perez, who only recently discovered the identity of their fathers, who are still missing. Hundred and two people have regained their identity through the work of investigation of the Abuelas, and 25 of these are part of the 34 cases referred to will the Court of Buenos Aires in the coming months.
Videla had already been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1985 but a year later, with the objective of national reconciliation, President Raul Alfonsin launched the laws and obedencia debida final point, which effectively froze the procedures and penalties against those involved in crimes committed until 1983.
Then, in 1990, President Carlos Menem launched a series of decrees amnesty for crimes committed during the dictatorship. Impunity lasted until 2003, when Congress declared null and void the laws wanted by Alfonsin, and in 2007 the Constitutional Court also revoked the measures of Menem.
Jorge Videla was arrested, and soon after was granted house arrest for health reasons. In 2010, Videla was again sentenced to life imprisonment for the shooting of 30 political prisoners in 1976. Also last year, Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
According to the CONADEP (Comisión Nacional sobre la desaparicion de personas), the body which had the task of investigating violations of human rights and the fate of the disappeared are 9 000 people of which has not been heard from again. According to unofficial data instead of 30 000 political opponents (or regarded as such) would have disappeared or died between 1976 and 1983.
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