Declassification Diplomacy : Trump Administration to Turn Over Trove
of Declassified Records to Argentina on Human Rights Violations Committed
During Military Dictatorship
Documents like this one pertaining to the fate
of Ana Maria Pérez will be among those in the upcoming release. Photo courtesy
of Berta Elvira Sanchez.
Published:
Mar 24, 2019
by Carlos Osorio
For further information, contact Carlos
Osorio:
202-994-7061 or cosorio@gwu.edu
National Security Archive Hails Forthcoming
Transfer of Formerly Secret Intelligence Records
Washington D.C., March 24, 2019 – On the 43rd anniversary of the military coup in Argentina,
the Argentine government of Mauricio Macri has announced that the Trump
Administration will provide “the largest delivery of declassified documents, in
size and file quality, to another nation”—formerly secret U.S. records relating
to human rights abuses committed during under the military dictatorship between
1976 and 1983. The official transfer of the records is planned for
mid-April during a
visit by Argentina’s minister of justice, Germán Garavano, to Washington
D.C.
The turnover of formerly secret U.S.
intelligence records—the collection will include CIA, FBI, NSC, and Defense
Intelligence Agency documents—will culminate a special U.S. government
declassification project authorized three years ago today by
then-President Barack Obama during a visit to Buenos Aires, and implemented by
the Trump administration.
In support of the Argentina declassification
project, the National Security Archive hailed the forthcoming documents
transfer. “We praise the Trump administration as well as President Macri for
their concrete contribution to the cause of truth and human rights,” said
Carlos Osorio, Director of the National Security Archive’s Southern
Cone Documentation Project.
“With great expectations, Argentina awaits
this documentation which will provide valuable support for the process of
truth, justice and memory,” noted a statement
released today by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“This is the largest amount of information
that the United States has ever transferred to another country,” President
Macri tweeted
today. “These documents will play a fundamental role in advancing justice
for still unresolved issues of the past, one of the darkest periods of
Argentine history.”
Osorio said that the National Security Archive
would analyze the documentation and post a selection of the most significant
and revealing records after the U.S. transferred the documents to Argentina.
In anticipation of the final release of
records, the National Security Archive today posted a sampling of previously
declassified, but heavily redacted, FBI records which reflect the potential
value of the forthcoming declassification. Among them are detailed reports from
the FBI’s legal attaché in Buenos Aires on repressive operations conducted
by military security agents during the dictatorship. The declassification of similar
records, according to Osorio, could provide evidence for victims,
investigators, prosecutors and judges to pursue still unresolved human rights
crimes in Argentina.
READ THE DOCUMENTS (chronological order)*
Document 1: FBI, Memorandum on
“Roberto Quieto,” for the Ambassador from Legal Attaché
Secret, January 9, 1976
Date: 1976-01-09
Source: FBI Argentina Project, May 2002
This fully excised two-page FBI memorandum
from Legal Attaché Robert Scherrer to U.S. Ambassador Robert Hill likely
contains information on Roberto Quieto’s capture and disappearance. Quieto was
a Montonero leader who was disappeared in December of 1975. A couple of cables
released by the Department of State in 2002 account for Quieto’s detention by
Argentine security forces. But no documents released so far offer a hint as to
his eventual fate. This is one of the documents among three heavily excised
provided by the FBI to Argentine prosecutors in 2002. The upcoming
declassification should reveal currently excised information from this cable
and other cables related to the case.
Document 2: FBI, Cable for FBI
Director from Legal Attaché, “Argentine Terrorist Activities”
Secret, August 11, 1976
Date: 1976-08-11
Source: FBI Argentina Project, May 2002
A Legal Attaché cable reports that “…at
approximately 1:30 A.M., August 11, 1976… units of the Argentine Army
Intelligence Service operating with the Buenos Aires Provincial Police …raided
an apartment in La Lucila, Buenos Aires, and arrested a female occupant of the
first floor, whose parents reside in the same apartment building on the sixth
floor… the security forces withdrew from the area at approximately 4:00 A.M.
August 11, 1976 after having carried out their mission.”
According to testimonies by the father and
sister of Selma Ocampo, she and a friend, Inés Nocetti, were asleep when at
around two in the morning men in plain clothes and in uniform surrounded their
block. Selma resisted arrest. In the next apartment, an Argentine Navy officer
refused to open his door to them and called a security detachment. The raiding
police and intelligence agents also tried to enter the Ocampo’s parent’s
apartment, but they refused as well. The agents eventually forced their way
into Selma’s apartment. However, the security personnel called by the Navy
officer arrived and, in the confusion, engaged in a shootout with the raiding
agents before they could identify each other and cease fire. Selma Ocampo and
Inés Nocetti disappeared in this incident and were eventually killed by
Argentine security forces.
Document 3: FBI, cable, “ERP”
September 17, 1976
Date: 1976-09-17
Source: FBI Argentina Project, May 2002
This declassified FBI cable from Legal Attaché
Robert Scherrer to Ambassador Hill cites information from a confidential source
shedding light on a recent security operation reported by the Buenos Aires news
media. The source revealed that the Federal Police of Argentina (FPA), in
conjunction with SIDE, raided an ERP safehouse in Buenos Aires on September
14th, 1976. “Two ERP members were killed, and three prisoners were taken,
one a female in the last month of her pregnancy.” The pregnant woman tried
to escape from the 6th floor apartment using exterior balconies but “was
apprehended in the street.” The cable ends warning that “The foregoing
information should not be discussed with any foreign officials, including those
of the Argentine government.”
The apprehended woman was a nine-month pregnant Ana
María del Carmen Pérez de Gaya, a member of the ERP whose code name was
“Vicky.” She was taken to the Clandestine Detention Center Automotores Orletti
and disappeared. Her remains, and those of her unborn child, were later
discovered in a cement-filled drum.
