Inside Argentina’s Killing Machine: U.S. Intelligence Documents Record Gruesome Human Rights Crimes of 1976-1983

U.S. Embassy cable traffic shows that all through 1975 there were plans for a visit by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to strengthen the relationship with the government of Isabel Peron. This FBI memo reports that Peronist Youth [JP] leader Dardo Cabo's intercepted mail shows his intention to "set up a big disturbance" during Secretary Kissinger's trip to Argentina. According to the source, "the Minister of the Interior directed an order to all police departments in Argentina" that "all JP regional leaders should be closely watched and if possible detained legally or extralegally, until after the visit of Secretary Kissinger." The source names two individuals detained "in keeping" with these instructions, "Dardo Cabo and Dante Gullo."

This confidential Department of State summary reveals the "severe" torture of two of the detained Peronist Youth leaders. On page four, in the section devoted to human rights, it states that according to a New York Times correspondent, the detained "have been severely tortured since they were arrested on April 17." "One of the two, Dardo Cabo, has lost the use of one of his arms as a result of the torture." Beyond, in the section pertaining to violence from the left, the summary reports that the Argentine government has "had some success" in hindering insurgent groups, "in many instances using information obtained from guerillas who are illegally detained, tortured during interrogation and then eliminated."

This cable from the Legat [Legal attaché] in Buenos Aires reports that second in command and insurgent Montonero leader Roberto Quieto has been "extra-legally detained..." and "subsequently transferred to another AAIS [Argentine Army Intelligence Service] safehouse in Buenos Aires province" where he has been subjected to "intense" and "continuing interrogation."

In a comprehensive 23-page report, the CIA foreshadows the violence of the repression that the coming military regime will implement. The paper states, "Argentina seems on the verge of repeating a familiar political cycle: an elected civilian government is falling... [the] armed forces [are] being propelled to take over the government again." Due to political disunity and chaos, the harsh economic policies to be implemented, and the threat from insurgencies, the paper argues, "This time the rule of the Army would likely be much harsher and more authoritarian than any time In the past..." It concludes that, among others, "Torture, battlefield 'justice,' a fuzzing of the distinction between active guerrilla and civilian supporter, the use of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, and the support of right-wing 'death' squads have all been noted as increasingly common Army (and police) tactics... [M]ore and more military and police are exposed to the notion that all means are justified in order to eliminate subversion and the threat to the state posed by the guerrilla/terrorists..."

This declassified FBI memo from Legal Attaché Robert Scherrer to Ambassador Hill clarifies that Roberto Quieto is still alive and being held at an Argentine Army cuartel in spite of "innumerable rumors circulating in Buenos Aires [...] that the Army had eliminated Quieto." According to an Argentine Army Intelligence Service (SIE) official, "SIE, acting on orders from Argentine Army G-2 [Army General Staff Intelligence Section], transferred the subject from his interrogators at various SIE safehouses to an Argentine Army cuartel indicating that the Argentine Army G-2 did not intend to eliminate the subject. Subject's interrogators in SIE became enraged when they learned that the subject would be allowed to live and administered what they considered to be a lethal dose of poison to the subject prior to transferring him." In spite of this, "the subject, although violently ill, survived the poisoning." The source also notes that "no disciplinary action was taken against those who poisoned Quieto and that the incident was dismissed in the form of a practical joke." Roberto Quieto has not been heard of since and remains disappeared.

A CIA cable relating to "Conti's" interrogation is chilling for what is left out. The renowned Argentine writer Haroldo Conti was kidnapped in the early morning hours of May 5, 1976. He was last seen at the "Vesubio" clandestine detention center and remains disappeared. Along with information extracted through interrogation, CIA or FBI documents usually report on the Argentine security agency that kidnapped the victims; they note that they are tortured and then disposed of through the killing and hiding of the corpses. This document only gives the results of the interrogation. It is, nevertheless, significant as a rare official document indicating that Haroldo Conti has been detained by Argentine security forces and is being held under duress.

In this FBI cable, Buenos Aires Legal Attaché Robert Scherrer reports that "three Roman Catholic Priests and two seminarians were brutally murdered in the rectory of St. Patrick's Church in Belgrano." It cites as its source the Acting Director of the Department of Federal Security (DFS) of the Federal Police of Argentina (FPA) who claims that the clergy were targeted because of "information indicating that two seminarians attached to St. Patrick's Parish in Belgrano were actively engaged in propaganda activities at the office of the Third World Movement."

ERP [People's Revolutionary Army] leader Domingo Mena is detained by security forces in mid-July in Buenos Aires. This CIA cable notes Mena's resistance "to reveal any information which would lead to the capture of" ERP Commander Mario Roberto Santucho. "The authorities, however, on searching Mena, discovered a piece of paper with an address on Venezuela Street in Villa Martelli ... which turned out to be the hideout of Santucho." At that site, "a shootout occurred, resulting in the death of Santucho and ERP leader Benito Urteaga, as well as the detention of a woman who was Santucho's mistress and another woman named Delfino (FNU)." The women described are Ana Lanzillotto de Mena and Santucho's wife, Liliana Delfino; both were pregnant. Lanzillotto and Delfino, along with Mena, were seen, visibly tortured, at Campo de Mayo clandestine detention center in September 1976. Before disappearing, along with Delfino and Mena, Ana Lanzillotto gave birth to a son in captivity whose identity was recovered with the help of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in 2016. The Abuelas continue to search for the infant presumed to have been born to Delfino, also in captivity.

This memo from Legal Attaché Scherrer describes the BAPP [Buenos Aires Provincial Police] intelligence service and SIE raid that ends in a shootout where ERP Commander Mario Roberto Santucho and ERP leader Jorge Benito Urteaga are killed. A SIE Captain is also killed during the shootout. Scherrer highlights that this "demonstrates the general modus operandi of Argentine security forces in running down leads secured from [captured] ERP prisoners and/or documentation..." The deceased Captain, Juan Carlos Leonetti, is a member of the "Reunión Central" [aka NIC, see below] within Military Intelligence Battalion 601.

The CIA identifies individuals "connected with the Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA)" who were placed under detention by the authorities." These individuals have been "determined by the Military Junta to be sufficiently leftist to represent a threat to the security of Argentina's nuclear energy program." On page three, item one reads "Antonio Misetich is a chemist whose sister, Misetich de Maestre (FNU) was a Montonero..." Antonio remains disappeared.

In the early hours of August 20, 1976, thirty bodies are dynamited and the remains exposed for the public to see in what is known as the Fátima massacre. According to this CIA cable the "thirty individuals had been killed under Federal Police detention" and "[The] Operating levels of the Argentine Federal Police were responsible for killing" them. Further, "President Videla is extremely angry over the appearance of the thirty bodies in Pilar and sixteen bodies in another site." President Videla "is in agreement that subversives should be killed, but that the entire matter should be dealt with discreetly."

The National Intelligence Center (NIC), also known as "Reunion Central," and its network are at the core of the repression of the military dictatorship. The NIC, itself, "comes under the command of the Army and is under the immediate authority of the Army 601st Intelligence Battalion." It has the role of "...Analyzing confiscated documents and data provided by captured subversives." It "works in conjunction with the intelligence units of the Army [G-2, SIE, AAIS, Battalion 601], Navy [SIN, ESMA], Airforce, gendarmerie, maritime prefecture, Federal Police [FPA] and Buenos Aires provincial police [BAPP], as well as the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE) and the penitentiary intelligence service." "[T]he NIC occasionally participates in some action operations conducted by one of the security services. NIC action operations fall within the jurisdiction of the army first corps..." "Group one... [is in charge of the] ERP... Group two... [in charge of] Montoneros... Group five... [in charge of the Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria] JCR."

Created in 1971-72, the "Reunion Central" is named by different witnesess as "Central de Reunión,," "Central Nacional de Inteligencia," "Central de Reunión de Inteligencia," and "Central de Reunión de Información." Linked to it are dozens of "Central de Operaciones de Inteligencia (COI)" spread through military zones, subzones and areas. The ones known for a fact to have existed are COI Zona 1 and "COI Subzona23; COI Area 234." These units are geared towards gathering and collating intelligence and imparting orders for operations, but they often have tactical teams operating from their own structure. The COI are sometimes named "Central de Reunion de Inteligencia (CRI)." These are also paired or overlap with hit squads called "Centros de Operaciones Tácticas (COT)."

The CIA reports that powerful military commanders, like the head of the Army First Corps’ General Suarez Mason, the commander at the infamous “Campo de Mayo” General Santiago Omar Riveros, along with the head of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police (BAPP), all agreed “that it is time to stop being so easy on the terrorists in the country and start an all out war against them. The head of the BAPP states that starting immediately the BAPP would be taking a harder stance and “until further notice he wanted no prisoners for interrogation, only cadavers.” The report states that while some recent actions in La Plata region against subversives have been legitimate, “others have been fabrications… designed to explain away the killing of prisoners.”

This secret memo from Legal Attaché Robert Scherrer to the Ambassador reveals that, contrary to news disseminated by the Armed Forces and widely reproduced in the Argentine news media announcing "the alleged death of Montonero guerrilla leader, Norma Arrostito" in a shootout on December 2nd, 1976, "Arrostito is presently in the hands of Argentine security forces undergoing interrogation." According to an Argentine intelligence source, the "shootout between Argentina security forces in Buenos Aires province" was staged as part of "a contrived operation." Arrostito is captured alive in the vicinity of the shootout after having "taken a potion of potassium cyanide. An antidote was immediately given to Arrostito and she survived the attempt at suicide." Multiple survivor testimonies indicate Arrostito spends much of her captivity at the Navy Mechanics School Clandestine Detention Center (ESMA), where she is savagely tortured, until the time of her death in January 1978.

This document released in 2002 by the Department of State is included here for it links evidence to several people mentioned in other documents rescently released. In a statement to the Mennonite Central Committee, Patricia Erb, a 19-year-old US citizen, reveals the vicious torture that she suffers and witnesses in the Army Campo de Mayo clandestine detention center. She is "abducted by armed men in civilian clothing" and held for several days before being moved to "the torture house." There, men "would begin interrogations" using torture in various forms: "beating with clubs, fists, kicking, immersing in water or in fecal substance to almost the drowning point and applying 'La Picana,' (electric machine) that is touched to the more sensitive parts of the body." "To cause a stronger sensation they would tie us with rope to a wire bed which carried an electrical current...splashing water on to augment the pain." The prisoners end these sessions "almost unconscious and moaning in great pain." At night, Erb testifies, "we were also at the mercy of being raped by the sub-officials." Erb lists in her statement the names she can remember of individuals detained with her. Among these she mentions "Eduardo Raul Merbilhaa...Ana Maria Lansilotto [sic] pregnant...Domingo Menna [sic]... Liliana Delfino..." They all remain disappeared.

An Embassy cable reports with concern that, after almost two years of being in prison, "a number of independent sources have separatedly told Emboffs [Embassy Officials] that deaths of Peronist leader Dardo Cabo and Roberto Perliz in terrorist ambush on Jan 6 were engineered by security forces." A consistent story is relayed to the Embassy by the father of another victim also housed in the La Plata prison. This follows CIA reporting on December 3, 1976, that while some recent actions in La Plata region against subversives have been legitimate, "others have been fabrications... designed to explain away the killing of prisoners."

This memo for Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Patt Derian, suggests "Conditions To Be Met [by Argentine military government] Prior To Trip" to Argentina a week later. The first condition is an "agreement to permit private interviews with political prisoners." Listed are 13 "Specific political prisoners with whom the mission may want to request private interviews." The list includes the prisoners' names and the detention centers where they are being held. Strikingly, the list includes "Manuela Elmina Santucho... held in concentration camp La Atomica... Eduardo Raul Melbilha... held at Campo de Mayo... Jorge Di Pascuale.... Held at Federal Police headquarters... [and] Raymundo Glayser [sic]... Famous filmmaker. Held at La Atomica..." All of them are disappeared.

A week after accompanying Patricia Derian on her trip to Argentina, Office of East Coast Affairs head Fred Rondon writes to Ambassador Robert Hill. His letter describes meetings held, captures general impressions, and offers specifics about the horrors going on in Argentina. Several descriptions are shocking for the graphic detail with which they describe violence committed against women. In one incident referring to the detention of a mother and daughter, the mother is "beaten with rubber truncheons" while "she could hear her daughter's screams in a nearby room." The mother is subsequently released but her daughter remains disappeared.

This partially excised CIA cable theorizes as to which branch of the Argentine Armed Forces is responsible for the murder of Elena Holmberg, an Argentine Foreign Ministry official "kidnapped" on December 20th, 1978. Holmberg's body is recovered in January from the Lujan river. "The press reported that autopsies performed on the body established that death had occurred within 48 hours of her abduction." The cable presents three theories: "A) The State Secretariat for Intelligence (SIDE) killed Holmberg," although "If the SIDE were responsible, Holmberg would have been held for extended interrogation and would not have been killed within 48 hours." "B) Subversives kidnapped and killed Homberg [excised] not [excised] likely." "C) The navy killed Holmberg because while in Paris she discovered that Admiral Emilio Massera, former Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, had met with the Montoneros... and that she had forwarded this information to high officials of the Argentine government."

Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Patricia Derian, urges Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to U.S. action. "The increasing magnitude and brutality of Argentine human rights violations convince me that it is time for us to take additional measures to underscore our concerns and bring pressure to bear on the Junta to make improvements," states Derian. At the end of the memo she makes several suggestions to impose sanctions on the military to force human rights improvements. To emphasize her point, she lists some of the most worrisome signs.

"38 bodies, many of them without heads or hands, were recently washed ashore on one of Argentina's Atlantic beaches."

"Our Embassy estimates that about 55 disappearances a month take place in Argentina."

"For the past three weeks, security forces have arrested and threatened to imprison mothers of the disappeared who have held weekly silent demonstrations..."

"We continue to receive... reports that torture is used routinely in the interrogation of detainees. The electric 'picana'... the 'submarine'..."

Sources report that prison treatment "has deteriorated sharply." According to one source, "fifty female detainees recently transferred between prisons 'have not been exposed to the sun for so long that their skin color is greenish... Some have lost their eyesight. Many are mentally deranged.'"

Disappeared Montoneros Horacio Campiglia and Susana Binstock have been captured in Brazil and are now being held at clandestine Army detention center Campo de Mayo. "[T]he long missing [Thelma] Jara de Cabezas is still being held by the Argentine Navy." In this cable, the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, Raul Castro, concludes that this "confirms that the military government will show hardcore terrorists no mercy. The tactics of the dirty war remain in place. The major difference from the past is that today they are usually being applied with greater sophistication and selectivity against individuals."

This CIA cable reports that, in anticipation of "the coming civilian government," there is "great concern within SIDE [State Secretariat for Intelligence] over revelations of secret detention and torture centers that had existed in Argentina." This concern "was based on the fact that the revelations were correct in their location of the centers and the identification of persons involved." The cable goes on to say " The 601st Intelligence Battallion, the operational arm of the Army Intelligence Service (SIE), were very concerned..."

Six months before the transfer to a democratic government, the CIA makes an assessment of the dictatorship's performance in counterinsurgency. The military "effectively coordinated the counterinsurgency effort through the National Intelligence Center (NIC)... The NIC collected information from the various intelligence agencies, processed it, and disseminated it to appropriate units for exploitation. Paramilitary organizations were placed under the direct control of their parent organizations... While numerous innocent people were tortured and killed by paramilitary units, most of the victims were at least supporters of the ERP or the Montoneros. Intelligence units successfully penetrated both groups and extracted much information from captured insurgents through the extensive use of torture. Many of the detained insurgents were later killed to prevent their
future release by a civilian government."

This CIA cable reports that "In late May 1983 [excised] one of the Argentine military services had detained a prominent Montonero named ((Haydar)) (fnu) on about 10 May. [Excised] the military service was almost finished interrogating Haydar, and it was planned to have him die in some sort of manufactured public incident. However, [excised] the military service believed that there was too much current controversy over other Montoneros who had died in similar incidents and it was planned to wait a week or so until this public interest had died down before killing Haydar."