El Vesubio

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Prison building (Casa 3), El Vesubio

The El Vesubio concentration camp was a secret prison of the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1978 . The camp was located in the greater Buenos Aires area on the corner of De La Riestra and Au Teniente General Pablo Ricchieri in the Partido La Matanza .

Political opponents, so-called subversives, were held, interrogated and tortured in the camp. El Vesubio was known as "Hell" among the prisoners. Many prisoners were murdered and disposed of on the so-called death flights : They were flown over the sea from Buenos Aires airport and thrown from the air. The military destroyed "El Vesubio" in 1978 when Argentina hosted the soccer world championship in order to stand up to the human rights commission. About 30,000 people, including 100 Germans, were murdered during the military dictatorship, most of them are still considered to be " Desaparecidos " (disappeared).

Torture and execution

Survivors such as Elena Alfaro and Ana Maria di Salvo reported that prisoners were tortured with electric shocks, scalpel injuries and rape, among other things.

After the torture, the prisoners were handcuffed to the wall in tiny cells lying on the floor with a hood over their heads.

Executions took place, among other things, by shooting or dropping from a plane over the open sea.

Prominent prisoners in the camp included the Argentine journalist and comic artist Héctor Germán Oesterheld and the writer Haroldo Conti .

The Elisabeth Käsemann case

El Vesubio caused a stir in the German media with the murder of the German student Elisabeth Käsemann . The Tübingen woman was arrested on March 9, 1977 by the Argentine government, tortured and murdered on May 24, 1977.

Work-up

In June 2001 the Nuremberg District Court issued an arrest warrant for ex-general Guillermo Suarez Mason and Pedro Durán Sáenz, the ex-commanders of the camp. Argentina refused extradition.

On March 4, 2004, the German federal government officially requested the extradition of the former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla and two other former military personnel for the multiple murders of German citizens. The application was dismissed on April 17, 2007 by the Argentine Supreme Court.

In June 2010, another trial began in Argentina against those responsible for the military dictatorship, including Videla and the former general Luciano Benjamín Menéndez . On December 22, 2010 Videla was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Menéndez and 14 other perpetrators. Videla had to serve his sentence in an ordinary prison, where he died in 2013 at the age of 87.

In April 2011 the trial of the eight ex-military men Héctor Humberto Gamen (General de Brigada), Hugo Idelbrando Pascarelli (Coronel Retirado), Pedro Alberto Durán Sáenz (Oficial de inteligencia de la Brigada), Ramón Antonio Erlán (penitenciario) began in Buenos Aires ), José Néstor Maidana (penitenciario), Roberto Carlos Zeoliti (ex penitenciario), Diego Salvador Chemes (ex penitenciario), Ricardo Néstor Martínez (ex penitenciario). Germany appears as a joint plaintiff in the process.

The former military men Hector Gamen and Hugo Pascarelli were convicted on July 14, 2011 in Buenos Aires, among other things, of murder, kidnapping, torture and rape in the notorious Argentine torture center "El Vesubio". The camp's commander, Colonel Pedro Duran Saenz, died in June while the trial was ongoing. Five former prison guards were sentenced to between 18 and 22 years in prison. The second instance proceedings, in which the Federal Republic of Germany reappeared as a joint plaintiff, started in November 2011 and ended in May 2014 with the confirmation of the convictions by the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Criminal Court.

In another trial in December 2014, four other defendants - former members of the army - were sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity involving 204 inmates in El Vesubio, including Käsemann.

Today only a few stone slabs remind of the camp. The military destroyed "El Vesubio" in 1978 when Argentina was hosting the soccer world championship. They wanted to erase their tracks when a human rights commission came to Argentina.

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Individual evidence

  1. Location on Google Maps , accessed on July 12, 2011.
  2. Miriam Hollstein: German Justice Chasing Junta General , Welt Online, July 15, 2001
  3. ^ Witness testimony Elena Alfaro
  4. Abduction, Torture and Death ( Memento from August 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.1 MB), A Life in Solidarity with Latin America, exhibition catalog, May 2007
  5. Katharina Peters: Argentina's judges judge the sadists of "El Vesubio" , Spiegel Online, July 12, 2011
  6. Volker Schmidt: The violent death of Elisabeth Käsemann , FR Online, February 26, 2010
  7. Argentina: Dictator Videla is tried . Frankfurter Rundschau June 30, 2010
  8. Argentina: Lifelong for ex-dictator Videla . The standard December 22, 2010
  9. Videla y Menéndez, condenados a prisión perpetua en Córdoba , LaVoz.com.ar , December 22, 2010
  10. Videla fue condenado a prisión perpetua e irá a una cárcel común , LaNacion.com , December 22, 2010
  11. Boletín de la AEDD nro 799 , April 24, 2011
  12. spiegel.de July 12, 2011: Argentina's judges judge the sadists of "El Vesubio"
  13. German Bundestag : Printed matter 17/13816 (PDF), answer of the Federal Government of June 5, 2013 to a small question from the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group on the Käsemann case, p. 2
  14. Lesa humanidad: Casación confirmó condenas por crímenes en “El Vesubio”, in: Centro de Información Judicial of June 12, 2014, accessed on July 12, 2014 (Spanish), with a link to the full text of the judgment
  15. ^ Argentine military dictatorship: Men behind the murder of Elisabeth Käsemann convicted , Spiegel Online from December 19, 2014
  16. ^ Causa "El Vesubio" Blog , June 2011
  17. spiegel.de July 12, 2011: Argentina's judges judge the sadists of "El Vesubio"

Coordinates: 34 ° 43 ′ 12.9 ″  S , 58 ° 30 ′ 52.5 ″  W.