This is closely related to the obligation to investigate the cases of extrajudicial executions, forced
disappearances and other grave human rights violations.15
38.
While “Operation Condor” was formally concretized in November 1975 in Santiago, Chile, the
coordination of repression began to be evidenced in Argentina in late 1973, and stepped up as of February
1974 after a meeting in Buenos Aires between Commissioner Alberto Villar of the Immigration Division of the
Argentine Federal Police, and the Commissioner of Intelligence of the Uruguayan Police, Hugo Campos
Hermida. The coordination of repressive activities found expression in arrests, kidnappings, and assassinations
of leftist activists by members of military and paramilitary forces.16
39.
Most of the victims of the coordinated repression of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone, and in
particular of “Operation Condor,” were of Uruguayan nationality. Of the 496 cases recorded to date of
coordinated repression in the Southern Cone countries from 1970 to 1981 in the context of “Operation Condor”
or in operations that followed the same modus operandi, the majority (247) were nationals of Uruguay,
accounting for 50% of the total. 17 In addition, of the 109 victims of “Operation Condor” whose cases were
prosecuted in Argentina, the largest share (44%) were of Uruguayan nationality, followed by Chileans (20%),
Argentines (15%), Paraguayans (12%), Bolivians (8%), and Peruvians (1%).18
40.
As of the coup d’états in Chile and Uruguay in 1973, many people went to Argentina due to the military
repression in those countries. As of the coup d’état in Argentina in 1976, the number of disappearances and
extrajudicial executions of exiles and refugees in Argentina increased significantly. From July to October 1976
joint operations were carried out by Argentine and Uruguayan military units in which more than 60 persons of
Uruguayan nationality were kidnapped in Buenos Aires, most of them activists of the organization Partido por
la Victoria del Pueblo (“PVP”). 19 According to the “Historical Investigation into Persons Detained and
Disappeared” published by the Secretariat for Human Rights for the Recent Past of Uruguay20:
On March 28, 1976, a motor home was inspected at the Port of Colonia which in its subfloor was
transporting propaganda of the P.V.P. Its crew, two men and one woman, were detained by the Office of
the Mayor of Colonia and transferred to the FUSNA barracks in Montevideo [and then] to the “300 Carlos”
Clandestine Detention Center…, where the OCOA operated [remaining] disappeared for almost seven
months.… The consequences of these detentions were major for the P.V.P., which from March to October
of the same year was harshly repressed…. The joint intelligence work in Argentina made possible the
arrest, from June 9 to July 15, 1976, of 26 P.V.P. activists … From August 26, 1976 to October 4, 1976,
another 29 adults (24 of them disappeared to this day) and eight children were kidnapped in Argentina.
3.
On the “Automotores Orletti” clandestine detention center
41.
The clandestine detention and torture center known as “Automotores Orletti” (“Orletti”) was one of
the centers used in the context of “Operation Condor.” It was situated in the Flores neighborhood of the city of
Buenos Aires and operated from May to November 1979, when it was closed due to the escape of two persons
I/A Court HR. Case of Goiburú et al v. Paraguay. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September 22, 2006. Series C No. 153, paras.
61.5, 61.6, 62, 72, and 73.
16 I/A Court HR. Case of Gelman v. Uruguay. Merits and Reparations. Judgment of February 24, 2011. Series C No. 221, paras. 46-50; and
Annex XX. Judgment handed down May 31, 2011 in Case No. 1627 captioned “Guillamondegui, Néstor Horacio et al. re/aggravated illegal
deprivation of liberty, imposition of torments, and aggravated homicide,” Oral Tribunal for Federal Criminal Matters No. 1, p. 566. Annex
to the petitioner’s brief of August 3, 2012.
17
Francesca Lessa, “Operation Condor, Accountability for Transnational Crimes in South America.” Available at:
https://sites.google.com/view/operationcondorjustice/data?authuser=2
18 Report of the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against Humanity, La Judicialización de la Operación Cóndor. Buenos Aires, November
2015, p. 6. Available at: https://www.fiscales.gob.ar/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Informe-ProcuLesa-Op-C%C3%B3ndor-Final.pdf
19 I/A Court HR. Case of Gelman v. Uruguay. Merits and Reparations. Judgment of February 24, 2011. Series C No. 221, para. 56.
20 Secretariat for Human Rights for the Recent Past. Persons detained/disappeared due to responsibility and/or acquiescence of the State.
File related to JULIEN CACERES, Mario Roger. Available at: https://www.gub.uy/secretaria-derechos-humanos-pasadoreciente/sites/secretaria-derechos-humanos-pasadoreciente/files/documentos/publicaciones/JULI%C3%89N%20C%C3%81CERES%2C%20Mario%20Roger%20ficha%20accesible.pdf
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