HELP US FIND JORGE JULIO LOPEZ

I think it's important for you to know what's going on in my Country, Argentina. This is a new sad story about which only few people in the northern countries are aware.


Julio López is (was?) a witness from the tortures and state's terrorism policies applied during 1970's in Argentina's military dictatorship. Julio López intervened lately in a historical trial after which a former member of Buenos Aires Police top management, Mr. Etchecolatz, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. This trial is historical because current president Kirchner revoked a set of laws known as "obediencia debida" (due obedience), "punto final", and "indulto", which were established by former presidents Alfonsín and Menem. As it is said in the film "Ahora o nunca", "the due obedience law, from february the 15th 1984, prohibited prosecution to those who were "just" folowing orders. In december 1986, Alfonsin set february 23d 1987 as "punto final", a cut off date for all trials, meaning many tortures and murders, never saw trials. In october 1989, president Carlos Menem exonerated the ex-comander of the dictatorship still continuing the long history of impunity".These laws, and especially the "indulto" (mercy) invalidated the first democratic court's decision (which was made under Raul Alfonsin's government), during the 80's, that led to imprison many military leaders of the systematic missing, torture and ilegal process. Alfonsin's laws of "obediencia debida" (february the 15th, 1984) and "punto final", and Menem's law of "indulto" intended to avoid military pressure (there were some serious intents of coup under his government, until he negociated this "solution" with the military), as military might have considered themselves in danger after the judgments, and democracy would be fragile if those decisions hadn't been made.

Hence, this was the first effective sentence after president Kirchner's decision to cancel Menem's "forgiveness/mercy" law.
But, only a few days after this sentence, Mr. López, the main witness, disapeared once again on September 18th 2006

Since then, the government doesn't know where he is, and all the country, all the journalists, parties and citizens are discussing about this. Some are pointing at the Buenos Aires police, others are pointing at the government or at Mr. López himself (he might be suffering of amnesia or other psychological problem. But no one comes with a serious answer to the problem). Justice regarding Mr. Julio López having disappeared is not working well either, since apparently two different actions where started without real means to achieve a serious job. All the media are strangely inspired to talk about this case, highlighting the fact that politicians and journalists who were traditionally against human rights policies (approving Indulto Law) feel sad about Mr. López being missing... Some of these journalists say they were threatened by mysterious email senders... Also the judges concerned in this trial are being threatened through anonymous messages, and what's more, these messages call Mr. Lopez "the missing person number 30001", starting from the idea 30000 people are supposed to be missing in Argentina. Finally, some of the missing people's children, organized under the association called H.I.J.O.S, have been kidnapped and forced to give the names of their friends implicated in the association and that are going to be witnesses of the trials.

All this sounds to me like a very complex media-political mess... in the mean time, López is still missing... and people like me, don't understand what's really going on ...
The first link I copy below shows images from a demonstration organized by ex-missing people from Argentina. The lady who speaks is a former missing person who worked hard for this last trial to happen, next to Mr. López. You will find old images of Mr. Etchecolatz talking to Mr. Bravo, a socialist politician who has disappeared for some time during the 70's and who said at Mariano Grondona's TV show, in presence of Mr. Etchecolatz, that this one had tortured him and that he cannot walk well since then. Etchecolatz rejected this accusation, and said that Mr. Bravo's handicap is not related to the "so-called" tortures, ironically admitting he did so when he said: "you see, the "treatment" we gave you was "useless"... It is important to see these images because, even though we don't know yet what happened really, there is a high probability that Mr. Lopez disappearance is related to extreme rightist revenge, so we need to be very alert.

Here you have other sources of information you can read in Spanish:
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-73818-2006-10-01.html
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/ultimas/20-73867-2006-10-01.html
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/nota.asp?nota_id=845541
http://ar.news.yahoo.com/actualidades/jjlopz.html

A demonstration that supported the military policy of the 70's took place recently is a sign of "coming back" attempt of those fascist ideas, or at least the fact that justice didn't work well, and that the apology of offence can be done in total freedom in our country (see police man protecting people in the demonstration
(http://www.revolutionvideo.org/agoratv/secciones/derechos_humanos/acto_antifascista.html)

I believe this is a very sad and serious situation, and that we should all be aware of it, and do something to change it. Because without a strong reaction from world citizens, missing people could become something "normal", and if these acts were really done on purpose, our silence could mean to the responsible as a "go ahead with these illegal practices, we don't care". I don't think "western" media ill tell you much about this, unless the number of missing people is "big" enough compared to Iraqi deaths or other horrors we have unfortunately been used to lately... so don't wait until then to react!

That's why I am inviting you today to join me in my petition. Besides the petition itself, I think we could start an important action by sharing this information through a chain of mails sent to our respective friends. We should all be aware of this kind of facts in order to act, each one at his own level, to prevent the occurrence of these kind of "practices" (missing, fear, torture and impunity) once again, even if there is only one person concerned (for the moment).

The concrete petition I suggest we all should make is the following :
1) we want Julio López back alive
2) we want all the responsible of the systematic missing process (and also of the misappropriation of missing people's children in Argentina) to be judged, including military but also civil ones if they were concerned. In fact, it is likely that some of the civil members of the government before the military putsch authorized the army to use techniques to fight "guerilla" that were not compliant with human rights regulations. I believe civil concerned are as imputable as military, both who participated before the missing process period, and also the ones who, like Menem and Alfonsin, decided these acts were excusable, and finally acted with the worse kind of complicity (whatever their deep reasons were).
3) we want the government and all the international organizations, authorities, to guarantee that all the coming up trials against the responsible will take place in the safest conditions so that the witnesses won't be afraid to give their testimony.

I suggest writing an email to President Kirchner

Sr. Néstor Carlos Kirchner, Presidente de la República Argentina, Casa Rosada, 24 Balcarce,
Buenos Aires, Argentina, AAB1064, Fax: + 5411.434.43800 Fax : +54 114.344.38.45 / + 544.344.38.47

and to government members which are potentially concerned by these issues:

Dr. Alberto Iribarne, Ministro de Justicia y Derechos Humanos, FAX: +54 114.328.61.48
Dr. Anibal Fernández, Ministro del Interior, FAX: +54 11 43 45 33 36
refinstitucional@jgm.gov.ar
denuncias@derhuman.jus.gov.ar
anm@derhuman.jus.gov.ar
jdevid@minplan.gov.ar

and also to United Nations : unhomespa@un.org (only mail I could find through the net)

If you want to help also by distributing posters with information, see my section "photos", and download the photo "Julio Lopez-demonstration" which shows a picture of Julio and calls for everyone to attend to the demonstrations that are going to take place in Argentina next October the 18th, one month after his disappearance. You will also find some news about this in http://www.30anios.org.ar/

Otherwise, there is a way to contribute to a campaign of signatures whose goal is to tell the European Parliament that something has to be done and put some pressure on the Argentine government: http://www.nodo50.org/casapueblos/html/formulario.htm

Thank you for your cooperation

Michelle

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