Original subtitles

It is 15 February, 2005,

5.15 pm.

We are in the Asociaci�n de Unidad Argentina (AUNAR) building

- with... - Roberto.

- Roberto? - Mader.

A Brazilian film director

who is visiting Latin American countries

to see first-hand the tragedy that some people experienced

and had to bear:

The terrorist subversion.

In the 1970s, military regimes took power in South America.

They claimed they were fighting the rise of the left.

Successive coups left a trail of intolerance,

abductions, murder and exile.

The different dictatorships joined forces across their frontiers

in one of the worst cases

of state-sponsored terrorism the world has seen:

Operation Condor.

One of AUNAR's aims

is the strict defence of our national principles,

our glorious history,

our past, our leaders,

our symbols...

We are all honourable people here,

with a nationalist outlook.

NA-TIO-NAL-IST!

I have a brother who disappeared,

a brother who fought for the other side.

He was bright, the youngest. Then one day he changed sides.

He talked to me about it.

He was basically motivated by

hatred of his father.

The idea was to break down the hierarchy, the powers that be,

the establishment.

It was fanaticism and hatred.

And anything went.

... That's right. Sex.

- Free love. - Free sex.

I don't think so.

That could be a caricature created by the right.

Actually, I think we were a group of very idealistic youths.

The social crisis was so clear

that defending the idea of a better society

was nothing new.

Actually, I think young people

are good at separating black from white.

Of course, youths in general

can be very Manicheistic.

And if they had to opt between the establishment

and revolution -

there was Fidel in Cuba and revolutionary movements

across most of Latin America -

then if they had to choose between good and evil

they would choose good.

Greeting the crowd beside our

Prime Minister is Commander-in- Chief, Fidel Castro,

to the ecstatic applause

of the people here in Jos� Marti revolutionary square.

Long live Cuba!

This was during the Cold War,

and subversion was an expression

for one of the groups entering the other group's turf.

We already had clear examples of what would happen,

like in Cuba, like what they

tried to export to Angola, Congo, Ethiopia.

So, we were playing off

against other ideals;

it was already a matter of ideals.

President Jo�o Goulart signed edicts on land reform

and the nationalisation of oil refineries.

Addressing the rally, he announced

the state regulation of rents.

Brizola's speeches were incendiary,

and what with President Goulart's ambiguity,

maybe under the influence of Peron,

I thought democracy was under threat

and we prepared to oppose a coup.

Attention Brazil!

Attention Minas Gerais!

The troops of the 2nd Army,

under General Kruel,

have surrounded Guanabara palace.

Those of us who were against the coup became spokespeople of a coup.

Colleagues of mine denied it, but I said,, "it's a coup d'�tat",

literally a coup enacted by the state.

We toppled a president.

Even if he was a vice president, was still elected.

Porto Alegre. Jo�o Goulart flees to Uruguay

followed by Leonel Brizola and other members of the deposed government.

So we prepared, this time with the intent of

"having them for lunch before they had us for dinner."

A popular, democratic, national, revolutionary government

that should follow a programme

to pave the way for socialism

as broadly and quickly as possible

and transform our society.

- Nationalism! - Present!

The ruling classes and, in this case,

their armed forces intended

to take action against Allende and they did so.

They devised countless plots against the Allende government.

This is how businessmen,

as of zero hours on Tuesday,

brought services across Chile to a standstill.

Right-wing groups were

organised to start sabotaging

Allende's government

and they also started working with the armed forces.

This is a corrupt, decadent government.

Decadent and corrupt, filthy!

Disgusting communists, get out of Chile!

The rich will never give us anything

so everything we have is thanks to our government.

Public transport strike

Tensions were rising.

The left wing had been very active since the sixties.

They intended to foster unrest

and pave the way for a Marxist revolution.

Workers, soldiers,

sailors and military police:

Disobey the orders of the officers that have seized power.

Because then...

they will have the right to form their own army,

a people's army.

MIR didn't share Allende's

belief in peaceful means.

We believed that a violent military offensive

could happen any moment

and we had to be prepared.

But we weren't prepared well enough.

I will not turn back!

I will only leave la Moneda

when I have concluded the mandate granted me by the people!

Since 10.30am,

they have been calling for Salvador Allende to surrender.

The palace of la Moneda must be evacuated by 11 am.

Pinochet voice: At 11 am sharp, we will attack la Moneda

because this "guy" will not give himself up.

Workers of the nation:

I will give up my life for the loyalty of the people,

but social process cannot be halted

by crime,

or by force.

History is ours.

Long live Chile,

long live the people, long live the workers!

ALLENDE IS DEAD STATE OF SIEGE DECLARED

We are sure

that the vast majority of Chileans

are willing to fight against

Marxism and root it out.

The parliament is in recess until further notice.

That is all.

From the outset,

the left wing all over the world strove to

portray him as a bad man.

Father had not slept for days,

and when he went to the first ceremony

he wore dark glasses, as was the custom then.

My father's eyes were painful and bloodshot.

Then this photo was wired across the globe!

"Here we are, the ultimate evil!"

Martial law will be enforced.

Anybody caught with weapons or explosives

will be shot on sight

without being charged.

MILITARY FORCE TAKES POWER

Unfortunately, we had no choice.

If force was not used by our side,

it would be used by the other.

National Stadium - Santiago, Chile

Even now as I come here,

it makes me feel...

...sad.

There were thousands of people here.

They say there were 2000-3000 but there were actually 15,000.

They tortured us there, they hit us,

they chained us.

They put the women in a group.

They didn't just torture them and hit them,

they also violated them.

Here, they beat us with rubber batons,

they put damp cloths on our backs and hit us.

Many people died here in the stadium.

They would knock on the gate and read out lists of names.

They would be taken away and never came back.

I have marks on my feet, look.

They hung me from here.

It's been 31 years since I was here.

There must be many people who don't want to come back

because it upsets you, you start to remember it all.

Things that happened to you,

how they treated us...

and you relive it all again.

But we were still strong and when we got out of prison

we started to fight against the dictatorship.

I was exiled in Chile during the military coup.

When it happened,

we sought refuge at the Argentine embassy.

Some of us were arrested,

and those that were taken to the national stadium

heard from different sources that they were being tortured

by Brazilian officers.

The Brazilian police were in the national stadium

helping the Chilean police.

They were looking for Brazilians in exile

and were also sharing their experience

in organising counter-resistance operations in Brazil.

They established the first contacts for exchanging information,

which later developed into

a more elaborate system and Operation Condor.

There were two contexts at play.

One was the political context

in Latin America since the sixties,

with the huge influence of a national security doctrine

spread by the US through the

Conference of American Army,

which helped push the armed forces towards

the only possible course:

Saving the continent from Communism.

Then, of course, the USA's military power helped

as different dictatorships joined forces across the Southern Cone.

Never had so much power been concentrated in so many

Latin American countries.

It went to their heads

and they just wanted more.

Look at this one.

It's from Central America.

This one's from Persia, these are from Argentina and Uruguay.

Have you been collecting them long?

No, not long. About 30 years.

That's a long time.

That's when I was made a General.

How do you feel when you look at the photos today?

I feel sorry for what happened.

But, quite simply...

I received orders as a Lieutenant Colonel put in charge

of organising a national intelligence department,

because there wasn't one. I was summoned in 73

and asked to organise the intelligence system."

V�de� made by the Ch�lean Intell�gence Serv�ces

Ideological fanatics

face the staunch values

and spirit of sacrifice of a group of men with

clear ideals and a mission

to neutralize and destroy the guerrilla base.

There were terrorists in Chile since 1972.

There were over 10,000 Cubans from the Cuban army.

1,500 Soviets had entered, all from the Soviet army.

Then we heard that a guerrilla army was being formed.

Members of a guerrilla

group have been arrested.

At that time, we really wanted to fight back,

but we had to hide because the repression was so great.

Around 500-600 activists were annihilated

just in the first few years of the military government.

Then I was arrested.

They took me to one of the concentration camps.

Well, you have the pictures.

We were prisoners of war

and we had to behave with

a military discipline we didn't have.

There were 35 military anthems.

They all had a number. If they said "sing number 5"

you had to know which one it was, because if you

got 5 mixed up with 23,

they beat you up. It was terrible.

Of course, not everybody marched in time.

Some people couldn't keep step

and they were beaten up,

because being a soldier was seen as representing

the very best of the nation.

The best sons were soldiers.

I went through two war councils at Pisagua

12 comrades from the communist party were tried

and 2 were sentenced to death.

They were charged with wanting to take over

12 strategic points in the city.

One of them was going to take over the barracks,

another was going to poison the water supply,

another was, you know, ridiculous things like that.

Is this the war we're talking about?

That's why I maintain it's rubbish to say there was a war.

There was no real military capacity for resistance,

for there to be two sides in combat,

for generalized guerrilla warfare across the country.

There simply wasn't.

At that time, there was a serious threat in South America.

All the terrorist movements were coordinated by Buenos Aires.

As a Christian, I would say there was a war of subversion.

We didn't start it, we didn't even want it

We were drawn into it,

we got involved in it,

and we had to bring peace to this country.

This is the nature of urban guerrilla warfare.

It's not a subject for parliament, white flags.

Either he dies or I die. There's no other option.

It's odd that someone like me

should choose to take part in a political group

that also supported the armed struggle.

We were up against the army, people who had guns,

so ultimately we had to

turn to the use of weapons and the armed struggle.

IN BRAZIL, A GUERRILLA GROUP, KIDNAPS THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR

It wasn't easy. It's not nice to handle a gun.

I first did it when

I was guarding the American Ambassador.

Luckily, I didn't have to use it.

It was an extreme situation.

It helped show that resistance without weapons

didn't work and actually reinforced the status quo.

An effective resistance was needed,

and it would have to be armed.

People's behaviour was similar in each country.

Everyone was acting the same.

That's when we realised that there was a coordinating junta.

For many years, this revolutionary

coordinating junta organised

all the terrorist activities in South America:

The Brazilians,

the Tupamaros from Uruguay,

Bolivia, MIR, the communist party in Chile,

the ERP, the Montoneros in Argentina,

they were all run by this junta.

This is what you're talking about: The intelligence system.

Here's Spain,

Uruguay,

Ecuador,

and this was done in Argentina in 1977.

It's got nothing to do with operations.

- But was it called Condor? - No, no.

It was never called Condor.

Third Regional Conference of National Intelligence,

that was the title.

It was never Operation Condor

in the way Marxists portray it. It was something quite different,

something that exists today, something that has always existed:

A system to exchange information between different countries.

We held meetings

with the chiefs of national intelligence

from the countries involved.

The first was in Chile in 1975.

I remember a Uruguayan delegate saying to me there,

"In tribute to the countries that border on the Andes, let's

call it the Condor intelligence system."

Not operation.

A system is very different from an operation.

Operation means action, system means information.

When Contreras said Operation Condor was just an exchange of information,

he was talking about the start,

when operations went through military attach�s.

But at the meeting in November 1975, supported by Pinochet,

which was a state meeting

involving the military governments from Argentina,

Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia,

there was a change of tack.

Now, it wasn't just information,

but the possibility to detain

opponents of the different military regimes,

wherever they were, and to swap prisoners.

Washington urgent, Reuters news agency.

Former Chancellor and Minister of Defence in Chile, Orlando Letelier

has died in an attack on his car.

Orlando always supported Allende

and he was Minister of Defence during the military coup.

Orlando was arrested and held as a prisoner of war,

then a year later

he was exiled.

He returned to the USA because he realised he would be more

effective against the dictatorship in the USA.

After this, Pinochet's cabinet

all signed a document stripping

Orlando of his nationality.

Then they killed him.

Orlando Letelier was assassinated

by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA

GENERAL PRATS AND WIFE MURDERED

Gal. PRATS: FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER IN ALLENDE ' S GOVERNMENT, WAS EXILED IN BUENOS AIRES WHEN HE WAS KILLED

Now, 30 years after the assassination,

we know exactly

what happened

We have a statement by the person responsible for the deed,

Michael Townley,

stating that he and his wife planted the bomb.

So it is quite clear what happened, because

these people belonged to Chile's intelligence service

and its overseas operations.

Townley was a CIA agent working under cover in Chile.

The media have made him out to be a Chilean (DINA) agent,

but he never was.

- Was he in contact with the CIA?

He supplied DINA with electronic equipment.

I think there were double agents who worked for DINA and

are known to have worked for the CIA, too.

This clearly shows America's involvement in Chile,

but you cannot attribute all the crimes committed as part of

Operation Condor to the CIA. I think that would work

in Contreras's favour, exonerating him of blame

by saying it was all the Americans' fault. It wasn't.

PRATS TRIAL REVEALS DINA'S DEEPEST SECRETS

When the CIA documents were declassified,

it was revealed that

the CIA's operations centre in Santiago notified the USA

about the establishment of Operation Condor and its mission

to kidnap and arrest opponents of the military regimes.

Then Kissinger reacted,

saying he was concerned about the excesses committed by

the military dictatorships. He recommended that

they moderate their activities.

This recommendation was disregarded by Pinochet

when Orlando Letelier was assassinated in Washington.

- See this one? It's Brazilian. - When from?

It's from 1976.

An envoy showed up one day.

- Seu amigo de Bras�lia. - Quem?

- General Figueiredo.

Figueiredo was good friends with Geisel.

You spoke of 1975,

year of the Chilean committee meeting.

Shortly afterwards, Geisel was contacted

as far as I'm aware, to take Condor to this new level

of eliminating opponents who might have the capacity

to take back power because of their individual standing.

But Geisel refused.

119 Chileans were tortured and disappeared here.

Stop now!

In 1975

the government said that these 119 people killed each other.

THE GREAT LIE THE CASE OF THE 119

Operation Colombo was like this:

Over several months, dispatches were sent from Argentina saying

that guerrilla groups were forming on the border

to invade Santiago.

For months in Chile, a kind of psychosis set in

because a guerrilla army of

Chileans, Argentineans and Uruguayans might suddenly invade.

Then, LEA magazine in Buenos Aires

and O DIA newspaper in Curitiba

printed stories saying that extremist Chilean groups

were disputing power and killing each other.

The headline read: "They kill each other like rats."

There are witnesses and proof that

these 119 people were arrested and exterminated in Chile.

Years later, I found out that

the journalists who wrote the stories were paid by DINA.

This is Operation Condor.

Disfigured bodies, people tortured to death,

hidden, blown up,

bits of bone buried in the mountain range.

After the coup d'�tat in 1973 in Chile,

the whole Southern Cone was under military rule.

Argentina was the only country

that let in political refugees.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Argentina was coming out of a dictatorship

so everybody was very upbeat.

I left my house, I left my family, my neighbourhood,

and went to Argentina.

The Uruguayans that went to Buenos Aires at that time

were being persecuted here.

It was about 11.30pm when we heard knocks on the door.

Suddenly, the windows were smashed

and we watched, frozen on the spot, as those men in plain

clothes broke in with their big guns.

There were around 15 of them.

Simon's cot was on the double bed that they threw me onto

and started to hit me, demanding information.

I tried to get Simon. They said I couldn't take him with me,

that we were going to a place where he couldn't go,

that I shouldn't worry, nothing would happen to him.

And I said something I'll never forget:

"This war isn't against children."

So we got ready to leave

and our hands and legs were tied up,

and we were blindfolded.

We went to a place where we stayed for ten days.

As soon as we arrived we were beaten up.

The screams will be heard forever.

They mostly tortured at night.

Once, the person running the operation

asked me if I knew him.

I said I didn't and he said he was Major Ni�o Gavazo, an officer

from the Uruguayan army whose methods were notorious.

At that moment, on some level,

I felt quite sure that

we would never get out alive,

because no officer from an army operating in another country

would tell his victims his name.

SARA SURVIVED THOUGH SHE WAS SEPARATED FROM HER 20-DAY-OLD SON

I think this was when the world started to realise

what was actually going on in the Southern Cone,

what this Operation Condor was all about:

The practice of forced disappearance and especially

the abduction of children.

This particularly perverse practice conducted in Argentina

was truly unprecedented the world over.

We never thought that in this sinister place we would say:

"Bloody murderers!

You hanged them, you wanted to bury them but you couldn't,

you threw them alive into the sea but you couldn't,

you burned them with rubber but you couldn't,

you buried them under the roads but you couldn't

The day they told me

my older son had disappeared,

- I was known as Kika then -

I became "Hebe de Bonafini".

Bonafini is a mother who has experienced a tragedy

and chosen to turn pain into struggle.

Maybe the world will know me for this.

Ever since they were taken, I've had to find my own way.

First, because there was nobody to do a habeas corpus.

Then, my son said, "why don't you do it on any old paper,"

so we bought a sweetbread and cut off a piece of the wrapping

and wrote our first habeas corpus.

I didn't know how to, and no lawyers who would write one,

or even tell us how to.

And anyway, nobody had seen anything,

you didn't have relatives or friends any more, nobody,

because you were the mother of a terrorist.

Murderers! Where are the disappeared people?

They took them alive! We want them alive,

The judges said my son had run away with another woman.

The politicians said the mothers were liars.

Malvin said nobody had disappeared, that people had died.

But while they don't appear...

That's the quandary: They disappeared,

they're neither alive nor dead, they just disappeared.

As the dictatorship in Argentina got more brutal

and the armed struggle got disorganised,

many people came to Brazil.

When more and more arrived,

we founded Clamor:

Jaime Wright, Jan Rocha and I.

She was caught in an

operation called "old shoes".

They went after members

of the PVP party in Montevideo.

Later, in a deal with the Brazilian police, they went

to Porto Alegre, Brazil,

to arrest people who, according to prisoners' statements,

also belonged to PVP and were in that town...

They distributed propaganda and talked to people,

explaining that they had to get organised

and speak out about the crimes of the dictatorship.

Novombor, 1978 LILIAN AND UNIVERSINDO ARE KIDNAPPED BY CONDOR FORCES In PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL

There were vans with armed people inside,

and they transferred us.

They put me and my children in a van and made us lie down.

It was much worse than death

because there were my children,

lying in a truck, surrounded by machine guns.

And I said to them, "I have to save my children."

Then I said them

that there was going to be an important meeting that Friday

with important members from my organization

They conferred together and finally they said,

"OK, we'll go back to Porto Alegre."

That was the most terrible part for me:

Being separated from my children.

CAMILO AND FRANCESCA WRE TAKEN TO MONTEVIDEO AND LILIAN AND UNIVERSINDO TO PORTO ALEGRE

When they reached Montevideo,

the children were transferred to an apartment

that the company had in the centre

and they stayed there until they were handed to their grandparents.

Then we went to my house Where they set up a trap.

They drew all the curtains and stayed indoors.

It was clear that something odd was happening

because they didn't phone and they didn't appear.

My first idea was to get some witnesses

that had some impunity, who could operate there

with a degree of imunity.

So I called Luis Claudio Cunha,

who was the editor-in-chief of Veja magazine in Porto Alegre.

On 17 November, 1978,

I was phoned by someone speaking Spanish.

He said a couple and two children had disappeared from their flat

We went to the flat and rang the bell.

The door opened

and a terrified-looking girl appeared.

Then two men appeared, each holding a huge pistol.

They put us inside a darkened room.

I sensed there were other Uruguayans there.

When I spoke in Portuguese,

saying we were journalists, they got nervous.

When the chief of the operation returned,

he said it was just a problem of illegal foreigners

smuggling, etc.

We went back again to the police station,

Hours went by then finally we returned to Uruguay.

On the Monday, we went to the police

to get the official version.

The different police forces said they knew nothing.

As they were denying something we had seen with our own eyes,

we realised it was more serious than it appeared.

That's when we started to treat it as a case of kidnapping.

From then on, the police denied everything we investigated,

and each lie gave us more motive to investigate further.

Then, the police started investigating us

rather than what had happened at the flat.

Then, immediately

the Brazilian press joined ranks.

A kidnap group was set up

of 25-30 journalists and photographers

who would meet up in groups

and exchange ideas and information,

and kept up the pressure in most of the newspapers

while Lilian was being detained.

One of the men holding a gun in the flat was familiar to me

because I've worked in sport for a long time.

It was Didi Pedalada.

We soon found out he joined the police

after he stopped playing football.

This was how we identified one of the people involved

as a Brazilian policeman.

It showed that people arrested in Uruguay

were brought to Brazil with the authorities' blessing,

and it proved the Brazil/Uruguay connection.

We had no idea that this was part of a larger plan,

an agreement between the armed forces.

And that it had the approval of the two central governments.

In November 1978,

a great Solidarity Campaign was held in Brazil.

And the whole world

prevented Lilian Celiberti and Universindo Rodrigues

from joining the list of people who disappeared.

The Lilian Celiberti and Universindo Diaz case

was the first time we exposed an operation of theirs.

They couldn't deny it and we saved both their lives.

So this was an unsuccessful operation.

But it was Operation Condor.

AFTER MONTHS MISSING, LILIAN AND UNIVERSINDO ARE SHOWN TO THE PRESS AND DECLARED OFFICIAL PRISIONERS AT PUNTA RIELES PRISON.

When I was Leader of the House for Pres. Figueiredo,

a girl was arrested, Lilibeli? - Lilian Celiberti.

So Brossard went to the court and complained.

Then I asked the General Director of the Federal Police for information

and he said it wasn't true, they'd been arrested on the border.

So I went to court, etc.

Years later I realised that

I was the one who had unintentionally belied information that was a lie.

Lilian Ceriberti stays at Punta Rieles Prison until 1983

Two years have passed

and D. Lilian has to explain what's happened

to her grandchildren when they ask,

"Granny, why's mummy in prison?

Granny, why did the Uruguayan soldiers arrest her in Brazil?"

If you understand Operation Condor as a

permanent interaction of exchange of information,

and further, the imprisonment of people in one country

that flee to another, like Brazil,

then it existed, as in the Liliberti case.

They were arrested in Brazil and sent to Uruguay.

So if they were arrested,

it's because it had progressed from exchanging information

to exchanging people.

This made the fight against communism continent-wide.

We cannot lose faith

until Lilian and Universindo are free.

This is the meeting with my daughter Francesca

on her birthday after I left prison.

For years, I had to struggle

with the reunion with a teenage son

I hardly knew

and who hardly knew me.

I was reunited with them when I got out of prison.

There were things I had lost,

like my children's childhood.

As a member of this society, I feel I have

a debt to pay, especially to my children.

Because ultimately,

they had to spend five years without a mother.

And the military who did this didn't spend

a single day behind bars.

Santiago, Chile

"They started to rip off my blouse.

They inserted electrodes into my vagina

and started to give me shocks with another portable electrode."

This is the testimony of Dr. Sheila Cassidy

at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

This is where one of the

[most sinister centres of the military regime operated,

known as Cuartel Terranova.

Most of the prisoners

who went through its doors disappeared.

This was a place of death. It all starts here.

To the extent that people didn't even know it existed.

So when you were here,

the authorities didn't know you were under arrest.

When we were told

a person was in "Villa Grimaldi", we knew they would disappear.

Here at the back, we can see the tower.

Downstairs there, they used the "pau de arara"

and locked people up in a kind of cage

covered with a wooden lid.

"We were like animals.

We could only crouch.

They only let us out once a day, normally at night.

For us to relieve ourselves.

Those who couldn't wait would defecate right there,

and would stay locked up along with their excrement.

It was an absolute nightmare to be kept in a box like that."

The aim was to break your will,

to crush your convictions,

to turn you into a collaborator,

to make you change sides.

Or at least to turn you into a thing.

My father was brought here on 12 May, 1976,

in the middle of the night.

Then, we were paid a call

by DINA agents,

who threatened us.

They told us to stop looking for him

because we had caused enough bother,

and if we carried on, the same thing would happen to us.

As the agents were leaving,

they told us we would never find him.

These words marked me,

and they haunt me to this day, because they came true,

just like they said.

We will never know what would have happened if we

hadn't stopped looking for him.

For life, for peace! Tell us where they are!

Manuel Contreras was in command

at DINA, the Chilean Intelligence Service,

. A repressive agency

that operated for many years.

If I ever had the chance to ask Contreras a question,

I'd ask him if he'd dare tell me

where my father ended up.

I have no idea. I don't know.

She has undergone years of training.

Of course, she learnt to

to represent as true things that were actually lies.

And because she believed they were true, she convinced everyone.

But he knows his fate,

and sooner or later he'll

pay for the death of my father

and many other countrymen.

Ladies and gentlemen...

Here, at the office of the sub-secretary of security,

we present five terrorists

We will broadcast their statements on TV and radio Tupi

As I could not accept things as they were,

I engaged with elements involved in "terrorism"

we call on our youth...

to join President M�dici's government projects

To help save this nation and raise it On the international stage.

S�O PAULO, BRAZIL

We discovered that

some of the regimes in Latin America

were having parents disappear then deporting children.

This was a violation of all basic human rights.

There was a couple, both Uruguayans,

who escaped to Argentina with their two children.

They were arrested by the Argentine security police

during a shoot-out.

The children were put in a bath

and were found by the police when they broke in.

One day, we got a letter from a Uruguayan, Angelica,

saying her daughter had got married,

gone to Argentina, and had two children.

She heard that her daughter and son-in-law had died,

but had no news of her grandchildren.

I've searched for them for 3 years. They're all I have left

- What about their parents?

I have no news of them. I hope everyone can help me find them.

We published the photos,

explaining that the children had disappeared

and asking for information.

Two months later we got a letter

from a social worker

saying, "I read an article in Clamor,

and I think I saw those two children"

in Valpara�so, Chile. "

There was the carrousel.

There was a carrousel over there, too.

In the summer they put them there, too,

but they're smaller. Back then, they seemed much bigger.

It was a funfair.

I have a few memories from that time.

My parents thrown onto the ground, a soldier pointing

a gun, which we could see as we lay beside mother.

My little sister in her arms, me holding her hand.

She was eighteen months old. I was almost four.

They tell me we didn't let go, we were always holding hands.

Yes, he looked after me.

Apparently, some people came along

in a very fine car and left us here.

We were very well dressed.

It wasn't as if we were abandoned, children of beggars, etc.

They left us here in the morning. The afternoon drew on,

and when dusk fell, just like now,

the owner of the funfair got worried.

He saw us and called the police.

THE POLICE TAKE THE CHILDREN TO AN ORPHANAGE

THE LARRABEITS DECIDE TO ADOPT THE CHILDREN

At the hospital where my husband worked,

there was a social worker.

She was in charge of the case of

a brother and sister who were in a children's home,

who had no parents.

So we went to Anatole and asked

if he wanted to stay

and he said yes.

She was very young, that's why she didn't-

and she was chubby. - I used to destroy my dummies.

We were about to leave, and he suddenly didn't want to stay.

"Mother, father, no, let's go!"

And he put his arms round my husband.

They gave me some clothes, her bottle, stuff like that,

and we left with them.

When they came to our house, they didn't have an accent.

We thought they were Chilean.

Chileans from another part of the country.

But they never told us their nationality. Never.

Dom Paulo said he wanted Luis to go to Chile

to have a look around.

We went to Chile.

At 3pm we went to the house.

The husband and wife were there.

We went in and introduced ourselves.

They were both suspicious.

We explained we weren't going to take away the children,

we were going to tell their story.

I said, "you must meet the children's grandmother,"

but the husband didn't want to.

He was tough.

He even said he supported the regime.

Then they told us the whole story,

the whole thing: What had happened,

who they were, where they were from, what had happened.

We could never have imagined such a thing.

We went back to S�o Paulo, we called the grandmother, Angelica,

and said we'd found them. A miracle!

Unfortunately, my grandmother hadn't much idea about psychology.

As soon as she arrived,

she took me to one side and said,

"I'm your real grandmother

and these are your parents," and she shows me a photo,

and you used to live in Uruguay." She told me this on a beach.

I think it's normal, even if it hurts the adoptive parents.

We have to find a way

for them not to lose us, too.

The grandmother came along

saying, "Well, I'm off and

I'm going to take them with me."

But that's not what happened,

because they were already attached to us.

My grandmother had every right to come and fetch us.

We were all that was left of her disappeared son and his wife.

But then the psychologists said it would be a double loss.

It could destroy these children again.

Or at least Anatole, because I can't remember it.

So the two families decided

to stay in touch.

To travel once a year there or for them to come to Chile.

It was a very difficult for Anatole when he first came here

to Montevideo, to Uruguay, to meet his family,

accompanied by his new parents.

- How old was my brother? - 7 or 8.

Victoria 's Biological Uncle

I remember at the meals, and your father trying to fit in,

respecting the fact that he had to

take a supporting role.

Anatole was meeting his family,

but he was there if he needed him,

making it clear, in a way,

letting the family here get to know him.

I'll never forget it, because he was so kind.

A gentleman.

At that moment, they thought they might lose them.

So they opened up to us

and said they couldn't imagine their life without them,

which we didn't doubt.

They had a place to live and it was best this way

I don't think we were wrong. The proof's right here.

The kidnapping of children

took place most systematically in Argentina.

It was also part of an idea that

those people who fought against

state terrorism

personified a satanic doctrine

and must be brainwashed.

They had to be re-educated in

western, supposedly Christian,

values. So it was legitimate

to steal these children

and raise them in other ideological and moral contexts.

This is the photo that travelled the world.

It was the only way we had to look for Simon.

There was no other feature except his hair and skin colour.

This photo was saved because I had sent it to my relatives,

so they had it.

They were the ones who spoke out

about the disappearance, the kidnapping of Simon.

SARA M�NDEZ FINDS SIMON

25 years passed.

It's not easy to find a son, even if he's your flesh and blood,

because he was 26.

That's how old he was when we met.

I remember his first words:

"I've had a happy life so far.

I want you to be part of my happiness."

He tells us there are

two victims here: I'm one

and the other is this woman who's been searching for years.

Meanwhile, Simon was

learning all about his new life history.

He was so upset and hurt by the deception and lies.

I felt as if he had lost one family,

but hadn't yet got us.

He didn't know us, he didn't have a bond with us.

And we were also from very different backgrounds.

They were a family of policemen,

people who'd taken part in that dictatorship.

We were the victims.

These are photos of a mural in Montevideo

that was painted spontaneously

when word came out that Simon had reappeared.

He felt he had two names, two histories,

two birthdays, two lives.

Simon said to me from the outset,

"Call me Simon, it's OK.

I know it's a name that means something to you."

From he outset, he asked us not to reveal his identity.

I think that when he's ready

to reveal the truth publicly,

I'll know beforehand.

If this ever happens. Because it doesn't always.

I wanted to find out who my father had been.

Not just to find out what had happened to him,

but if I was like him,

who he was to me, what he wanted for me.

So really, there were very different searches going on.

It was very important for me to find out

what had happened to him.

As I started researching my documentary on children,

it seemed important for the film to reflect on

the search process,

to understand the courses taken,

how we deal with the father figure,

which means activism becomes

a big part of our lives.

Every now and again, they ask me to retell the story.

I always rework it, recreate it.

But there's also stuff I forget.

First, it was:

"What terrible things they did to them,

or what terrible things they might have done."

The fantasy of not knowing creates a host of spectres,

like, maybe they raped my mother,

how long did my father take to die, stuff like that.

You go round in circles. Not knowing is worse than knowing.

Then, I moved on to:

["How could these people do such a thing if they had children?"

I've also been angry at them.

[What life could they expect if they carried on like that,

especially as they were parents?

Then I went on to:

"These people are admirable

because they stood by their convictions to their death.

And they were parents, and they were fierce and bold."

Our children also sang and were happy

and had hopes and dreams.

But they kept their defiance for the struggle!

The most important thing this president has done

is to hail our children as his companions.

He said, "your children are my companions and you are my mothers."

I think this is the greatest reparation.

Money is no substitute for that.

Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla,

sentenced to life imprisonment.

Clearly, Argentina has been through its ups and downs.

First, as soon as democracy came back, there was the,

trial of the junta and the arrest of the leaders.

Then, different laws were passed.

At the end of the day, 'Full Stop' and 'Hierarchicall Duty'

laws the politicians made for their own benefit

Not only they pardon themselves,

but the military, the judges, etc

A little bit each, Well now it's ok

MARCH 2000

PINOCHET IS EXTRADITED TO CHILE ON HEALTH GROUNDS

IN GHILE, PINOCHET FACES NEW CHARGES

People are already apologising,

reconstructing this lost history,

talking about what happened, recognising it.

Something we never thought would happen did happen,

like putting Pinochet on trial.

That was unbelievable, a dream!

Father Christmas, thanks for coming.

Pinochio's in jail and the everyone's happy.

The crux of the matter, for Operation Condor

and all the Pinochet cases, from a legal perspective,

is the enforcement of international treaties,

the respect for international conventions on torture.

I would end by saying:

Pinochet himself is to blame for his own indictment,

because on 20 September, 1973,

he passed Edict/Law no. 5, which justified the war councils,

saying, "from now on, a state of siege

is deemed to mean a state of civil war."

By saying this, the law enforced the Geneva conventions,

which, in article 3 of all 5 conventions, say

that no crime committed against prisoners of war

can ever be subject to amnesty.

The chance to indict Pinochet,

30 years on, and

in compliance with common law,

is thanks to the Geneva conventions

about crimes against humanity.

I think Latin America's progressed,

but some countries have progressed more than Brazil.

In Uruguay people are being arrested.

The commander of ESMA in Argentina was forced

forced to apologise to the Argentine people

for his part in the repression during the military regime.

In Brazil, the perpetrators granted

themselves amnesty in 1979,

and nothing much has been done since then.

So the wounds don't heal.

We don't examine files,

we don't find people who disappeared,

we don't know what happened to the Araguaia guerrillas.

The wounds haven't healed.

Brazil hasn't turned over a new leaf.

We did turn over a new leaf, but it wasn't accepted.

When I defended the amnesty on Figueiredo's behalf,

he said something very interesting:

"Passarinho, you will speak for us.

Don't apologise.

We won't apologise for anything

because it would imply regret

I don't want them to regret what they did.

I only want them to forget.

To turn over a new leaf in Brazil's history."

I wrote a speech for Marcos Freire:

"Let us forget those who died."

But they haven't forgotten.

The families of people who died or disappeared had 2 options.

They could either take vengeance . Using weapons

or they could choose the course of justice,

deaf, dumb, impenetrable.

When, out of seven thousand appeals only one was accepted,

when they said, "your husband ran off with another woman,"

they didn't give up.

As a result, the peace achieved

is not a legacy of anything;

it is the outcome of the choice for justice,

of not taking revenge into one's own hands.

Of course there have been tricky moments.

I'm not bothered if they convict one more or one less.

If I were guilty, I'd be in trouble.

There are 228 suits against me but they've never proved anything.

Coward! Coward!

I would do it all over again

because all we did was to enforce the law.

As we were directly answerable to the President of the Republic,

we had to follow the edict/law

which dictated what we had to do.

DECEMBER 2006 PINOCHET DIES WITHOUT STANDING TRIAL

Listen, brother, to what I say,

says a suffering mother.

People who disappeared, where are they?

Please, Pinochio, you must

answer in court.

We're rappers and we exist

with the blood spilt across Latin America.

Gradually, we started to see the dirt under the carpet

and Argentina and the rest of Latin America

started to accept the true horror of our past.

Because it's part of our life and our history

and it's something we will all have to live with.

As I, you and society at large

start to live with this horror with more equanimity,

we can build something new

and say, well, this what we are, this is what happened;

part of it is crap and part isn't.

But the crap is part of us, too.

People always ask why I do interviews,

why I go under the spotlight.

I do it because

I want to let people know what happened,

because some people in Chile still say this operation never existed.

But here I am, it happened to me and my brother.

It happened, and it happened to us.