Twenty years without Jorge Julio López, the man who disappeared twice |
In the early hours of September 18, 2006, Jorge Julio López, a humble 76-year-old retired builder, left his home in La Plata. He was on his way to court, where his lawyers were going to present their closing arguments against the man who had tortured and held him captive 30 years earlier, during the military dictatorship: Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz.
But López never arrived. His vanishment is classified as a forced disappearance, and his fate remains a mystery to this day.
López is considered the first and only person to have disappeared both during Argentina’s last military dictatorship, which lasted from 1976 to 1983, and again after democracy returned.
He was one of the main witnesses in the case against Etchecolatz, a former investigations director for the Buenos Aires Provincial Police and one of the dictatorship’s most feared repressors.
Etchecolatz was the first perpetrator to stand trial for crimes against humanity in 2006, following the annulment of the pardon laws issued in the late 1980s.
Three months before his disappearance, López testified about the ex-policeman’s heinous crimes. His testimony helped establish Etchecolatz’s role as a repressor. He was sentenced to life imprisonment the day after López went missing.
His second disappearance brought back phantoms from Argentina’s darkest period. While some — including authorities and his own family — initially thought the retired builder might have gotten lost or suffered a health issue, the main theory behind his absence is that Etchecolatz, members of the Buenos Aires Province Police or other groups opposed to the dictatorship trials — or all three — may have been behind it.
Those who support this thesis think López was kidnapped to send a message against the trials and force the judicial proceedings to be cancelled.
“We didn’t realize until much later that this had to do with his testimony,” his son, Rubén López, told the Herald ahead of the anniversary. “He didn’t just identify Etchecolatz but several other repressors.”
Twenty years on, the truth about what happened continues to be a mystery. No concrete evidence of his whereabouts has emerged, and the investigation remains open.
The first disappearance
Following the military coup d’état on March 24, 1976, López, then 46, began collaborating with Peronist guerrilla group Montoneros. He was kidnapped by the Buenos Aires Province Police on October 27 of that year, alongside several of his comrades.
Etchecolatz led the operation.
López spent time in four clandestine detention centers — known as “death camps” — in La Plata. He endured relentless torture with electric shocks and saw many of his jailmates and comrades shot in cold blood.
Decades later, López would testify in court........