13 policemen accused in murder trial

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33870, 16 June 1975, Page 14

13 policemen accused in murder trial

( N ZPA Reuter —Copyright) g . BUENOS AIRES. £ A trial is under way in; ° t I Argentina in which 13 Oi policemen are accused of; tl murdering five innocent tl farmers. P tl The trial, in the central 'industrial city of Cordoba, is is< ; uncovering a story of t. age- tl Idy and intrigue from what'tl i originally seemed like a rou- v. tine report of a polices action. oi The way in which the five [farmers, first reported by; si 'the police to be Left-wingib

guerrilla suspects, were tilled, could turn the trial Into a significant exposure jf ruthless police methods. It will also have a bearing m the political violence that, in the two years since he Peronists returned to' Jower, has claimed more han 500 lives. Argentinians have become >o accustomed to killings that many have lost faith in the judicial process: Rightwing killer-squads and Leftwing guerrilla groups mete rut “justice” at will. Hundreds of Left-wing suspects have been arrested, t>ut they rarely come to

trial. No members of organisations like the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance are known to have been arrested. So when 13 policemen, who had been held in prison for 16 months, stepped into the dock in the Cordoba Palace of Justice, many people were surprised and intrigued. Most of them members of the Cordoba province’s fly-ing-squad, the 13 are accused of murdering five i local co-operative farmers, i Hector Roberto Blanch, Victor Cantcla, Oderico Montorffano, Ernesto Pascucci, and Aldo Viotto. The farmers were shot dead on a lonely stretch of highway 12 miles from the centre of Cordoba on January 23, 1974. Defence submissions The defence is not disputing that the police were responsible for the deaths. What is in doubt is the manner of the killings. The prosecution maintains that the five victims were innocent men shot dead in cold blood.

The defence in the trial, which is expected to last several weeks, will hinge, in part, on submissions that the police genuinely thought that the five farmers were guerrilla suspects. Initial statements by defence counsel have drawn attention to the state of the security situation in the country on the day of the shooting.

Three days before, a group of 70 heavily-armed Leftwing guerrillas had attacked a military base at. Azul, in the province of Buenos Aires, in which at least five people were killed. The late President Juan Peron reacted to that attack in an angry speech in which he called for “war without quarter against Left-wing extremists.”

Police and military units throughout the country were placed on an intensive alert in the days following the Azul attack.

Suspect car On January 23, 1974, police patrols in the province of Cordoba had been alerted to watch for a red car in which five suspected guerrillas were travelling. The farmers were also driving through the province in a red car. The original suspect car was flagged down outside Cordoba, where its occupants turned out to be four heavily-armed policemen in plain clothers and an army colonel. But the flying-squad had not been informed, so when a patrol of detectives sighted the farmers in their red car, they gave chase. The Court has been told that the car had 72 bullet holes in it, fired from at least four guns. Initial police statements said that the five “guerillas” were killed during an “enfrentamiento” (clash), and that arms were found in their car. Hidden witnesses The matter would have rested there but for two factors: the five turned out to be totally innocent farmers, and a number of witnesses

came forward with accounts which conflicted with the police version. A letter sent to the indepent Cordoba newspaper. “La Voz del Interior,” three days after the event ! claimed that the five farmers had been taken out of I their car, ordered to lie on the ground, and then shot dead. The letter was written by a man who said that he •and one of his five children • had witnessed the shooting I from a hiding-place in a nearby tree. “We have not been able to sleep because of this [crime. 1 want justice done,” the letter said. The writer said that he did not dare to give his name because he would be killed, but “La Voz” decided to publish the letter. Almost immediately after ■ it appeared, 17 policemen involved in the case were taken off duty, and later 13 of them were imprisoned pending trial. A.A.A. attack “La Voz del Interior" became the target of a series of attacks as it mounted a campaign to have the accused policemen brought to trial. On January 23 of this year, the first anniversary of the reported crime, its printing works was dynamited. A group of about 50 armed men raided the works, fire-bombed the newsprint store, and ignited four , dynamite charges, which wrecked the rotary press. Before the attackers fled, they daubed the initials of the Argentine Anti-Commun-ist Alliance on the walls. The attackers were never caught, and the police, who, exactly one year before, had mobilised extra patrols to comb the province for a suspect red car. did not even set up road-blocks.