The discovery of new bone remains in the Battalion 14 This week, the family members again put on the table the request to the Armed Forces to provide the necessary information to speed up the search for the detainees who disappeared during the civil-military dictatorship in it Uruguay, as well as questioning the political arc for its inaction regarding military secrecy.
Finding new bone remains generates mixed emotions for relatives, Ignacio Errandoneamember of the organization of Relatives of Disappeared Detaineesdescribed as “a lot of anxiety and mixed feelings.” “On the one hand you have anxiety because you want to have all the answers now and, on the other hand, the feeling of pain from the realization and anger,” he explained, in dialogue with Ambit.
Errandonea explained that today they would finish removing the remains found in the pavilion, to then take them to the anthropology team’s laboratory to begin to determine the first conclusions. From there, he says, X-rays are taken to determine the injuries, the sex and physical build will also be evaluated. Meanwhile, the extraction of the remains will be carried out. DNA which will be sent to the city of Cordova to be able to identify the body, a process that would take approximately a month and a half.
This process, undoubtedly painful, is aggravated by the silence of those responsible for the disappearances. “Why on earth is this cowardly silence of the authorities maintained?” Armed forces“Why don’t they just give the information once and for all? There are a lot of things that are churning around inside of us,” Errandonea lamented.
Political inaction
In this regard, he questioned the lack of pressure from the political spectrum on the Forces to expose the information they are hiding. “To pressure the Armed forces You have to have the ability to impose sanctions and to do that you have to create state policies,” Errandonea explained.
Errandonea recalled the year 2019 when the then president Tabare Vazquez He wanted to sanction six generals. “The electoral campaign was preferred and the presidency was discredited,” he lamented. “A great political agreement is needed because one thing is to say that they want the missing detainees to appear and another is to implement serious policies in search of the truth without seeking electoral gains,” he added.
“This disparate vision allows the Armed Forces to maintain an autonomy that is not healthy for democracy,” he criticized.
An unmanageable situation
The silence of the military harms the search for the missing detainees Although the Institute has the authority by law to access any territory, according to Errandonea, that authority is emptied to the extent that the Armed Forces do not provide information to facilitate the process.
“The problem is that if you don’t have the voluntary or obligatory information from the Armed Forces, we are in trouble. We are going to continue moving forward very tentatively,” he lamented and recalled that the Battalion 14 It has 400 hectares, a territory almost impossible to excavate in a hurry.
“What is missing is the political decision to demand from the Armed forces “Because, after all, they cannot manage themselves independently. They are dependent on the political power and the political system, which is theoretically democratic, and they come to obey orders. It is we, the citizens, who pay their salaries,” he stressed.
Good intentions but missing the target
This Thursday the mayor of Cannelloni, Marcelo Metediera, visited the Battalion 14 and, in dialogue with the press, outlined the idea that the territory passes from the hands of the Armed Forces to the National Human Rights Institution. However, for Errandonea, as well as for the organization to which he belongs, the important thing is the search. “First, let’s prioritize the search and then we’ll discuss. The institute does not have the financial resources to maintain that space, it’s 400 hectares,” he explained.
Errandonea commented that for that, it is necessary to have a project and a very large budget. “If we cannot maintain that park, they begin to occupy it and we make the search difficult,” he stressed and recalled that the Battalion of La Tabladaalso known as Base Roberto, was declared a memorial site and is currently facing problems with the occupation of the territory. “I understand the good will of many people, but for us the main thing is the search,” he stressed.
Source: Ambito
