“Newness Worthy Was not registered To mention”
“No se Registró Novedad Digna de Mencionar” /
Nothing happened worthy of mention.
En diciembre de 1974, el Departamento de Investigaciones registra a Benjamín Ramírez Villalba, Amílcar Maria Oviedo y Carlos José Mancuello que fueron capturados junto a Rodolfo Ramírez Villalba. A mediados de 1976, los cuatro desaparecerían de la prisión policial.
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In December of 1974, the Department of Investigations registers Benjamín Ramírez Villalba, Amílcar Maria Oviedo and Carlos José Mancuello who were arrested along with Rodolfo Ramírez Villalba. In the middle of 1976, the four would disappear from the police prison.
Visiting the National Security Archive site (mentioned in my last post), I find a report published just a few days ago on four ‘desaparecidos’ in Paraguay. (Here’s a rough translation of the cover page, provided by Babblefish.)
These young men were my contemporaries. I graduated from high school in 1974. In 1976 I joined Friends World College. During those years and later in the ’70s while I was living in Europe, at demonstrations sometimes I was handed leaflets appealing for attention to the ongoing dirty war in South America. My heart went out for the people mentioned, but I never did anything about it. Still, their condition has always been for me part of the texture of those times.
The NSA report uses original source documents to chart their passage through the system of police terror in Paraguay, until their disappearance almost two years later. They were officially listed as having “escaped.” The authorities stuck to this story ever since, until now when it has finally been demolished.
Sin embargo, las declaraciones del acusado Lucilo Benitez son contundentes y demoledoras pues “admite por primera vez circunstancias y hechos que eran decididamente negadas por los otros coprocesados.”
Las declaraciones de Benítez calzan perfectamente con los vacios y contradicciones de la historia oficial. El día 21 de Septiembre de 1976, dice Benítez, “…aproximadamente a las 21:30 el Señor Pastor Coronel, se retiró de su despacho, al retirarse me ordenó que me quedara en la Oficina de Guardia para proceder en compañía del Oficial [Celso] Cantero a la entrega de dichos detenidos… siendo aproximadamente las 22:30 de ese día llega una camioneta Kombi, color rojo hasta la oficina de Guardia del Departamento de Investigaciones, del cual desciende el Comisario Ramón Saldivar, [Julián] Ruiz Paredes y Salvador Mendoza.”
Benítez continúa “…fuimos hasta el calabozo No 1… de a uno los sacamos del calabozo… los esposamos y yo los conduje hasta la oficina de guardia donde les entregue al Comisario General Saldivar y sus acompañantes, quienes los alzaron en la camioneta mencionada. Terminado los tres Comisarios mencionados abordaron dicho vehículo y se desplazaron por [la calle] Presidente Franco doblando hacia [la calle] Chile, hacia el Paraguayo Independiente, desconociendo el destino y la suerte corrida por estos detenidos…”
The cover-up began the next morning.
El superior de los Oficiales de Guardia Celso Cantero y Jorge Pane, el Comisario Inspector Eliodoro Sánchez escribe a Pastor Coronel una nota extremadamente breve a las siete de la mañana del día 22:
“Comunico a esa Superioridad que durante mi servicio de Oficial de Ronda de la Unidad, establecida desde las 19 horas del dia de ayer a las 7 horas del dia de hoy NO SE REGISTRO NOVEDAD DIGNA DE MENCIONAR.” [Las mayúsculas son del original]
I won’t attempt a full translation of the above paragraphs, but leave it to readers with a bit of Spanish and/or the patience to work through the Babblefish translation. (Babblefish gives the title of this post.)
In gist, the day after the four prisoners were “disappeared,” a prison official carefully (and with his own capital letters) reported that “between 7PM last night and 7AM today, NOTHING HAPPENED WORTHY OF MENTION” — thus negating the future claim that the four had “escaped” with a first attempt to blot out what actually happened to these four young men.
Nothing to see here. Keep moving, keep moving.
One wonders for how long we’ll be picking apart the lies about what has happened in the last seven years.
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