Today, the Federal Court of San Martin discussed again the case of the adopted children of Ernestina Herrera de Noble, chief of the multimedia group ‘Clarín’. The lawsuit is to decide whether the children still have to undergo a blood draw or not.
The judge of the trial, Sandra Arroyo Salgado ordered the children of Herrera de Noble, Marcela and Felipe, to undergo a compulsory blood draw. In first instance the children should have undergone this blood draw on 23th December last year. However,the children never appeared in the National Genetic Data Bank of the Durand Hospital to give these blood samples.
Salgado cited them in the context of investigating whether Philip and Marcela Noble de Herrera are appropriate children during the last military dictatorship. There is a chance that the children of e de Noble are actually descended from one of the many ‘desaparicidos’ during the dictatorship.
Today, the Court has listened to arguments from both sides for examining the decision of Arroyo Salgado. The lawyers of Philip and Marcela had to justify the refusal of the children to submit blood or saliva extraction, which was ordered by the federal judge.
Also Alan Lud, lawyer of the ‘Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo’, was in turn next to Pablo Llanto, the representative of two family plaintiffs in the case.
The complaints persisted the need to immediately implement the measure of undergoing a blood test, which is ordered by Salgado.
At the end of today, bewaring the statements of all the witnesses, the Court may consider and resolve the trial. Therefore, soon the Court will point out a date of the resolve of the trial and on which to announce its temporarily decision.
The case of the children of Herrera de Noble is investigated for a long time. It is almost ten years ago that Justice started investigating whether Felipe and Marcela are children descended from a ‘desaparecida’ of the military dictatorship. However, until now the proceedings never got anywhere because of the interference and obstacles that were created by the chief of Clarín.
I feel sorry for these children. If they old enough, it should be they that decide to have blood drawn not an official of the government. If they forced to give blood (samples,)against their will, how will this help them?
It was long overdue. This isn’t the typical ‘Mommy and Daddy abandoned me, so I don’t care who they are” case. We are talking about a crime here. About organized baby thefts. And what these two people have under their skin might be evidence. The relatives of the disappeared also have the right to know, since if it turns out to be true, these children would have been forcibly taken by their sons and daughters. The Noble Herrera children are not the only ones concerned. It would have been so if we were talking about a normal adoption but unfortunately, we aren’t.
It’s not about helping them, it’s about investigating a crime that was committed 29 years ago. It’s true that they would be well off if the kids hadn’t have to pass through this, but as “Me” said they are not the only ones concerned. Around 30000 people disappeared in the last military coup in Argentina, and ,as many investigated crimes in that period, this is just one more.