Emilio Eduardo Massera, former member of the military government of the last dictatorship in Argentina, died yesterday at the age of 85. He suffered a cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires Naval hospital, where his two sons were visiting him.
Along with Jorge Rafael Videla and Orlando Ramon Agosti, Massera was associated with the military junta that deposed of President “Isabel” Perón. During the the 1976 military coup he was the Commander of the Argentine Navy.
Following the restoration to democracy in December 1983, Massera, along with other members of the military junta were tried in a federal court for human rights violations. Responsible for the former School of Naval Mechanics (ESMA), Massera oversaw the largest clandestine detention center of the military dictatorship.
Receiving a life sentence under Raul Alfonsin’s government for crimes including abortion, assassination, and torture during the dictatorship, Massera was only imprisoned for five years. In 1990, along with other military oppressors, Massera was given amnesty by former President Carlos Menem. The decade after his release, the court reopened the human rights trials, ruling Menem’s pardon as unconstitutional. Massera suffered a stroke, however, in 2005 and was declared unfit for trial.
Human Rights organisations and political groups have urged the human rights trials to continue.
President of the organisation Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, stated that it was “regrettable” that Massera died without receiving adequate punishment for his crimes.
Victoria Donda, President of the Human Rights Commission of the Lower House, stated that “Emilio Massera died unpunished, which represents a serious offence to democracy and its institutions, because we believe that the only possible place for a genocide is prison”.
Donda is among the many thousands of victims of the dictatorship, born when her mother was held captive at the Navy Mechanical School (ESMA). Her mother was killed in the detention centre soon after giving birth, following which Donda was illegally adopted. She recovered her identity as a result of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo organisation, who continue to search for the children of the desaparecidos.
Donda called for the ESMA trials to continue as quickly as possible: “No other repressor should die unpunished”. These requests for ongoing cases to be undertaken rapidly are particularly pertinent as seven new trials are scheduled for the coming months. The total number of human rights abusers prosecuted for violations now stands at 783, over 140 more than in 2009.
