The remains of six victims of Argentina’s military dictatorship, recovered by the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology (EAAF), have been identified by genetic studies.

Five of the identified victims were buried as NN in different municipal cemeteries in the province of Buenos Aires during the last dictatorship.

The remains identified correspond to Nestor Zuppa, Lidia del Carmen Soto, Patricia Dillon, Felix Escobar, Jorge Carlos Williams and Joseph Tomanelli.

It is worth noting that Tomanelli was Venezuelan and was 22 when he was abducted in March 1976. His body, which had been shot and burned, was found on April 2 that year.

Luis Abelardo Patti, who served as a policeman in the province of Buenos Aires, was held responsible for the crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Those in charge of the genetic studies have said that the results of the DNA tests on the bodies “were conclusive” and serve as evidence for future investigations into crimes against humanity.

The National Court of Appeals issued resolutions to proceed with the identification of remains on March 8. The Chamber ordered the remains to be returned to their families.

On Monday, the Uruguayan government also identified skeletal remains found last March on a military base there. They belonged to a leftist militant disappeared in January 1978.

Story courtesy of Agencia PĂşlsar.

Federal Judge Daniel Bejas has confirmed that human remains discovered last year in the former military arsenal Miguel de Azcuénaga are a DNA match with ex-Senator Damián Márquez and Peronist Youth activist Pedro Corroto.

The remains, which were found last March and included 15 bodies, stand out from other instances of disappeared government officials during the dictatorship. Generally, remains of politicians have been found at neutral sites rather than military facilities.

Márquez, formerly a militant Peronist senator in Tucumán, was kidnapped on the night of January 13, 1977. He presided over the provincial Senate chamber and was secretary general of the local General Labour Confederation (CGT).

“The military can no longer deny that there were more disappeared during the regime because this is proof,” said Márquez’ son, Daniel.

The Azcuénaga arsenal was a known clandestine detention centre during the dictatorship. Under a partnership between the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) and the Interdisciplinary Group of Archaeology and Anthropology of Tucumán – with the attention of the courts – the site fell under scrutiny in 2005.

At the excavation last March, bones, bullets, clothing, footwear, and burnt tires were found under a layer of earth. The team hypothesises that the bodies were first burned, thrown into the pit, and then covered again with filler and soil.

“We want to leave a message to society because the forensic team, who met with us on Monday, told us that there is still a large percentage of family members who must submit to DNA, which is necessary in order to identify bodies,” Daniel Márquez said.

The announcement from Judge Bejas comes just two days ahead of the Day of Memory anniversary, now 36 years since the dictatorship regime took power in 1976. It is estimated by human rights organisations that approximately 30,000 lives were lost at the hands of the regime.

Brazilian Air Force spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral has confirmed “the recovery from the water of debris and bodies from the Air France plane”, which disappeared on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris early last Monday. Current reports state that the rescue mission recovered the corpses of two men along with parts believed to be from the missing plane and personal effects belonging to other passengers.

The remains were found around five hundred miles north-east of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, off Brazil’s northeastern coast. Experts are on their way to examine the victims. Admiral Edison Lawrence said that the bodies were being transported to Fernando de Noronha for identification, according to the Associated Press.

Speaking at a news conference in the northern Brazilian city of Recife, Colonel Amaral added that a suitcase containing a plane ticket and a backpack with a laptop inside were among the findings. “It was confirmed with Air France that the ticket number corresponds to a passenger on the flight,” he stated. A blue seat was also found, not far from the point from which the plane’s last signal was received.

BBC sources in Sao Paulo say that authorities are approaching any confirmations with caution, after debris previously thought to pertain to the missing craft was declared unrelated. French and Brazilian investigators are searching for the flight data recorders, which have sonar beacons, or ‘pingers’, in the hope that these will yield the most information about the circumstances of the tragedy.

Paul -Arslanian, head of French accident investigation agency BEA, explained the challenge of finding one of these ‘pingers’ to news agencies. Holding one in the palm of his hand, he explained, “This is what we are looking for in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.” He added, “We have no guarantee that the pinger is attached to the recorders.”

The investigation is increasingly focused on the possibility that external instruments may have been incapacitated by the weather conditions. Speed sensors icing over may have led computers to make the potentially deadly mistake of setting the plane’s speed inappropriately.

There have been reports that airspeed instruments were not replaced before takeoff, according to the maker’s advice. Air France declined to comment, but Alan Bouillard, head of the French investigation, stated that, “They hadn’t yet been replaced.”

Arslanian urged against jumping to conclusions about the role of potentially faulty machinery in the crash. “It does not mean that…the A330 was dangerous,” he said. He told a news conference near Paris that this crash does not mean that similar planes are unsafe. This is the world’s worst commercial air accident since 2001.

US President Barack Obama has pledged to help in the investigation mission and the US government are sending specialised search equipment to the scene. A French submarine equipped with sonar is being sent, to arrive next week, according to military spokesman Christophe Prazuck.