Operation Massacre(56)
It’s funny what this commissioner “seems to recall” considering how forgetful he is about other things (including the testimony he gave half an hour prior). First he says that “at approximately 2300 hours on June 9, he was informed that the instatement of martial law had been broadcast over the radio.” Then he said that the prisoners arrived “at approximately 0030 hours on the tenth, or rather closer to midnight.” And now he is saying that it’s these same prisoners who gave the news to the District Police Department, and therefore to him. But if they arrived at midnight, how could they have told him the news at eleven?
Asked by the judge what they did with the bodies, Cuello says “that he does not know if it was immediately or by way of a subsequent order that they were driven to the morgue at the San Martín polyclinic.”
Judge Hueyo shows him Livraga’s receipt and asks him if he recognizes it. Cuello admits it is “possible that this form was filled out at the District Police Department.”
Does he recognize the signatures?
He does not recognize them.
Does he know that Livraga was subsequently arrested at the Department?
He does not.
Does he know that Livraga was in Moreno?
He has no idea.
Does he know if the executed men received a coup de grâce?
He can’t say for sure.
Does he know if the men who were executed were told what their crime was?
He doesn’t know.
His testimony is a web of inaccuracies and evasions. As opposed to Rodríguez Moreno, this officer believes that the dead are completely dead and that there is no reason to go around asking so many questions.
On Tuesday, January 22, the judge goes to Florida in search of the “third man,” Horacio di Chiano. He doesn’t find him. He is in hiding and will only appear twenty days later when Enriqueta Muñiz and I manage to speak with him. Judge Hueyo questions Di Chiano’s wife, who confirms Giunta’s testimony and provides a new description of Fernández Suárez, “a large person who was wearing a military jacket with sand-colored gabardine pants, a person with dark hair and a mustache.”
The judge asks what’s become of her husband. She responds that “the declarant has not seen her husband since the night in question either; she suspects that he is still alive, but he has not been home since.”
On page 69 and following, two guards from the Florida precinct state that they participated in the raid. Their testimonies add nothing to the case.
From Florida, the judge headed to the San Martín District Police Department, where he intended to establish the court. Waiting for him there was an urgent radio message from Police Headquarters, informing him that the judge’s presence was needed in the capital of the Province. Once he arrives in La Plata, the judge sits down to talk with the president of the Supreme Court of the Province.
What was said during that meeting was never reported, but the game being played was plain to see. Advised by the best in the business, Bonnecarrere and Fernández Suárez figured out the magic formula for saving themselves: to get a military court to claim jurisdiction over the case.
On that same day, January 22, Fernández Suárez deigns to respond to the judge’s requests for the first time. His response appears on page 71 and is stamped “Confidential.” It reads as follows:
In response to His Honor’s official requests dated the 24th and 31st of December, 1956, and the 10th and 11th of the current month of January, related to Case Number 3702 entitled “Livraga, Juan Carlos – report,” I have the pleasure of addressing the judge and informing him of the following: