Mario Sandoval
Mario Sandoval is a former policeman, from Argentina, who fled to France to avoid the repercussions of the restoration of Argentinian democracy.[1][2] According to France 24, Sandoval may have played a role in 500 murders.[3]
Sandoval's service as a police officer overlapped with Argentina's "Dirty War".[1]
After democracy replaced the repressive military regime Sandoval worked for he worked as an University Professor.[2] At France's prestigious Sorbonne he worked at the Institute of High Studies for Latin America, which had a tradition of employing South American academics in exile from totalitarian regimes. The New York Times quoted Olivier Compagnon, who had been a colleague at the Institute, and was later its Director. He said no one would be hired on the sparse resume Sandoval supplied under today's standards. The New York Times reported it had seen Sandoval's resume, and it did not name any of the academic institutions he attended.
Compagnon, who had co-taught a course with Sandoval, in 2003, said students complained Sandoval was "was obsessed with weapons and security issues".[2]
The New York Times identified Jean-Michel Blanquer, who directed the institute in 1999 as responsible for Sandoval's hiring.[2] In 2019, when Sandoval was extradited, Blanguer was France's Minister of Education.
Argentina's security officials routinely secretly kidnapped suspects, rather than openly arresting them.[4] These individuals were colloquially known as desaparecidos "the disappeared", as no one knew what had happened to them. These individuals were never formally charged, never tried, never acquitted, or convicted, or sentenced. However security officials routinely secretly executed them.
Sandoval was convicted for playing a role in the kidnapping and murder of a student in 1976, named Hernán Abriata.[1] Abriata's kidnapping, torture and murder weren't subject to a statute of limitations, because his case remained open since his body was never found.[5]
Approximately 100 of the 5,000 suspects processed at ESMA survived. Carlos Loza and Alfredo Buzzalino testified at Sandoval's trial. Loza had shared a cell with Abriata, and was able to describe his torture, in detail. According to The Guardian Buzzalino testified Sandoval “was the most intellectually prepared guy in the Esma. If he could kill you, he killed you.”[5][6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Vanessa Buschschlüter (2022-12-22). "Mario Sandoval: Notorious Argentine torturer jailed". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2022-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20221222183508/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64063067. Retrieved 2022-12-22. "Argentine former police officer Mario Sandoval attends the beginning of his trial over the disappearance of a student at the federal courts in Buenos Aires, on September 14, 2022."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Elian Peltier, Daniel Politi (2019-12-15). "France Extradites Argentine Man Suspected of Torture". New York Times: p. A10. Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20221125122208/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/world/americas/mario-sandoval-argentina.html. Retrieved 2022-12-22. "Mr. Sandoval’s resume from the late 1990s, which The New York Times saw, starts in 1985 and states that he taught at a dozen institutions, but didn’t specify which universities he had attended."
- ↑ "Mario Sandoval, el "carnicero" de la dictadura argentina [Mario Sandoval, the "butcher" of the Argentine dictatorship]" (in French). France 24. 2019-12-11. Archived from the original on 2022-05-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20220528145249/https://www.france24.com/es/20191211-mario-sandoval-el-carnicero-de-la-dictadura-argentina. Retrieved 2022-12-22. "Aunque Argentina sospecha que Sandoval participó en más de 500 asesinatos, torturas y secuestros durante la dictadura militar (1976-83), se apoyó solamente en el caso del presunto secuestro y desaparición del estudiante Hernán Abriata en octubre de 1976 para pedir la extradición ya que hay una decena de testimonios que lo implican."
- ↑ Carlos Loza. "Hernán Abriata: Nació el 13 de Diciembre de 1951 - Desapareció el 20 de octubre de 1976" (in Spanish). desaparecidos. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20221001162237/http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/victimas/abriata/. Retrieved 2022-12-22. "Era estudiante de la FADU/UBA. Estuvo detenido en la ESMA, donde fue visto por Carlos Loza. Allí fue torturado."
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sam Jones (2019-12-16). "Suspected Argentinian torturer who taught at Sorbonne extradited by France". The Guardian (Madrid). Archived from the original on 2021-05-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20210505201515/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/16/mario-sandoval-france-approves-extradition-argentina-over-students-disappearance. Retrieved 2022-12-23. "'[Sandoval] was a very strange guy, he did intelligence,' one dirty war survivor, Alfredo Buzzalino, told prosecutors. 'He was the most intellectually prepared guy in the Esma. If he could kill you, he killed you.'"
- ↑ Gerardo Aranguren (2022-12-21). "Condenaron a 15 años de prisión al expolicía Mario «Churrasco» Sandoval por crímenes en la ESMA [Ex-police officer Mario "Churrasco" Sandoval was sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes at ESMA]" (in Spanish). Tiempo Argentino. Archived from the original on 2022-12-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20221221203314/https://www.tiempoar.com.ar/politica/condenaron-a-15-anos-de-prision-al-expolicia-mario-churrasco-sandoval-por-crimenes-en-la-esma/. Retrieved 2023-01-09. "Durante otro de los juicios de la ESMA, Alfredo Buzzalino contó que fue sacado del centro clandestino hasta una confitería en el centro para ser interrogado en una ocasión por el expolicía: “Era un tipo muy extraño, hacía inteligencia, un tipo intelectualmente de los más preparados dentro de la ESMA y muy jodido. Si te podía boletear, te boleteaba, no había tu tía con este hombre, sabía realmente lo que estaba haciendo y lo que él quería”, lo describió."
