Argentine Nobel winner Perez Esquivel finally testifies against his alleged torturers

Argentine Nobelist Perez Esquivel recalls torture

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for his work exposing abuses during Argentina’s military dictatorship, finally testified against his captors Tuesday, describing his torture and crediting international pressure for saving his life.

Perez Esquivel recounted the blows, screams and repeated torture sessions in which guards pounded him and other naked prisoners with fists, boot heels and other weapons, then made them take cold showers before pummeling their injured bodies again.

“With the club they poked my ribs and asked if it hurt. I would say yes, and then they’d say, ‘Now you know how you should behave here.’ And then they would pound me with their heels, which made me think of those Nazi movies,” Perez Esquivel testified, according to the state news agency Telam.

But after more than three decades, he told the judges, he can no longer identify his torturers in the courtroom.

“It’s been a long time,” said Perez Esquivel, now 89.

Perez Esquivel is one of many witnesses in the trial of 14 former prison officials charged with crimes against humanity at the feared Unit 9, where many political prisoners were held during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Others include Argentina’s current foreign minister, Jorge Taiana.

Perez Esquivel founded the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights in 1975 and traveled around Latin America alerting the world to rights violations by the region’s military juntas. In April 1977, Argentine military authorities took him into custody when he tried to renew his passport. He wasn’t released until 1978.

“I was a person known at an international level, but in this jail I was tortured anyway, although there were many people who suffered more than me,” Perez Esquivel told reporters outside the court before testifying for more than two hours in the provincial capital of La Plata, where Unit 9 was located.

While in prison, Perez Esquivel was given a peace prize by the Vatican, which did not go unnoticed among his torturers, he recalled.

“At one point the deputy prison chief took me to his office and told me: ‘Not even the pope will save you. Here, we decide whether you live. We are the lords of life and death,’” Perez Esquivel testified.

According to official accounts, 13,000 people were killed during Argentina’s dictatorship, although rights group estimate the true toll at 30,000.