Herald Staff
Substitute judge says there are no grounds to investigate him for dictatorship-era crimes
Vicente Massot, the owner of the ultra-conservative daily La Nueva Provincia in Bahía Blanca, will not be investigated for the deaths of two printshop workers during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in the city located in the southern end of Buenos Aires province.
The decision was made yesterday by Claudio Pontet, a federally registered lawyer appointed as a substitute judge after several other magistrates were separated from the case due to their close ties to the military.
“This resolution is part of an impunity manoeuvre from the Bahía Blanca Judiciary,” federal prosecutor Miguel Palazzani yesterday told the Herald.
Palazzani and his colleague José Nebbia accused Massot last year of being involved in the murders of Miguel Ángel Loyola and Enrique Heinrich. The owner of La Nueva Provincia was questioned as a suspect twice.
Judge Álvaro Coleffi questioned Massot — a staunch defender of the military dictatorship — last year before he was separated from the case
For Palazzani and Nebbia, La Nueva Provincia played a key role during the dark years of the dictatorship in Bahía Blanca to legitimize the repression unleashed by the armed forces. Massot is not only accused of being involved in the slayings of Heinrich and Loyola but also using the newspaper as a tool to cover up 35 abductions and disappearances.
However, Pontet — a federally registered lawyer appointed in December after Colleffi was separated from the probe — considered there were no grounds to continue with the probe into Massot.
Pontet highlighted La Nueva Provincia — which celebrated the March 24, 1976 military coup and also urged the military to execute political prisoners in order to not hold them in clandestine detention centres — used its pages to express its right to freedom of expression. Pontet — who uses his Twitter account to criticize the Kirchnerite administration — also said “opinions must not be judged.”
Founded in 1898 by Vicente Massot’s grandfather, La Nueva Provincia has always been tied to the military. In the 1950s, late former president Juan Domingo Perón closed down the newsroom, which was then returned to the Massots during the dictatorship that overthrew Perón.
“It is clear courts in Bahía Blanca are not willing to investigate civil complicity,” Palazzani complained yesterday in conversation with the Herald. “Unless the Magistrates Council takes action, investigations into crimes against humanity will become impossible there.”
Kirchnerite sources from the body in charge of the selection and removal of judges told the Herald they were working on the appointment of magistrates for those cases to put an end to the long string of deadlocks and rulings that favoured repressors.
Charges
In 1975, workers went on strike for three weeks. That year the Coast Guard issued a brief identifying printshop workers Heinrich and Loyola as employees who had to be “thinned out.” The prosecutors also had information that Massot was in charge of negotiations with the union leaders in 1975, information which was dismissed by the head of La Nueva Provincia, who said that he was in Buenos Aires completing his compulsory military service between 1976 and 1977 and only occasionally visited the newsroom.
According to the evidence collected in a raid carried out in April at La Nueva Provincia’s newsroom and examined by the Attorney General’s Office for Economic Investigation and Financial Analysis (OFINEC) led by accountant Judith König, Massot was 24-years-old when he started working at La Nueva Provincia in March 1976, the same month when the last military coup took place. His first job was as an editorial writer in the media outlet run by his mother, Diana Julio de Massot, and his brother, Federico.
In March 1976, the Massots celebrated the coup. Carrying an Argentine flag, Diana Julio de Massot appeared in the newsroom, threatening the workers: “Let’s see if you dare to go on strike now.”
On June 30, 1976, when Heinrich and Loyola arrived home, they were kidnapped and their corpses were found four days later in an area known as Cueva de los Leones, located 17 kilometres from the city of Bahía Blanca.
In April last year, prosecutors Palazzani and Nebbia collected testimony that directly involved the Massots in the murder of the two printshop workers but Pontet dismissed it, saying it was not valid because it was given at the prosecutors’ office and not in court. The information was given by lawyer Mauricio Gutiérrez, who is one of the defenders of military officers accused of human rights violations in Bahía Blanca. During the 1970s, Gutiérrez served as an auditor of the Fifth Army Corps, which is based in Bahía Blanca and commanded the repression in the region.
While he was the auditor of the Corps, he met then General Acdel Vilas, who after being in charge of commanding the so-called Independence Operation in Tucumán was sent to Bahía Blanca in 1976. Vilas told Gutiérrez about a meeting with Diana Julio de Massot, Vicente Massot’s mother, who asked him to take charge of Heinrich and Loyola. But Vilas, whose “work” was usually praised by La Nueva Provincia, refused.
“It is not a military issue,” he replied. But Julio de Massot then said in a low voice to General Osvaldo Azpitarte, the head of the Fifth Corps: “We’ll have to drag them out on the side.” Years ago, Vilas told a journalist: “Some newspapers prefer to kill their employees rather than pay severance.”
Next steps
Prosecutors confirmed they were going to appeal Pontet’s resolution in order to take the case to the Federal Criminal Cassation Court, the country’s highest criminal tribunal.
“We have already asked to recuse Pontet and despite that request he moved on to clear Massot of charges,” added Palazzani, who along with his colleague faces a criminal complaint for alleged conspiracy for seeking to investigate dictatorship-era crimes.
@lucianabertoia
Substitute judge says there are no grounds to investigate him for dictatorship-era crimes
Vicente Massot, the owner of the ultra-conservative daily La Nueva Provincia in Bahía Blanca, will not be investigated for the deaths of two printshop workers during the 1976-1983 dictatorship in the city located in the southern end of Buenos Aires province.
The decision was made yesterday by Claudio Pontet, a federally registered lawyer appointed as a substitute judge after several other magistrates were separated from the case due to their close ties to the military.
“This resolution is part of an impunity manoeuvre from the Bahía Blanca Judiciary,” federal prosecutor Miguel Palazzani yesterday told the Herald.
Palazzani and his colleague José Nebbia accused Massot last year of being involved in the murders of Miguel Ángel Loyola and Enrique Heinrich. The owner of La Nueva Provincia was questioned as a suspect twice.
Judge Álvaro Coleffi questioned Massot — a staunch defender of the military dictatorship — last year before he was separated from the case
For Palazzani and Nebbia, La Nueva Provincia played a key role during the dark years of the dictatorship in Bahía Blanca to legitimize the repression unleashed by the armed forces. Massot is not only accused of being involved in the slayings of Heinrich and Loyola but also using the newspaper as a tool to cover up 35 abductions and disappearances.
However, Pontet — a federally registered lawyer appointed in December after Colleffi was separated from the probe — considered there were no grounds to continue with the probe into Massot.
Pontet highlighted La Nueva Provincia — which celebrated the March 24, 1976 military coup and also urged the military to execute political prisoners in order to not hold them in clandestine detention centres — used its pages to express its right to freedom of expression. Pontet — who uses his Twitter account to criticize the Kirchnerite administration — also said “opinions must not be judged.”
Founded in 1898 by Vicente Massot’s grandfather, La Nueva Provincia has always been tied to the military. In the 1950s, late former president Juan Domingo Perón closed down the newsroom, which was then returned to the Massots during the dictatorship that overthrew Perón.
“It is clear courts in Bahía Blanca are not willing to investigate civil complicity,” Palazzani complained yesterday in conversation with the Herald. “Unless the Magistrates Council takes action, investigations into crimes against humanity will become impossible there.”
Kirchnerite sources from the body in charge of the selection and removal of judges told the Herald they were working on the appointment of magistrates for those cases to put an end to the long string of deadlocks and rulings that favoured repressors.
Charges
In 1975, workers went on strike for three weeks. That year the Coast Guard issued a brief identifying printshop workers Heinrich and Loyola as employees who had to be “thinned out.” The prosecutors also had information that Massot was in charge of negotiations with the union leaders in 1975, information which was dismissed by the head of La Nueva Provincia, who said that he was in Buenos Aires completing his compulsory military service between 1976 and 1977 and only occasionally visited the newsroom.
According to the evidence collected in a raid carried out in April at La Nueva Provincia’s newsroom and examined by the Attorney General’s Office for Economic Investigation and Financial Analysis (OFINEC) led by accountant Judith König, Massot was 24-years-old when he started working at La Nueva Provincia in March 1976, the same month when the last military coup took place. His first job was as an editorial writer in the media outlet run by his mother, Diana Julio de Massot, and his brother, Federico.
In March 1976, the Massots celebrated the coup. Carrying an Argentine flag, Diana Julio de Massot appeared in the newsroom, threatening the workers: “Let’s see if you dare to go on strike now.”
On June 30, 1976, when Heinrich and Loyola arrived home, they were kidnapped and their corpses were found four days later in an area known as Cueva de los Leones, located 17 kilometres from the city of Bahía Blanca.
In April last year, prosecutors Palazzani and Nebbia collected testimony that directly involved the Massots in the murder of the two printshop workers but Pontet dismissed it, saying it was not valid because it was given at the prosecutors’ office and not in court. The information was given by lawyer Mauricio Gutiérrez, who is one of the defenders of military officers accused of human rights violations in Bahía Blanca. During the 1970s, Gutiérrez served as an auditor of the Fifth Army Corps, which is based in Bahía Blanca and commanded the repression in the region.
While he was the auditor of the Corps, he met then General Acdel Vilas, who after being in charge of commanding the so-called Independence Operation in Tucumán was sent to Bahía Blanca in 1976. Vilas told Gutiérrez about a meeting with Diana Julio de Massot, Vicente Massot’s mother, who asked him to take charge of Heinrich and Loyola. But Vilas, whose “work” was usually praised by La Nueva Provincia, refused.
“It is not a military issue,” he replied. But Julio de Massot then said in a low voice to General Osvaldo Azpitarte, the head of the Fifth Corps: “We’ll have to drag them out on the side.” Years ago, Vilas told a journalist: “Some newspapers prefer to kill their employees rather than pay severance.”
Next steps
Prosecutors confirmed they were going to appeal Pontet’s resolution in order to take the case to the Federal Criminal Cassation Court, the country’s highest criminal tribunal.
“We have already asked to recuse Pontet and despite that request he moved on to clear Massot of charges,” added Palazzani, who along with his colleague faces a criminal complaint for alleged conspiracy for seeking to investigate dictatorship-era crimes.
@lucianabertoia
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