Brazil arrests Argentine dictatorship fugitive on Rio coast
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 12:19 EDT, 12 May 2020 | UPDATED: 12:24 EDT, 12 May 2020
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Brazil's federal police agency says it has arrested a former Argentine navy officer accused of dictatorship-era crimes, including crimes against humanity and kidnapping.
The federal police didn´t release his identity, but a source with direct knowledge confirmed the man to be Gonzalo Sánchez, 69, also known as "Chispa."
He was caught Monday in the sleepy colonial city of Paraty, on Rio de Janeiro state's southern coast, and is suspected of forming part of a group that assassinated students, union members and opposition politicians, according to a federal police statement. Their bodies were thrown from planes on so-called "death flights."
Sánchez was previously arrested in 2013, and a judge ordered house arrest. In 2019, the Supreme Court authorized his extradition and he has since been in hiding.
He is suspected of participating in dozens of disappearances and killings, including that of journalist and writer Rodolfo Walsh in 1977. The school where Sánchez worked was one of the biggest illegal detention centers during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Sánchez has been on the run from Argentina´s justice system since 2005.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-8312421/Brazil-arrests-Argentine-dictatorship-fugitive-Rio-coast.html
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Rodolfo Walsh's kidnapper captured in Brazil
Gonzalo 'Chispa' Sánchez, 69, was arrested on Monday by order of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil. He is accused of more crimes against humanity.
MAY 12, 2020 - 4:12 PM
An Argentine repressor accused of crimes against humanity and having participated in the task forces of the Escuela Superior Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), which kidnapped the writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh in the civic-military dictatorship (1976-1983), was detained in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil , a diplomatic spokesman reported today.
This is Gonzálo Sánchez , known as "Chispa", who was arrested on Monday afternoon by the Brazilian Federal Police in the city of Paraty, in the southern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro, by an arrest warrant from the Supreme Court Federal of Brazil , to extradite him to Argentina.
Sánchez, 69, was detained by order of Judge Luiz Fux, of the Federal Supreme Court, who processes the extradition. The journalist Rodolfo Walsh was kidnapped and murdered after publishing his Open Letter in repudiation of the dictatorship, in 1977 .
Sánchez, detained in Brazil, is charged with the kidnapping of journalist Rodolfo Walsh and other crimes against humanity.
This will be the first extradition case on human rights issues from the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who vindicates the Brazilian military dictatorship and recently praised former dictators Alfredo Stroessner, from Paraguay, and Augusto Pinochet, from Chile.
More:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-8312421/Brazil-arrests-Argentine-dictatorship-fugitive-Rio-coast.html
Translated by Google:
05-12-2020 16:53
Gonzalo "Chispa" Sánchez, accused of the murder of Rodolfo Walsh, is captured in Brazil
The former prefect and repressor wanted for having participated in ESMA task forces, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro. This will be the first case of extradition on human rights issues from the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
Gonzálo Sánchez
The former prefect and repressor Gonzalo "Chispa" Sánchez, accused of crimes against humanity and of having participated in the task forces of the Superior Mechanical School of the Navy ( ESMA ), who kidnapped the writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh in the civic dictatorship military (1976-1983), was arrested in Rio de Janeiro. Sánchez, who was arrested on the afternoon of last Monday by the Brazilian Federal Police in the city of Paraty, in the south of the state of Rio de Janeiro, on an arrest warrant from the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil to extradite him to Argentina. Sánchez, 69, was detained by order of Judge Luiz Fux , of the Federal Supreme Court, who processes the extradition.
This will be the first case of extradition on human rights issues from the government of President Jair Bolsonaro , who vindicates the Brazilian military dictatorship and recently praised former dictators Alfredo Stroessner , from Paraguay, and Augusto Pinochet , from Chile.
In a statement, the Federal Police of Brazil reported that Sánchez was also participating in the so-called "death flights" to launch kidnapped detained disappeared into the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean.
"The request for preventive detention for extradition was made by the national representation of Interpol, based on information from the Red Alerts included there by the Argentine authorities , " the statement said.
"He was one of the guys who was the most in ´Capucha´, the ESMA sector where the hostages who had just arrived were housed. He was always with another well-known repressor, who was Antonio Pernías, whom they called ´Rat´" , told Carlos Loza , a survivor of the clandestine detention center and member of the Association of Former Detained and Disappeared (AEDD), which in several cases lawsuit against humanity.
"Chispa" was, according to survivors, one of the youngest repressors of ESMA, and of the fearsome Task Force 3.3.2 of the Navy.
Survivors' testimonies also placed him in General Pacheco's villa, which was a sort of annex to the clandestine center and where several detainees were housed.
The former prefect always wore plaid shirts, sports suits and always looked "very tanned, which made him more remarkable among the rest of the repressors."
"He liked to talk and brag about his actions. He told a group of kidnapped people what the elimination method that had been devised with the death flights was like. Before, he told us that the sailors burned the victims, and that he was a method that took a long time, " said journalist Myriam Lewin.
https://www.cronica.com.ar/info-general/Capturan-en-Brasil-a-Gonzalo-Chispa-Sanchez-acusado-por-el-asesinato-de-Rodolfo-Walsh-20200512-0053.html
