The History Channel International running video on Argentina's disappeared political prisoners

[Judi Lynn]

(They will start showing this video this morning, Saturday, June 7, at 5:00 to 7:00, EST, on History International. I believe this will have English subtitles. It should be rerunning periodically after that for a while.)

Thu May 15, 2008 2:27pm EDT
THE DISAPPEARED Premieres on HISTORY EN ESPANOL(TM) on Sunday, June 8, 2008 at
9 pm ET

HISTORY EN ESPANOL(TM) PRESENTS A FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE
THOUSANDS OF VICTIMS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN ARGENTINA AND ONE YOUNG
SURVIVOR'S REMARKABLE QUEST TO FIND HIS FAMILY

NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Horacio Pietragalla was just an infant
the day his mother buried him under pillows to protect him before she herself
was killed in a hail of gunfire by soldiers storming her home. His father died
an equally violent death. Both parents were student activists who fell afoul
of the brutal military dictatorship that gripped Argentina from 1976 to 1983
and forced the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people. Many of the
children of those who disappeared were kidnapped and raised by surrogate
parents. Horacio was one of them. The feature-length documentary THE
DISAPPEARED tells the remarkable story of how, after being raised for years by
surrogate parents, Horacio pieces together clues about his true origin and is
reunited with his biological family. THE DISAPPEARED premieres Sunday, June 8
at 9pm ET on HISTORY EN ESPANOL.

Even though he couldn't remember his real parents, Horacio sensed
something was amiss with the family in which he grew up. Why was he so
different from Chacho and Lina -- the man and woman he called his parents? Why
was he so much taller than either of them? And why, when he was baptized, did
Lina choose as his godfather the cigar-smoking military officer for whom she
worked as a maid? Horacio began to suspect that he was the son of
desaparecidos, victims of political violence at the hands of Argentina's post-
Peronist government. Over the years, his doubts grew -- along with the
evidence. His then-fiancee found a photo of a woman holding an infant
resembling him on the website of a human rights group. A neighbor who was also
a child of desaparecidos told Horacio he was brought to the building as an
infant. And finally a DNA test confirmed his doubts: He was in fact the son of
murdered dissenters Liliana Corti and Horacio Pietragalla, Sr.

When Horacio met with surviving members of his biological family, there
was immediate recognition. Relatives said he was just like his father, down to
his body language. But the reunion left him torn between two families. He felt
betrayed by his surrogate parents, who had lied to him for decades. If they
had told him the truth earlier, they could have spared his real family much
suffering -- his grandfather would have died knowing he had been found, and
perhaps his grandmother would not have committed suicide. Nor would Horacio
have grown up under the watchful eye of the military officer, whom he now knew
had kidnapped him after his mother's murder.

Filmed in Argentina and directed and produced by former NBC reporter Peter
Sanders, THE DISAPPEARED chronicles the darkest period in the history of
contemporary Argentina, following the collapse of the Peronist government. At
the bidding of top military officials, thousands of union laborers, students,
activists and other perceived "enemies of the state" were arrested, tortured,
held in concentration camps and murdered. A particularly harrowing account
comes from a reporter who describes prisoners being drugged, loaded onto
airplanes and then tossed alive from the airborne craft into a river.
The documentary is based on intimate interviews with Horacio, his
surrogate parents, members of his biological family, his friends and his
neighbors. It also features interviews with survivors and witnesses of the
atrocities, members of the human rights group Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo,
government officials and high-ranking military personnel on both sides of the
issue.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS243503+15-May-2008+PRN20080515

Website for the film:
http://www.thedisappearedmovie.com/desaparecido_FINAL_v3.swf

[Cobalt-60]

1. Take a good look at Argentina '76'-83

That will be us if McCain finds his way into the white house.