Argentina: two ex-Ford executives convicted in torture case

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/11/pedro-muller-hedro-sibilla-ford-executives-argentina-torture-case

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
Tue 11 Dec 2018 14.37 EST

Two former executives of a local Ford Motor Co plant have been convicted for human rights crimes over the abduction and torture of company workers during Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship in a historic judgment.

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Former Ford executive Pedro Müller, 86, and Héctor Sibila, 90, a former Ford security manager, were sentenced to 10 and 12 years, respectively, for the kidnapping and torture of 24 employees at Ford’s General Pacheco plant outside Argentina’s capital city.

Testimony at the trial showed the executives provided the military with lists, addresses and photo IDs of workers they wanted arrested and even provided space for an illegal detention centre at the plant where the abductees could be interrogated.

“The company acted in a coordinated manner with the military,” the prosecution alleged.

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The trial got under way last December in a tribunal packed with former employees of the General Pacheco plant. Prosecutors alleged that the plant was used as a clandestine detention centre.

“The majority were kidnapped right off the assembly line,” said Tomás Ojea Quintana, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the start of the trial. “They were taken by rifle-toting military officers and paraded before the other workers so they could see what happened to their union representatives. This created an atmosphere of terror in the workplace that prevented any wage or working condition complaints.”

The kidnapped employees were immediately fired by the company, sometimes while they were still being tortured on the plant’s premises, according to testimony.

Former employee Carlos Propato recalled at the trial how he was tortured for 11 hours at the plant. All 24 were then sent to a police station or to Buenos Aires provincial jails, where they remained under illegal arrest for periods ranging from several months to two years.

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