People thrown into river alive: Machine “death flights” returns “Cruel and inhumane”: UN Special Rapporteur calls for closure of Guantanamo

40 years after the end of Argentina’s military dictatorship, a plane used for the infamous “death flights” has been returned to the South American country. The Skyvan PA-51 aircraft was presented on Monday at the military part of the city airport of Buenos Aires. During the military dictatorship, people were thrown alive from their holds into the Río de la Plata, leaving them certain death.

The cargo plane will be on display in the exEsma museum in the future. During the military dictatorship (1976-1983), the former Marine Mechanics School was a secret prison in which it is estimated that more than 4,000 kidnapped members of the opposition were tortured and killed.

Human rights groups estimate that up to 30,000 government opponents, left-wing activists, trade unionists and students disappeared during the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. In the fight against alleged communist activities, security forces have killed countless people in secret prisons. Among other things, the army had opponents of the government drugged and thrown from airplanes into the Río de la Plata.

In 1977, twelve people were thrown into the river from the plane now returning to Argentina from the US, including three founding members of the human rights organization “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” and two French nuns. Last year, four former army officers were sentenced to life imprisonment for the “death flights”.

The “mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” refused to return the plane. The group was founded in 1977 by women whose children had been kidnapped during the military dictatorship. Every Thursday, wearing white headscarves, they demonstrated in the square in front of the government palace in downtown Buenos Aires, demanding information about the fate of their children.

“The mothers refuse to allow the plane from which our three comrades were thrown alive after being kidnapped by the dictatorship to be returned from the United States and put on display in the former Esma,” the group said in a statement. “Instead of displaying it as a commemorative trophy, we want the iron to be melted down and made into a giant white kerchief to honor our struggle. We mothers have always been against making a show of death. ” (sda/dpa)