Uruguay ex-intelligence agent jailed for dictatorship torture

AFP |Update: 23.02.2024 00:50

A former Uruguay intelligence agent has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the South American country's brutal dictatorship of 1973 to 1985, a court document showed Thursday.

Jorge Carlos Guldenzoph Nunez, 70, was found guilty of torture committed as part of "a systematic and coordination plan of persecuting opponents of the regime", according to the court ruling dated February 15 obtained by AFP.

Nunez, a.k.a "Chatty" had "participated in the arrest, interrogation and extraction of confessions under torture" of dissidents, according to the indictment. Nunez has been on trial since July 2020 from prison, time spent that will be deducted from his sentence.

Some 50 survivors had told the court of torments they had suffered, including electric shocks, beatings and rape. The victims' lawyer Pablo Chargonia welcomed the end of a long process that has helped to reveal "the horror lived" by people during the dictatorship.

https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/a/2171618.html

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Decades of Silence Broken: Former Uruguayan Intelligence Agent Sentenced for Dictatorship Crimes

Discover how justice was served for survivors of Uruguay's dictatorship as former intelligence agent Jorge Carlos Guldenzoph Nunez faces a landmark verdict. Explore the resilience of the human spirit in the face of tyranny.

Saboor Bayat
22 Feb 2024 19:01 EST

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/fit-in/640x430/filters:format(webp)/bnn/media/media_files/02b23fdf2b02816c89d1b79e1c85be1a255de6c05fa3a2dcf9475641fab937f7.jpg


The sun had long set on Uruguay's dark era of dictatorship, but for those who endured the unspeakable, justice has been a slow dawn. In a recent, landmark decision, Jorge Carlos Guldenzoph Nunez, a 70-year-old former intelligence agent, was sentenced to a decade behind bars for his role in the torture and persecution of regime opponents between 1973 and 1985. This verdict not only sheds light on a painful chapter of Uruguay's past but also serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of tyranny.

The Unyielding Pursuit of Justice
The courtroom was charged with a palpable mix of apprehension and hope as survivors, now decades older, stood to recount their harrowing tales. They spoke of electric shocks, beatings, and other forms of torture that left indelible scars on both body and psyche. Approximately 50 survivors shared their testimonies, painting a vivid picture of the horrors inflicted upon them. The indictment against Nunez highlighted his active role in the arrest, interrogation, and forced confessions of dissidents, laying bare the systemic cruelty that characterized the regime's approach to dissent.

Nunez's trial, which began in July 2020, was a culmination of years of tireless advocacy by victims and human rights organizations. The time Nunez has already spent in prison will be deducted from his sentence, but for many, the verdict represents more than just a numerical value—it symbolizes a long-awaited acknowledgment of their suffering and the nation's commitment to confronting its past. Pablo Chargonia, the victims' lawyer, hailed the trial's conclusion as a crucial step in unveiling the grim realities faced under the dictatorship.

Reflecting on a Dark Legacy
The dictatorship in Uruguay, spanning from 1973 to 1985, left a deep and lasting impact on the nation's collective memory. It's estimated that 20% of the population was imprisoned at some point, with around 200 citizens murdered and an additional 191 disappearing without a trace. These numbers, while stark, barely scratch the surface of the pain and trauma experienced by those who lived through the regime's darkest days.

More:
https://bnnbreaking.com/world/uruguay/decades-of-silence-broken-former-uruguayan-intelligence-agent-sentenced-for-dictatorship-crimes

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Record: Jorge Guldenzoph Núñez


From member of the UJC to collaborator. From collaborator to torturer and rapist. From rapist to CIA Intelligence Agent. From a member of the CIA/DNII to a successful businessman and reverend of the Moon Sect.



The successful career of an unpunished man

In the early seventies, Jorge Guldenzoph was a member of the Communist Party (PCU). Since he was detained by Department No. 5 (Intelligence and Liaison) shortly after the coup d'état, his collaboration with the repressors became evident: he betrayed and handed over many of his colleagues; He went out into the street with personnel from the Investigation Department pointing out houses and contacts; He participated in the interrogations, in the application of torture and in the rape of his own companions, in the midst of the dictatorship.

In 1980 he formally joined the DII (Directorate of Information and Intelligence), becoming a theorist of the fight against popular, social and political organizations. He operated by infiltrating unions and forming parapolice commandos at the request of the CIA.



Ary Severo Barreto Case

Thanks to the testimony of one of the survivors of the operation that led to the capture and subsequent disappearance of the militant Ary Severo Barreto, it is known that Charleta participated in said kidnapping.



The person who provides testimony reports that he was detained in the apartment. of Canelones on April 23, 1978, when he returned to Uruguay to make contact with another leader. His trip responded to a request from the PST leadership (of which Ary Severo, Tatú, was a member).

Five days later he was transferred to Montevideo and taken to Headquarters where Víctor Castiglioni received them. There he was tortured again and later transferred to the Information Directorate (run by Commissioner Pablo Fontana Zunino). The interrogations focused on his relationship with Ary Severo Barreto, a fact that the detainee continued to deny, pointing out that: “I only missed his family and that is why he returned.”

Testimony

« Commissioner Fontana Zunino asked me about Ary Severo Barreto and what we were doing in Buenos Aires. Much later I learned that Ary had been detained 5 days earlier in Buenos Aires. A deputy commissioner from Department IV alias El Turco participated in the interrogations and torture [...] A man of approximately 40 years old, of medium height, gray-haired, light green eyes [...] Ricardo Arab, nicknamed the Turk and a very elegant and correct young boy. They described Ary Severo Barreto's house in Buenos Aires perfectly to me [...] Years later I discovered that the elegant young man who tortured me was Jorge Guldenzoph, alias Charleta . At a certain point they took me to the bathroom and the deputy commissioner the Turk was urinating with Jorge Guldenzoph and I heard them say: “ El Negro Tatú really could hold out and didn't give anything away .” To which Charleta replied: “Shut up, the detainee is behind us . ”

« We all called Ary the Black Tatú , even his family. In the following days, in another interrogation, these two people told me that Tatú was much stronger than me [...] Occasionally, an Intelligence and Liaison officer, I don't know his name, would take me out to another room to interrogate me. ] he was wearing an Army shirt, pants and jacket, without epaulettes or stripes, they called him El Pibe or El Gurí , he also questioned me about Buenos Aires and knew in detail Ary's house in Buenos Aires and my house in La Boca, He would disappear for 5 or 6 days and when he returned he would smoke Argentine cigarettes […] On two occasions he took me hooded in a van to a vacant lot and in both cases he performed a mock execution on me, he wanted me to tell him things related to the PST and he asked me why. the RRP which I had no idea what it was. They also asked me about Jorge Martínez, but who they insisted on was Ary Severo Barreto and his wife Beatriz Anglet, also missing .

These minutes recorded by Serpaj, in 2001, were delivered to the Peace Commission and they indicate:

« The person who participates in the arrest of Ary Severo Barreto and Mario Mosteiro [...] is Jorge, a SOF official, Charleta . He is the one who tortured him and the one who knows what happened to Barreto .

Barreto was arrested on April 24, 1978 along with his wife Beatriz Anglet, his brother Carlos, his sister Marta and his brother-in-law Jorge Martínez Horminoguez. They were all seen alive in the Pozo de Quilmes by several witnesses who survived the torture. These arrests-disappearances occurred within the framework of the repressive escalation against the Unifying Action Groups (GAU) and related organizations such as the PST.

Starting in December 1977, the repression of these groups was coordinated by the Argentine Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) and the Naval Fusiliers of Uruguay (FUSNA), with the then head of the S2 of the FUSNA, a ship captain, playing an important role. Jorge Tróccoli.

The Uruguayan-Argentine repressive coordination had other ramifications in which the Defense Information Service (SID) stood out, in which personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police participated.



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The complaints of Germán Araújo

On July 2, 1985, the then Senator José Germán Araújo presented a report in Parliament in which he cites several testimonies that denounce the direct participation of Jorge Guldenzoph in detentions, torture and rape. Among these statements are those of Gonzalo Carámbula, representative of the Broad Front in the National Programmatic Concertation (deceased), Ofelia Fernández and Alberto Grille.

« When I was arrested I was having lunch at a downtown barbecue, at the counter, in March 1976. Two agents dressed in private clothes showed up, asked my name and forced me to leave the little that was left of a steak with fries. Minutes later, in the Intelligence and Liaison offices (Department 5), under the command of Commissioner Benítez, they tried, without success, for him to eat what he had just vomited, that interrupted lunch .

« I was hanging, naked, held with ropes from the wrists wrapped in rags to avoid future traces [...] About four or five people participated in the session judging by the voices and the manipulation of the board. Perhaps surprisingly, I commented that it was not as dramatic for me to swallow water until I thought about dying, as when they took my head out but did not let me breathe immediately, pressing on the hood.

[…] There is little I remember from the days immediately following. Some scenes like when I was on a floor, face down, and they gave me an injection. I remember that I screamed, or I thought I screamed, that I wouldn't sing and that I wouldn't sing with pentothal either and they told me that it was a painkiller. […] I was also able to confirm the presence throughout that period of Jorge Guldenzoph, from the Moon Sect, whom I also knew before. I particularly remember that he argued with other officers and insisted on the need to provide secondary school youth with an ideology, that it was not enough to persecute the communists. According to later information that I was able to obtain, this person who I believe was the one who corroborated my identity from the sidewalk, as I said at the beginning, participated in the Congress held by the Moon Sect last March 1984 .

. . .

A sinister character, very interesting.

Press entrepreneur and preacher of the Moon Sect, he has moved in diplomatic spheres. Without scruples, as a reverend he has spoken in religious settings about the importance of family values ​​and the place of education in society.

More:
https://elmuertoquehabla.blogspot.com/2018/12/torturador-guldenzoph-impune-ubicado.html

If you'd like to read more of the personal experiences of other victims at the hand of this typical fascist torturer officer, you may want to put the link to the article in google translation:

https://elmuertoquehabla.blogspot.com/2018/12/torturador-guldenzoph-impune-ubicado.html

(He's only one of a very great number of sadistic right-wing Latin American Washington-friendly psychopaths. You should remember the U.S. military School of the Americas has taught almost all of them.)