Former Navy lieutenant Roberto Guillermo Bravo was arrested last Thursday in Miami for his involvement in the massacre of 16 political prisoners in Rawson prison, Trelew. Bravo, a citizen of the United States since 1977, is facing extradition to Argentina to face charges for the murders that took place on 22 August 1972 at the Almirance Zar Naval Base in Patagonia.
Bravo’s arrest was requested in 2008, but the US embassy refused to start proceedings until all the documents of the massacre were translated into English. The translation of over 200 documents took months. Bravo has a medical services company in the United States called RGB Group that supplies the United States military.
Bravo’s lawyer Neil Sonnett told the BBC: “”Since 1977 [Bravo] has been a U.S. citizen and is a highly respected businessman in his community. He has never violated the law. He has never committed any crime. The ‘slaughter of Trelew’ was an uprising and attempted escape of a terrorist group and he was forced to defend himself and companions. ”
His lawyer also claims that Bravo was exonerated of any wrong doing by the Argentine army in 1972. But testimonies from three survivors of the massacre, complied by the writer Francisco Urondo in interviews from a prison in Buenos Aires in 1973, state that Bravo was complicit in the murders. The three surviving prisoners disappeared during the 1976-83 dictatorship. The case was reopened in 2006 at the request of relatives of the victims and was classified as a crime against humanity.
Judge Sastre told Clarín that, “Although we are aware that there is still a long way to go until we get Bravo to Rawson, the arrest has been an important step. It is very difficult to achieve this as Bravo has been a U.S. citizen for many years.”
The secretary of human rights, Eduardo Luis Duhalde, said that the Argentine government is committed to ending the immunity that Bravo has had for nearly 38 years. The trial will take place at the beginning of April at the Teatro Verdi in Trelew. Six other former naval officers are facing charges in the case including former Captain, Luis Emilio Sosa, who is accused along with Bravo as leading the slaughter.
You might want to get your story straight about Roberto Bravo and the incident at Trelew. Mr. Bravo came to the US in 1973, 3 years before the dirty war. The incident was not a massacre, it was a life saving response by the military after a failed escape attempt by the terrorists (montoneros). Prior to their capture, they murdered a guard, and hijacked an airplane at gunpoint. Moreover, in massacres, there are no survivors, and they are not taken to hospitals, as in Trelew. The three survivors were themselves terrorists, and would have said anything to condemn the military, out of spite for their failed attempt. Mr. Bravo was totally acquitted of any charges and given amnesty (since he acted in self defense after one of the terrorists disarmed one of the guards), and trained with the US military as a representative of Argentina for years after his arrival to the US. The reason the case was reopened is that the president of Argentina, her husband, and numerous high level officials are former montoneros, and only came to power after the argentine government collapsed a decade ago, all facts that can be easily confirmed. Look up montoneros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montonero) to see how many innocent people they murdered, and how vicious these people were. When a murderous group of terrorists in custody take the firearm of a guard and begin an escape attempt, how much mercy do you think they would have shown to any guard or innocent civilian that got in their way, if they had not been taken down?