Page 12 - Argentina - Carter, Regan, and Bush VP

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job was to'see that the prisoners did not speak, did not take
off their hoods, and those who did so, he could beat at will
until he knocked them out. He and - the others were taught
karate and self defense. They were made to read books like
Paplllon and to hate the. prisoners, about whom the only thing
they knew was that they "are enemies of the country, who want
to destroy It, by destroying the army”. They were kids 15 to
20 years old. Sometimes they were called kids, but usually
they were called by their first names.' At night they were
given bottles of wine, and then ttyey became very violent. This
guard told me that some of them were taken oh raids, and
sometimes they were given special commendation or merit
awards. They were very proud of that. For example, he told me
that the previous day he has been assigned to go to a house
that someone had denounced. It answered the description, and
when the owners tried to escape, they had to shoot them: a
young woman with a child two or three years old. Later they
learned that the people were not. involved. He had felt bad
about that, but the persons Who denounced Innocent people were
to blame. He took me to my place again, and there I continued
to spy. I could see that It was a large "L" shaped room. It
was of make-shift construction on the terrace of the building,
since the outer walls were only one meter high. A peaked roof
came down to there. Its highest part was in the middle of the
room, which is where the guards go. In the angle of the. "L"
there is a large table where they eat and a medicine chest and
a small file. We, were on both sides In sort of pressed board
cubicles about 1 meter high. The cubicles where I was were
make-shift so I was able to move them carefully. The rectangle
was made up of four separate "L" shaped parts. I think that
this detail is very important because of what I am going to
tell further on. That day I realised that they brought someone
to the cubicle oh my left, and I heard him barely complain, as
though he were very 111. I thought It was my husband. So I
moved over, displaced one of the walls and changed position (we
were lying on the floor on a mattress ahd a blanket. That is
all we had). I managed to see my husband, shirtless, with
marks everywhere from the cattle prod. I realized that he had
no more than two centimeters In a row of unmarked skin. He
breathes heavily and asks for "water, water", but his voice is
very weak and It is hard for him to move his tongue so the
words do not come out. A guard came, and told him not to
bother them, that they could not give him water because if they
did he would die. They sat us down and gave us a sandwich and
a small bottle of water and a cup of broth. I hid the small
bottle and, when they caqe back to take It away, they did not
realize it was missing. Then, carefully watching out for the