Excavations of former Uruguayan detention center Battalion 13 have restarted after a two year pause. The search for human remains, which recommenced in early September, had been put on hold due to damage sustained to a high-voltage cable.
The Army’s Thirteenth Infantry Battalion was one of several clandestine detention and torture centers which existed during the civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay. During the dictatorship, which ruled from 1973 until 1985, thousands of Uruguayans were tortured and 197 were forcibly disappeared, according to the group “Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared Uruguayan Detainees” (Famidesa).
Many of these disappearances were part of Operation Condor: a joint effort by several South American dictatorships to track down and eradicate political “enemies,” particularly those who belonged to guerrilla movements, left-wing groups, trade unions, and religious organizations.
Today, the search for the remains of over 160 Uruguayans continues.
It was originally an anonymous tip-off from an ex-soldier which pointed the authorities in the direction of Battalion 13 as a potential burial site.
Earlier this year, Alba González, a member of Famidesa, criticized the “bureaucracy” of the two-year suspension of the excavations at the site. According to Montevideo Portal, she argued, “State actors continue to avoid their responsibility and delay this process. Meanwhile, anthropologists are waiting to resume their work,” and claimed that Uruguay “is in a constant field of dispute over the truth.”
Prior to the damage to the cable, two sets of human remains had already been discovered at Battalion 13: those of Fernando Miranda and Eduardo Bleier.
There is evidence to suggest that the remains of other disappeared detainees could be found on the same premises, including those of Argentine national María Claudia García de Gelmán, who was detained while pregnant in Buenos Aires and forcibly taken to Montevideo.
Anthropologist Alicia Lusiardo said at a press conference that it will take the team of anthropologists between a month and a half and two months to complete the excavations of the site, which will cover 8,000 square meters of land.
On Tuesday, Luis Eduardo Arigón Castel was identified as the missing detainee whose remains were found in July at another former clandestine detention center, Battalion 14.
According to Famidesa, Arigón Castel was 51, married, and had two daughters when he was abducted from his home, detained for a third time, tortured, and subsequently killed. He was the leader of the Uruguayan Federation of Employees of Trade and Industry (FUECI) and an active member of the Communist Party of Uruguay.