“It wasn’t one or two cases, or one or two officers involved, but many, thus there was a pattern, a plan” to take away those babies from their biological families which they considered “non trustworthy or communists”, said Elliott Abrams former US Assistant Secretary of State.
He added that during his post as Under Secretary for Human Rights issues, from 1982 to 1985, he “does not recall any case” of systematic stealing of political prisoners babies in any part of the world as the one implemented by the Argentine military.
“It was the worst of all cases” among all dictatorships and military regimes in those years both in Latin America and in Asia said the former Reagan administration officer who added that it was his task “to advance the human rights issue in those countries”.
Abrams made the statements on a video conference from Washington as a witness in a case in a federal court in Buenos Aires. He also revealed that in talks with then Argentine ambassador Lucio García del Solar he suggested that “the Church could help to solve the matter”.
The issue was “very difficult to address not only for the military but for any future democratic government” said Abrams who described Garcia del Solar “not as a representative from the dictatorship but rather as a member of the future civilian government and deeply democratic”.
The issue was considered in a private meeting 3 December 1982 to certify “the advance of Argentina in human rights issues” and the babies immediately cropped up since it was “the most important human rights problem in Argentina” and “we were talking of live children” and not the disappeared which the State Department considered dead.
Abrams between 1985 and 1989 declared he was Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American affairs during the Reagan administrations. Currently he is an advisor on Middle East issues.