25 de junio de 2013, 16:30By Martin Hacthoun
Buenos Aires, June 25 (Prensa Latina) The remains of Cuban diplomat Jesús Cejas Arias, who was kidnapped and assassinated in 1976 under Operation Cóndor during the last military regime in Argentina, were handed over today to the Cuban Embassy.
After a rigorous process of identification and forensic studies, and formalities required in the Argentinian Foreign Ministry and the morgue, Ambassador Jorge Lamadrid and Cuban historian and investigator in charge of the case, Jose Luis Mendez, brought the remains to the Cuban Embassy in Belgrano neighborhood, in Buenos Aires.
In a modest solemn ceremony with diplomatic personnel standing at both sides of the main corridor of the embassyâ€Ã–s lobby, Lamadrid said that "Jesus Cejas is finally on Cuban soil 36 years and 11 months after he disappeared."
"His find has a great significance to Cuba, to the family and the very cause of human rights in Argentina, as this is an investigation started over 20 years ago, which ended today with the handing over of remains," stressed historian Mendez.
Cejas Arias was kidnapped on August 9, 1976, in Belgrano neighbourhood, along with his comrade Crescencio Galanena, and they were both held and tortured in the clandestine detention center Automotores Orletti.
His body, as in the case of Galanena, was hidden in a 200-liter metal tank filled with cement and caustic lime, a common practice to make opponents killed disappear.
Automotores Orletti is considered the headquarters of Plan Condor in Argentina, Mendez recalled.
Plan Condor was a sinister CIA operation with the military juntas of the time in the South Cone (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela to kill their opponents, including artists, intellectuals, guerrillas, left-wing politicians, students, historians and trade union leaders.
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