1. Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz was an Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship of the 1970s, known as the National Reorganization Process, which Etchecolatz was deeply involved in.
Miguel Etchecolatz was first convicted of crimes committed during this period in 1986; the full stop law, which passed that year and created amnesty for security officers, meant that he was released without a sentence.
In 2004, Etchecolatz was one of the first two officials convicted and sentenced for child abduction: taking a child from "disappeared" parents, passing it on for adoption by officials of the regime, and hiding the child's true identity.
Miguel Etchecolatz was deemed responsible of the "Night of the Pencils", where 10 high-school students were abducted by security forces in the city of La Plata near Buenos Aires in September 1976.
The tribunal in passing the sentence said that Miguel Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina".
Miguel Etchecolatz served as Commissioner General of Police, directly reporting to Police Chief Ramon Camps.
Miguel Etchecolatz served as Director of Investigations of the Buenos Aires provincial police from March 1976 until late 1977.
Miguel Etchecolatz was second in command during the "Night of the Pencils", when several high school students were detained and tortured, and some murdered.
Miguel Etchecolatz was spared a prison sentence because that year Congress passed the "Full Stop Law" and the "Law of Due Obedience", which halted prosecution of officers for crimes committed during the Dirty War.
Miguel Etchecolatz faced civil trials, which were outside the purview of the Pardon Laws.
Miguel Etchecolatz was imprisoned in Villa Devoto in 2004 and 2005.
Miguel Etchecolatz was later allowed to continue the sentence under house arrest due to his advanced age.
Miguel Etchecolatz was the first official of that era to be prosecuted.
In passing sentence, the tribunal said that Miguel Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina".
Together with Police Chief Ramon Camps, Miguel Etchecolatz is believed to have operated at least eight clandestine detention centres in La Plata, Quilmes, Banfield, and Martinez.
Miguel Etchecolatz criticized the procedures of the trial as biased and the judges as obedient to other powers.
Miguel Etchecolatz was seen for the last time on 17 September 2006.