Tribute to Missing BCRA’s Employees During the last Military Dictatorship

The President of the BCRA, Miguel Pesce, has participated in the ceremony held to honor five BCRA’s employees who went missing during the last military dictatorship. The ceremony was organized by the BCRA Union Committee and held on the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice to imbed two plaques in the floor at the entrance of the BCRA’s building (Reconquista 266) in honor of Mercedes Camaño, Antonio Collova, Roberto Lértora, Liliana Policastro, and Daniel Sansone.

President Pesce has emphasized the importance of keeping memory alive. “This is a place of reunion with those who suffered the worst of the dictatorship,” he said, adding that “memory, truth, justice, pain, sadness, pride, and commitment convey a message to the fellow workers whom we honor today and whom we will never forget.”

Sergio Woyecheszen, BCRA Vice-President; and Betina Stein, Claudia Berger, Jorge Carrera and Arnaldo Bocco, Members of the Board, as well as the Secretary of Human Rights of Argentina, Horacio Pietragalla were also present.

Sergio Palazzo, Secretary General of the Banking Association; Andrés Castillo, Deputy Secretary, and Alejandra Estoup, Secretary General of the Banking Association’s Office in Buenos Aires; members of the BCRA Union Committee; and Marisa Munczek on behalf of Neighborhoods for Memory and Justice also participated.

The plaques were made jointly by BCRA’s employees, authorities, relatives of the persons honored, and members of Neighborhoods for Memory and Justice.

About the Relatives of Missing Employees

Paula Sansone, Liliana Policastro and Daniel Sansone’s daughter; as well as Laura and Bruno, Roberto Lértora’s daughter and grandson attended the ceremony.

“This is the place where my parents met for the first time,” Paula said, and added: “Roberto Lértora and Marta Santos also met here. In a way, I think that Laura and I are daughters of this place”. She highlighted the importance of the plaques and added: “The most important and symbolic action involved changing the employees’ files where they were recorded as having quit their jobs without notice. In many institutions, missing employees used to be deemed as having been absent from work voluntarily. On the contrary, they didn´t go to work because they had been kidnapped or had been forced to hide themselves or go into exile”.

Paula Sansone, Liliana Policastro and Daniel Sansone’s daughter; as well as The BCRA has been taking action to reverse oblivion and do justice on behalf of the missing employees, such as the 2013 declassification of the Minutes of the Presidency and the Board between 1976 and 1983, and the recording of forced disappearance in the files of five missing employees who, until then, had been blamed for quitting their jobs without notice.

About the BCRA ‘s Missing Employees

Mercedes Camaño worked in the Data Systematization Department as an IBM card puncher; Antonio Collova, in the General Services and Maintenance area; and Roberto Lértora, in the Public Relations and Press Release Department. Mercedes was 24, Antonio 27, and Roberto 24 when they were kidnapped.

Liliana Policastro worked in the Authorizations and Registration of Financial Institutions Department, and Daniel Sansone, in the Export Finance Promotion area. Liliana and Daniel got married in 1975 and had a daughter in January 1977. They were kidnapped two months later.

All five employees had a common fate: they were kidnapped and went missing between December 1976 and April 1977.

April 6, 2021.

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