*Jorge E. Torlasco presides over the hearing. * July 12, 1985 ℹ️ Dr. Hipólito SOLARI YRIGOYEN was a lawyer for political prisoners during the ONGANÍA, LEVINGSTON and LANUSSE dictatorships. He was a descendant of important radical leaders (which he explains between minute 28' and 29'15”); he was a lawyer for the mythical Federación Gráfica Bonaerense and CGT de los Argentinos. He belonged to the internal line of “Renovación y Cambio” of the Unión Cívica Radical whose leader was Raúl ALFONSIN. In the 1973 elections, he was elected Senator of the Nation for the Unión Cívica Radical representing the province of Chubut. On November 21, 1973 and April 15, 1975, his life was attempted on by paramilitary groups. During the military dictatorship, the entire territory south of Bahía Blanca was under the control of the Zone 5 Command based in Bahía Blanca and headed by Major General Osvaldo René AZPITARTE. On August 17, 1976, when SOLARI YRIGOYEN was 42 years old, he was arrested at his home in Puerto Madryn by a commission of the Argentine Army led by Major Carlos Alberto BARBOTTA (phonetic). The same day, former national deputy Mario Abel AMAYA was also kidnapped, with a career similar to that of SOLARI YRIGOYEN. AMAYA had been a lawyer for political prisoners, he himself was a political prisoner in the dictatorship prior to 1973 and later a national deputy. SOLARI YRIGOYEN was held captive with Mario Abel AMAYA for the first two weeks in two different clandestine detention centers in Bahía Blanca. They were then abandoned on a road, “recaptured” by Federal Police personnel and taken to the Federal Police delegation in Viedma. After a few weeks they ended up at the 5th Army Corps Command to be transferred for a short period of time and until September 11, 1976 to Penal Unit 4 of the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service, known as “the Villa Floresta prison.” Then, together with AMAYA, he was transferred to the Rawson prison. In mid-September 1976 he saw AMAYA for the last time and learned from a local newspaper of her death, which had occurred a month later in the Villa Devoto prison. SOLARI YRIGOYEN remained in Rawson prison until May 17, 1977, when he was released. He went into exile to Venezuela at the request of Carlos Andrés PÉREZ, president of that country, whose action was decisive in his release. Indeed, the dictator VIDELA traveled to Venezuela that month, the Senate of that country did not receive him and the first issue that President PÉREZ raised was that of SOLARI YRIGOYEN. Argentina needed to buy oil from Venezuela and the main obstacle was the arrest of the former Argentine senator. This situation was what allowed the release of SOLARI YRIGOYEN. In addition to the Venezuelan President, the former senator was also interested in Amnesty International, the World Inter-Parliamentary Union, Willy BRANDT (President of the Socialist International), Edward KENNEDY, Jimmy CARTER, etc. The Argentine ambassador during 1976 and 1977 was another radical, Héctor HIDALGO SOLA, who was the victim of forced disappearance by the same dictatorial regime that he represented, two months after the release of SOLARI YRIGOYEN. To this day, HIDALGO SOLÁ remains missing. AMAYA died at the age of 41 in state custody on October 19, 1976 in Villa Devoto prison. BARBOTTA was later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed Chief of Police of Chubut Province.