The return of the Skyvan PA-51 is a memory of what happened on December 14, 1977, when three of the four founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo –Azucena Villaflor, Esther Ballestrino de Careaga and María Eugenia Ponce de Bianco– were launched live to the sea from this military plane.
Along with them, the French nuns Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet were murdered, along with seven other people, known as the Santa Cruz twelve. Almost 46 years later, the aircraft has flown for the last time to Argentina to restore the memory of the victims of the death flights during the PRN (National Reorganization Party) dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
Mabel Careaga, daughter of Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, one of the victims of the flight, explains to La Vanguardia that the process of repatriating the plane from which her mother was thrown has been difficult. “I think two things: personally, it was very hard, it is inevitable to see the plane and remember what happened. There my mother was alive, and the other victims. But, collectively, it is very important to reconstruct the history of the disappeared from the moment they were kidnapped. Finding the plane was an important piece,” she comments.
Like the other relatives of the twelve victims, the daughters of the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo think that the repatriated plane should be exposed in the detention center used by the PRN to preserve the memory of what was experienced in the dictatorship. The Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos center, the museum in charge of exhibiting the plane, is located in the former Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA), the place where the largest clandestine detention center operated during the military dictatorship. ESMA claimed hundreds of victims, being a space recognized for the torture and death of thousands of Argentines.
According to Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos, they are discussing how to present the aircraft to the public. For now, the museum dedicated to the victims of the dictatorship has no plans on how to exhibit the Skyvan PA-51. According to this institution, exposing the plane could be very emotional for the relatives of those affected, to remember the last place where the deceased were alive.
Careaga explains that the process of finding the plane and convicting those responsible took more than ten years and began thanks to the relatives of the victims, who waited until 2020 to bring the aircraft back to Argentina. A file was drafted with the support of the State to be able to rescue the Skyvan PA-51, which was in the United States. Regarding the investigations of the survivors, originally five planes were used for the death flights, two were disarmed and the rest were sold. After locating the model of the plane and its travel trajectory, it was confirmed that it was the aircraft from which the twelve from Santa Cruz were thrown into the sea, and probably other opponents.
The covid pandemic affected the operation for the repatriation of the Skyvan PA-51. Finally, in November 2022, the Ministry of Economy was able to buy the plane and began to manage its last flight to Argentina.
Careaga recalls that the disappearance and murder of his loved ones by the regime is part of his biography and that of thousands of Argentines, and that the search for and repatriation of the aircraft has reconstructed the memory of his relatives and what happened during the dictatorship. .
Those in charge of the project have been able to detail what the victims lived through that December 1977, from their kidnapping until their death, and that the fight for this plane to return “has a lot to do with the fight for justice and remembering our disappeared in their life and in their struggle, and not remain in the horror of what happened to them. We have rescued the memory of their lives”, explains Careaga.
According to the survivors and human rights organizations, work will begin to “be able to present the plane in the best possible way”, with the aim of making it a reality in 2024.
