Jorge Julio López (Latin American Spanish: [ˈlopes]; born 1929) is an Argentine retired bricklayer who was kidnapped during the National Reorganization Process, and disappeared again during the democratic government of Néstor Kirchner after testifying in trial against dictatorship criminal Miguel Etchecolatz.
During the first part of the National Reorganization Process, Etchecolatz was the Director of Investigations of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, head of one of the clandestine detention centres, and the right hand of former General Ramón Camps.
Lopez "disappeared just hours before he was slated to give his final testimony on the eve of the conviction of the former police investigator," on 18 September 2006, according to the story "Missing Witness Awakens Dark Past," by Marie Trigona of the Americas Program of the International Relations Center published on 12 October 2006.
The initial hypothesis, that assumed that López had suffered a traumatic shock when reliving his torture during the trial and had subsequently wandered off lost, was discarded.
[3] Government officials made repeated assurances of optimism regarding a quick reappearance, based on "substantial advances" in the investigation, though evidence of this progress has not been presented to the public.
[3] On 8 January 2007, National Deputy Nora Ginzburg proposed a law to create a special bicameral commission to keep Congress informed about the development of the investigations related to López, as well as those regarding the kidnapping and later reappearance of Luis Gerez (also a former victim of the dictatorship).