Night of the Pencils

The Night of the Pencils (in Spanish: Noche de los Lápices), was a series of kidnappings and forced disappearances, followed by the torture, rape, and murder of 10 high-school students that began on the evening of 16 September 1976 and continued into the next day, during Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship.

The military junta then implemented what was called the National Reorganization Process which was a set of policies used by the regime to destroy left-wing guerrilla forces and oppress resistance to its rule.

Meanwhile, the Montoneros, a leftist guerilla group, responded violently to the junta and its actions as they enlisted other Argentines to join their campaign against the regime.

The victims were largely from the Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios (Union of High School Students) of La Plata.

[2] At a 2006 event to mark the 30th anniversary, Emilce Molder, who was held and tortured for 2 years said that: "The ticket had been a motive of course to organize ourselves, but it happened in '75.

[7] Colonel Ramón Camps, head of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police, and Director of Investigations Miguel Etchecolatz were tasked with eliminating the UES.

On 16 and 17 September 1976, masked men raided homes under cover of darkness, taking students away to clandestine detention centres in what became known as the "Night of the Pencils".

At some point in late September, a large group of detainees which included the students was herded into two police vans.

I was just a fragile small girl of about 1.5 m and weighed about 47 kg, and I was beaten senseless by what I judged was a huge man"[8] and "after about a week at our first detention centre, we were all taken to another place in a truck.

"[10] On 28 December 1976, an Army Major told Díaz he would become a legal prisoner and was transferred to the Pozo de Quilmes, where he joined Moler, Calotti and Miranda.

[9] The kidnapped students were: In September 2011 nearly two dozen junta officials were charged with crimes against humanity for their roles in the Night of the Pencils.