Bill Berkowitz: Olga Talamante - Surviving torture

Olga Talamante: Surviving torture On March 27, 1976, sixteen months after beingarrested, tortured and imprisoned in an Argentina jail, OlgaTalamante was released. Today, she is concerned that thepublic doesn't understand the horror Bill Berkowitz WorkingForChange From: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=20545 03.23.06

Many people in the U.S. think torture is somekind of abstraction that happens "elsewhere" in the world,to "other" people, and is not conducted by governments on"our" side. But a Gilroy, California woman, Olga Talamante,knows from personal experience 30 years ago in Argentinathat torture is real, horrifying, and is often supported orcondoned by the U.S. government.

The photos and storiescoming out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison not only lifted thecurtain on the use of torture in President Bush's war onterrorism, but they reawakened memories that for Talamanteare never far from the surface.

Talamante's ordeal beganon the evening of November 11, 1974, when, after a politicalstrategy session/barbeque, she and 13 other members of thePeronist Youth group she worked with, were arrested andtaken to the police station in the center of Azul,Argentina.

Only 24 years old when she was imprisoned,Olga Talamante was a long way from the garlic fields ofGilroy, where her parents Refugio "Dona Cuca," who was bornin Lompoc, California, and Eduardo Talamante, a Mexicancitizen, had settled after emigrating from Mexicali, Mexicowhen she was eleven.

A naturalized U.S. citizen, she wasquick to learn English. She attended Gilroy public schools,and was elected sophomore class president, school Secretaryand vice president of the student body at Gilroy HighSchool, where she graduated in 1969.

Talamante went on tothe University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) where shemajored in Latin American Studies. She was active in theanti-Vietnam War movement, the budding Chicano movement, andwas involved in the struggle for justice for farmworkers:She once had the honor of introducing Cesar Chavez, the headof the United Farm Workers Union, at an event aimed atbuilding support for the UFW's boycott of Safeway stores.

After leaving UCSC, Talamante headed for Argentina. "Ihad met several Argentineans in Mexico a few years earlierwhile doing a field study in Chiapas, Mexico," Talamantetold me in a telephone interview from her Burlingame,California, office where she is the Executive Director ofthe Chicana/Latina Foundation. "After those friends returnedfrom Argentina and talked glowingly about the politicalchanges that were taking place there, I decided I would goafter I finished school. Since I was interested in pursuingLatin American studies, I thought I might take classes atBuenos Aires University," she added.

In August 1973,Talamante arrived in Argentina shortly after Hector Campora,the progressive Peronist candidate, had won the election.After eighteen years of military rule, hundreds of politicalprisoners had been released and the political landscape hadchanged dramatically.

Campora resigned the presidency andcalled for new elections, which, former president JuanPeron, having returned from exile in Spain, won handily inSeptember of 1973. His second wife, Isabel Peron, waselected vice president.

Talamante arrived in Azul, a townof nearly 50,000 people located within the state of BuenosAires, about a four hour drive south of the city. "I spentmost of my early days finding out what was going on in town,meeting people, learning to drink mate, and soaking up thevibrant political atmosphere," Talamante noted.

Within afew months of her arrival, Talamante began working in BarrioSan Francisco, one of the poorest sections on the outskirtsof Azul. "I was working with the Peronist Youth, a groupworking with poor people throughout the country."

ByNovember 1974, Peron had died and Isabel Peron, backed bythe right wing of the Peronist movement, took control of thegovernment. "There was a struggle within Peronism betweenthe left and the right," Talamante explained. "On November7, the government issued a broad set of security regulationsthat banned political meetings, labor organizing,anti-government demonstrations. It was the new martial lawand the beginning of the repressive period in Argentina,"Talamante pointed out.

Talamante's family and friends inthe U.S. learned of her arrest from friends in Argentina,and moved quickly to organize to work for her freedom. Notso coincidentally, the Olga Talamante Defense Committee(OTDC) launched its campaign to free Olga at the La PenaCultural Center in Berkeley, Ca., a cafe/meeting placefounded in the early 1970s by refugees from the regime ofChilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who with the support ofthe U.S. government, overthrew the democratically electedpresident Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973.

OnMarch 27, 1976, after being imprisoned for 16 months, OlgaTalamante was released. Although it was Gerald Ford's StateDepartment that gave the final orders to Argentineauthorities to release Talamante, her freedom came as aresult of an unusual campaign galvanized by the support oflabor unions, religious organizations, political groups, andthousands of individuals from the Bay Area and across thecountry.

Torture never recedes from the memory of thetortured. In the week before the thirtieth anniversary ofher release from prison, I spoke to Olga Talamante about howher memories of being tortured had been reawakened by thecurrent debates over the use of torture as a weapon inPresident George W. Bush's "war on terrorism."

BillBerkowitz: You were arrested in Argentina in 1974. Canyou describe what happened to you?

OlgaTalamante: The federal officials that interrogated meput a burlap bag over my head. It felt rough and scratchyagainst my cheek. It smelled earthy, yet it was deceptivelycomforting. My eyes were already heavily bandaged, so itdidn't serve the purpose of preventing me from seeing. Itwas obviously meant to frighten me. And I was frightened.

I knew that I had entered another dimension, where one'sidentity was lost and another found: A dimension where aslight turn of the head would bring about yet anotherbarrage of insults and a pummeling of my bones.

I washuddled in a corner with my hands tied behind my back and myfeet were tied together; the air was knocked out of me frombeing karate-chopped.

They took me into another roomwhere there were several other people. I heard several men'svoices. They untied my hands and feet and ordered me to takemy clothes off. I hesitated, but they made it clear thatthere was no choice to make. Some hands sat me down on abed. They pushed me down on the bed and spread my arms andlegs, which were then tied to the posts of the bed,spread-eagle fashion.

Then the electric shocks began.They knew to attack some of the most sensitive areas of thebody. When the electric current was applied, I could onlyscream.

The terror came after the electric shock. Theyare going to do it again, I thought. A pillow was put overmy head to muffle my scream. I panicked. I must be able tobreathe and scream in order to survive, I thought. I must beable to breathe. After about the third time that theelectric current was applied, I figured what I thought was abrilliant maneuver. I waited until the pillow was put on myhead, then right before the hands holding it pushed downhard on it, I turned my head sideways and was so relieved tobe able to take in a breath. I just had to be really alertso I could move my head back in upright position before thepillow was pulled up. It was a project, and it helped mefocus. I knew that was the only way I could survive."

Bill Berkowitz: What were the charges against you?Was there ever a hearing or a trial?

OlgaTalamante: We were arrested for violating the martiallaw imposed in November of 1974. Although there was a judgeassigned to the case, there was never a trial to speak of.The court eventually convicted us of violating the martiallaw and sentenced us to three years.

BillBerkowitz: How does your experience being tortured in anArgentina prison help us understand the "war on terror"where imprisonments without trial, ghost prisoners,kidnappings, and renditions are everyday fare?

OlgaTalamante: My main concern is that the methodology oftorture is far removed from democracy and human rights,concepts that most citizens of the U.S. hold dear. It isappalling to think that the U.S. government would think thattorture was a legitimate weapon to use in the struggleagainst terrorism.

Bill Berkowitz: Since mostpeople have never been tortured, it tends to be an abstractconcept, or a subject for debate. When people read aboutprisoners being tortured, what should they really bethinking about?

Olga Talamante: Torture is themost degrading, humiliating, and painful treatment that anyhuman being can undergo. That is because you have nocontrol, you have no rights, and you have no way ofdefending yourself. When I saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib,and read about how the prisoners were treated how theinterrogators taunted and humiliated them sexually andpsychologically I felt myself transported back to thetorture rooms at the police station in Azul.

Theinterrogators taunted, insulted and humiliated me as theyapplied electric shock to my body. Trying to get me to givethem the names and addresses of other political activistsand force me into admitting to activities that I had notbeen involved with.

The searing pain from high voltageelectric shocks being applied to your body is hard todescribe. There is absolutely nothing you can do; it doesn'tmatter what you know or don't know, or what you say or don'tsay. They hold complete control over your life and they makeyou feel like there is nothing that can protect you in thatmoment.

Bill Berkowitz: How do the events of 9/11figure into the current debate over torture? Is torturejustified under any circumstance?

Olga Talamante:The events of 9/11 the attacks and the horrendous loss oflife has led the Bush Administration to a strategy thatallows for just about any egregious act to be acceptable inthe name of the war against terrorism. People have been ledto believe that interrogation methods that include tortureare necessary in order to prevent future attacks. In fact,these methods mostly prove to be ineffective and, are oftencounter-productive. How many of those people that weretortured, especially victims of indiscriminate or wrongfularrests, leave prison as friends of the U.S.?

There areinternational standards related to how prisoners should betreated. Torture, under any circumstances, violates thosestandards. However, some may argue that if it is suspectedthat a prisoner has critical information that if known couldprevent a major terrorist incident, torturing them isjustified. Most human rights activists and people who havestudied torture will tell you that even from a practicalstandpoint torture yields very little in the way of accurateinformation.

Bill Berkowitz: Now, thirty yearsafter being tortured, what impact did it have on your life?

Olga Talamante: My experience reaffirmed my beliefthat we must continue to fight for human rights, for socialjustice, for political institutions where torture is foreverbanned. It reaffirmed my belief that solidarity with oneanother on an individual and collective basis is thefoundation of the best of our humanity.

I think that Isurvived being tortured because even though I wasdesperately alone in that room, ultimately, I was not alone.Above all, I was with my family; I was with the people thatI had been working with in Argentina; I was with thefarmworkers that I worked with in California. As strange asthis might sound, all those people that helped shape myideals and my beliefs, helped me through those dark days andnights in Azul.

Bill Berkowitz: Is the current useof torture an aberration, or is this a dirty little secretthat has consistently run through U.S foreign policy?

Olga Talamante: Unfortunately, it has been part ofU.S foreign policy to train, arm and aid police andparamilitary forces throughout the world, especially inLatin America. Although these activities have gone on,particularly at The School of the Americas, torture has notbeen an official U.S. policy. Nor has it been a method thathas been acceptable to the U.S. public.

When I returnedfrom Argentina and told my story, I found that the averageperson was horrified and appalled to learn about what hadhappened to me. To most people, torture was something thatfascistic leaders and military dictators did to their peopleto quell dissent.

Most people didn't believe that the U.Sgovernment would ever resort to such tactics. These days,however, the administration's constant fear mongering hasrendered it acceptable to debate the appropriateness andviability of torture. In that sense, we have taken a giantstep backward as a people.

Bill Berkowitz: Whatare you doing these days?

Olga Talamante: I'm theexecutive director of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, aBurlingame, California-based organization that is committedto helping Latina students graduate college through ourscholarship, mentoring, leadership training and advocacyprograms. Education is the path to self-awareness,empowerment and knowledge, which are essential for thesestudents be able to improve not only their selves, but theircommunities as well.

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For more please see the Bill Berkowitz archive. BillBerkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservativemovement. His WorkingForChange column Conservative Watchdocuments the strategies, players, institutions, victoriesand defeats of the American Right.

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