Ford's dark history in Argentina

Hello my fellow CTzens. Today, i want to tell you the story about Ford Motor Company, and their involvement with the 1976 Dictartorship of Argentina, with reason that today commemorated the beginning of this dark time in Argentina, and remembering all the 30000 people that were
disappeared from 1976 till 1983.

The infamous "Green Falcons"

From 1976, the Ford Falcon abandoned the familiar air, a car used by most of tipical argentinean families and taxi drivers, and the de-facto goverment ordened buy several of these Falcons. Of green color, in general, it was the favorite car of the dictatorship to kidnap. But those “irons” (Iron, in spanish is “Fierro”, a therm to describe a very
trustworthy car), which in the early morning carried handcuffed bodies, hooded or blindfolded in trunks or between seats, were quickly worn down by the intensity of the hunting of citizens between 1976 and 1977. At the end of That year, the Interior Minister, General Albano Harguindeguy, made the direct purchase of 90 “unidentifiable” Falcons to re-equip the provincial police. These new 90 units, should be distributed for procedures that mask the participation of the State with license plates that would correspond, if identified, not to a state agency. The 90 Falcons went to: Catamarca, 10 units; Corrientes, 10 units; Chaco, 5 units; Chubut, 8 units; Entre Rios, 5 units; Formosa, 6 units; Neuquén, 3 units; Río Negro, 6 units; Salta, 5 units; San Juan, 5 units; San Luis, 5 units; Santa Cruz, 8 units; Santa Fe, 10 units; Tierra del Fuego, 4 units.

Employees kidnapped

A sign that says that in the Ford production plant they kidnapped and tortured the workers during the first months of the last military dictatorship. In General Pacheco, the former delegates of that company who were illegally arrested and survived the torture and disappearance erected the sign that points to the plant as the clandestine detention and torture camp for which 25 workers of that company passed between March and March. April 1976.
The three delegates highlighted the high level of militarization of the company. “Armed troops arrived, with tanks, and there were even helicopters, “explained a former employee, who described, from an anecdote, the relationship of the company with the Army: “On April 13, 1976 I went to sign the card . When I arrived at my job, my foreman told me ‘do not move from here they are watching you.’ The delegate came out and I said ‘Who is watching me?’, And I left the sector to see if they were following me. At 9 in the morning a truck came in with 10 or 12 soldiers with machine guns that advanced to my sector. Who told them I was there? “Three more workers, one of whom was Propato, were kidnapped that day at the plant and transported in trucks that Troiani identified as “from the company” to a fenced area located in the sports area. That day, the four were tortured for ten hours and then transferred to the Tigre police station.
For the delegates, the conquests obtained in the last years before the dictatorship explain their kidnapping. The six-hour day for workers who handled tin; the plus 100 hours that were paid to them in the vacations; the 1975 labor agreement - “the best in the country”, according to the delegates; the fight with the union of mechanics (Smata) so that the one percent of the price of each car granted to an extraordinary fund “for the eradication of negative elements” was directed to the social work; the resistance to increase production from 230 to 250 units without adding more personnel to the assembly line; dining room. These guild policies are those that, according to another delegate, were repressed by the company through the Armed Forces. According to the delegates, the measure was effective: after the disappearance of those 25 workers, the union conflicts were drastically reduced and the production line went up from 230 to 300 units, with a thousand fewer workers.

Conclusion
It was a difficult time for the country, where no one was free to think, and if you did, the military took you and made you “disappear” and unfortunately, Ford was an accomplice of this, and it is a mark that will never be erased.

I hope you like my little history. Thank you for reading. Have a nice day!