SKELETAL REMAINS OF RAMON ROBERTO PERE: A VICTIM OF A DICTATORIAL REGIME IN URUGUAY

Horacio E. Solla; Zully Dominguez

Volume : VII, Issue : III, March - 2018

SKELETAL REMAINS OF RAMON ROBERTO PERE: A VICTIM OF A DICTATORIAL REGIME IN URUGUAY

Horacio E. Solla, Zully Dominguez

Abstract :

Case studies are ideal to test at the ground new forensic anthropology techniques based in a population standard to individual skeletal remains. The increasing role anthropologists have played in forensic sciences has aided the medico–legal disciplines in a number of ways. For example, in the identification of skeletal remains and in many of these cases perpetrators linked to Human Rights have ought to court for justice. The purpose of this paper is to show osteological techniques used to analyze skeletal remains and make a positive identification of them and determine the cause of death. The skeletal remains of the victim were exhumed from a local cemetery in Montevideo City Hill, Uruguay, in September 2010, and carried to the Judicial Morgue to be analyzed by the author. Preliminary analysis indicated that the victim was about 30–year–old, white, male, and about 162 cm tall. Based on preliminary evidence that the victim might be Roberto Peré who was shot in the back in 1973 by a military weå civilian clothes at the beginning of the last Uruguayan Dictatorial Regime (1973–1984). Digital comparison was made using a victim‘s photograph and the unknown skull. This examination revealed that the skull corresponded consistently with the individual in the photographs. Dental records showed a congenital absence, which is also present in Pere’s daughter. Later, identification`s results were supported by a DNA analysis. Therefore, this case shows how forensic anthropology techniques can be successfully used in cases linked to Human Rights in Uruguay.