At a meeting of members of the American Psychoanalytic Association held during the 69th Annual Meeting of the Association in San Francisco last May, the members voted to share with the component societies of the International Psycho-Analytical Association (except for the societies in South America) the text of a letter sent by the Association in October, 1978 to the President and the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Argentina. The letter was signed by Doctor Alex H. Kaplan, President of the American at the time, and read as follows:
At the Annual Meeting, on May 6, 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., the American Psychoanalytic Association, with a membership of over 2,300 psychoanalysts and psychiatrists, 33 affiliated societies and 26 institutes, expressed their concern about the health, welfare and whereabouts of a number of their Argentine professional colleagues: physicians, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and paramedics.
Specifically, this Association respectfully requests, through your high office, information concerning the following colleagues:
Dr. Claudio Bermann, a brother of Dr. Sylvia Bermann, a former president of the Argentinian Psychoanalytic Society, who has not been heard from in two years;
Mrs. Irene Torrents, a niece of Dr. Sylvia Bermann, who also has not been heard from for some time;
Dr. Blanca Tarnopolsky, a psychiatrist, and her husband, Dr. Hugh Tarnopolsky;
Dr. Hugo Francisco Bellagamba, a psychoanalyst;
Dr. Juan Carlos Rosau, a former Director of the Borda Hospital;
Dr. Nicholas Spiro, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, a member of many international organizations, who might be in the La Plata Prison; and the following psychiatrists and psychoanalysts:
L. A. Bonano; Marta Brea; Raul Fuentes; Eduardo Mario Korin; Liliana Misraji de Pasquini; Rosa Mitnik; Alberto Pargament.
This request for information about these colleagues has been approved by the Active Members of this organization, and is in strict accord with the principles of Human Rights as set forth in the Helsinki Conference and as practiced and approved by Amnesty International through its offices and membership throughout the world.