The remains of Carlos Rafael Medina, a victim of Argentina’s last dictatorship who was kidnapped in 1976, were identified last week after being recovered from the Pozo de Vargas (Vargas’ Pit) mass grave in Tucumán province, in northwestern Argentina. The pit is the country’s largest clandestine burial site.
The analysis and genetic identification were carried out by the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology (EAAF, by its Spanish acronym) in Buenos Aires and announced on Friday.
The remains had been recovered by a group of archaeologists from Tucumán known as the Archaeology, Memory and Identity Collective of Tucumán (CAMIT, in Spanish).
The two organizations have been carrying out an excavation, recovery and analysis project in the Pozo de Vargas for more than two decades. During that time, they have recovered the remains of 149 individuals. Of those, 122 have now been identified, including Medina.
Last week, Tucumán Judge Guillermo Díaz Martínez informed Medina’s family of the discovery. Medina is survived by his two siblings, Silvia and Jorge, who attended a hearing with the judge alongside Silvia’s husband, son and two grandchildren.
The remains will be returned to the family, and a ceremony will be held, although no further details have been released. The remains of dictatorship victims are typically returned to their families after identification so they can be buried or cremated.
The previous victim identified at Pozo de Vargas was Aida Villegas, in May 2025. At the time, her family, friends and community held a memorial service to pay their respects and say their final goodbyes.
Who was the victim?
Carlos Rafael Medina was a student at the National University of Tucumán who lived in San Miguel de Tucumán, the provincial capital. He was 20 when he was kidnapped in the early hours of April 15, 1976, less than two months after the March 24 coup in which the military seized power in Argentina.
That day, armed officers broke into Medina’s home, searched it and took him away. His mother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew witnessed the kidnapping.
Some of Medina’s school friends were also kidnapped around the same time, “and were also recently identified by the EAAF in the Pozo de Vargas,” the organization said in a statement announcing the discovery.
The EAAF highlighted that Medina’s identification was made possible by his siblings, who provided genetic samples that were compared with those of the victim.
The identification of the remains allowed the family to put an end to the uncertainty they suffered for more than 50 years, while Carlos Rafael remained disappeared.
Largest mass grave
The Pozo de Vargas is located in Tafí Viejo, a small town on the outskirts of San Miguel de Tucumán. It is three meters wide and 40 meters deep. Built in the 19th century, it originally supplied water for steam trains before falling into disuse.
In 1975, during the government of María Estela Martínez de Perón, the military launched Operation Independence to eliminate guerrilla groups that had reportedly established themselves in rural areas of Tucumán.
The military repurposed the pit as a mass grave. Some of the victims were already dead, while others were thrown in alive and then shot.
After the 1976 coup, the military continued using the pit to dispose of bodies. About a year later, it was filled in and covered with dirt.
The pit remained hidden for nearly three decades, until CAMIT located it in 2002 after years of research, making it possible to begin uncovering the crimes committed there.
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La entrada EAAF identifies dictatorship victim buried in Tucumán mass grave se publicó primero en Buenos Aires Herald.