Former military intelligence captain Carlos Alberto Vega was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the abduction and appropriation of Marcos Ramos as a baby in 1977, during the last military dictatorship, in Tucumán.
Ramos is the 128th grandchild to have recovered his identity thanks to the work of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Vega was convicted as a “necessary participant” not only in the abduction, unlawful detention and concealment of Ramos, but also of his older brother, Elías Ismael Suleiman, who was eight at the time.
The sentence also covers the crimes related to altering the brothers’ legal identities.
While Ramos was stolen and raised under a false identity, Suleiman — his half brother on their mother’s side — managed to escape and reunite with his father’s family.
Several other people were accused in the investigation, but Vega was the only one alive when the trial took place.
According to the judiciary, he played a key role in altering Ramos’ legal identity and handing him over to the military family that raised him, with whom Vega maintained a good relationship.
He also participated in an attempt to give Suleiman a false identity through forged documentation.
Vega will remain under house arrest with an ankle monitor. The court also ordered asset reparations for the brothers and guaranteed that they will continue to receive psychological assistance.
“I don’t have anything to do with this case. I was in Buenos Aires at the time,” Vega said during the hearing before the sentence was read. “I don’t know the people you are referring to. I am innocent,” he told the judges.
The case
Marcos Ramos was born to political militants Rosario del Carmen Ramos and Pastor Dante Campos in June 1976. His mother had two other children from a previous relationship: Elías Ismael and Camilo Suleiman.
Rosario had been detained on previous occasions before disappearing for good in November 1976. Shortly afterward, Marcos — who was five months old — and Elías Ismael were taken from the home of a family caring for them during a military operation.
Caretaker Hugo Castro and his 12-year-old son, Juan Carlos, were also kidnapped. While the boy was later released, Castro disappeared, and his remains were discovered decades later in the mass grave known as Pozo de Vargas.
Marcos and Elías Ismael were forcibly transferred to a house in Tafí Viejo, where other children were also being held. They were separated despite the older brother’s pleas and never saw each other again.
Elías Ismael was moved to another residence in Tucumán. His captors changed his name and created forged documentation. However, after several escape attempts, he managed to leave the property, contact a paternal uncle and eventually reunite with his family.
Marcos, meanwhile, was handed over to the late civilian intelligence agent Víctor Lucio Sánchez, who, according to the investigation, obtained the position thanks to Vega’s “ideological and moral support.”
Vega was also accused of carrying out intelligence and counterintelligence duties as part of the operations of a clandestine detention center in Tucumán, where the boys’ mother, Rosario, as well as the man caring for the children and his son, were presumably held captive.
Marcos was registered as the biological son of Sánchez and his wife, Ilda, under the name Marcelo Ariel Sánchez.
“What I went through in that house was hell,” Marcos said while testifying at the trial earlier this year, recalling that he was often accused of stealing in his own home. “My life has changed now. I had never felt loved before.”
True origins
While Elías Ismael had formally reported his brother’s disappearance in 1999, information about his whereabouts only emerged in 2018, following an anonymous tip made in 2013.
After undergoing a genetic test, Marcos discovered his true origins, confirming he was the son of Rosario del Carmen Ramos. Until then, he had not known that he had been stolen as a baby.
In June 2026, Marcos received confirmation that his father was Pastor Dante Campos, a man with whom his mother had shared a brief relationship. A genetic test showed 99.9% compatibility with Ilda del Valle Campos, Pastor Campos’ sister.
Pastor Campos was also kidnapped during the dictatorship and remains disappeared.
Cover photo credit: Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo
