About thirty years after the end of the military government, the laws known as
Due Obedience and
Full Stop, which blocked investigations of crimes committed by members of the military and the police during the dictatorship, were repealed.
Miguel Etchecolatz was the first defendant in a Dirty War-related trial. During the first part of the National Reorganization Process, Etchecolatz was the Director of Investigations of the
Buenos Aires Provincial Police, head of one of the clandestine detention centres, and the right hand of former General
Ramón Camps. López was a key witness in his trial. His testimony involved 62 military and policemen, and thanks in part to this, Etchecolatz was sentenced to life imprisonment. Lopez "disappeared just hours before he was slated to give his final testimony on the eve of the conviction of the former police investigator," on 18 September 2006, according to the story "Missing Witness Awakens Dark Past," by Marie Trigona of the Americas Program of the
International Relations Center published on 12 October 2006. He was last seen at his home in the city of
La Plata, 40 km. south of
Buenos Aires. The initial hypothesis, that assumed that López had suffered a traumatic shock when reliving his torture during the trial and had subsequently wandered off lost, was discarded. Another hypothesis, that he had gone voluntarily into hiding fearing retribution for his statement against Etchecolatz, was discredited as well. ==Investigation and criticism==