ARGENTINA: SECOND WITNESS DISAPPEARS AS OLD RIGHTS CASES TRIED.

by Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 28, 2006 (IPS/GIN) -- The news that another witness in a human rights case has gone missing in Argentina -- the second in three months -- shook the country Thursday.

Luis Gerez, a 50-year-old construction worker and torture survivor, had testified against a former assistant police chief accused of torturing detainees during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Gerez went shopping Wednesday night near his house in Escobar, a town near Buenos Aires, and has not been seen or heard from since.

Reports that he had gone missing have alarmed the national and provincial governments, and human rights groups.

President Nstor Kirchner, who had been planning a holiday break in his home province in southern Argentina, Santa Cruz, returned to the seat of government to meet with Interior Minister Anibal Fern ndez, the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Felipe Sol , and other officials.

The president of the Mothers …