Argentina puts officials on trial over the abuses of the 'Dirty War'

[Judi Lynn]

Argentina puts officials on trial over the abuses of the Dirty War'
By Juan Forero
Washington post foreign service
Monday, December 28, 2009

They are old and balding now, the 15 defendants standing trial before a three-judge panel near the Argentine capital's bustling port. But prosecutors say they were once the feared henchmen of a brutal military dictatorship.

Argentina has tried military men before. But this trial, of officers and policemen who ran clandestine torture centers known as the Athletic Club, the Bank and Olimpo, is one of a string of new proceedings that by next year will close some of the most emblematic cases of alleged state terrorism under Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship.

With former generals and admirals well into their 70s and the courts emboldened to hand down severe penalties, Argentina is finally close to delivering justice for the estimated 30,000 people killed by state security services during the "Dirty War," including some who were thrown from airplanes after being tortured and sedated.

"I think and I hope this is the beginning of the end of a long process that began in 1983 with the return of democracy," said Gastón Chillier, director of the Center for Legal and Social Studies, a Buenos Aires rights group. "Next year will be especially critical."

The trials in Argentina come as other South American countries grapple with delivering justice for the victims of dictatorships and government-linked death squads.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/27/AR2009122701652.html?wprss=rss_world/southamerica

[Peace Patriot]

1. K&R! We in the U.S. should never forget who sponsored these horrors, and

should realize that similar horrors are occurring in Colombia and Honduras today, with billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars supporting it.

We pay billions for fascist leaders to exterminate dissent in their countries on behalf of U.S. global corporate predators and war profiteers, including thousands of murders of union leaders and other peaceful leftists, human rights workers, teachers, peasant farmers, journalists. And we are unable to prosecute our own war criminals.

When the State Department talks about "democracy" in Iran, or Cuba, or--a most slandered country, Venezuela--we should remember this. We have sponsored mass terror in the past and we are sponsoring mass terror now, to prevent democracy and to kill its advocates.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Only the town drunks, village idiots, and the perverse can maintain our gov't is "democratic."

Right-wingers sidestep acknowledging the tragic path "we've" taken by claiming this is actually a "republic."

The same gross abuse, torture, murder of the poor, and powerless continues in all the old familiar forms.

[rabs]

2. Argentine justice is going after the biggest of the big fish now

Former military dictator Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla has been ordered by Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas to face an oral, public trial for hundreds of human rights violations committed under the so-called "Process of National Reorganization" during the military dictatorship that began in 1976.

Videla is accused of 30 homicides, 552 kidnappings and 264 cases of torture that took place under the jurisdiction of the 1st Army Corps.

More in Spanish from Telam

http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=172810&id=333498&dis=1&sec=1

[Judi Lynn]

4. It took 34 years to bring this monster to trial, & after he had been pardoned by Bush family friend,

Carlos Menem, former dirty president of Argentina who drove the economy into the ditch, and committed his own slimy crimes.

On the initial arrest of Videla, from 2 years ago:

Wednesday, June 10, 1998 Published at 03:36 GMT 04:36 UK
'Dirty war' arrest

A former Argentine president, General Jorge Rafael Videla, has been arrested on kidnapping charges.
It is alleged that, while he was in power, he stole children of government opponents and had them illegally adopted by members of the military.

Some of the children were born in secret torture chambers, while others were just months old when they were given to military couples for a supposed "Christian upbringing."

Their parents were among the thousands of people who were killed or disappeared during military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/110016.stm