Ex-Argentine dictator leaves house arrest for military prison

[Judi Lynn]

Saturday, October 11, 2008
Ex-Argentine dictator leaves house arrest for military prison

Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was taken to a military prison Friday, after a federal judge revoked the benefit of house arrest that he had enjoyed for 10 years.
Court sources said that Videla, 83, was taken to the Campo de Mayo military prison near Buenos Aires, in line with a decision by federal judge Norberto Oyarbide.

Videla was charged with kidnapping the children of political opponents and leftists, and putting them up for adoption. The children disappeared during his dictatorship from 1976-1983. According to human rights organizations, the military regime caused the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people - most have never been traced.

Argentine law grants the benefit of house arrest to people over 70. But judge Oyarbide said that the military jail at Campo de Mayo "has the equipment, infrastructure and personnel required" to handle any medical emergencies that the elderly Videla might have.

http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=14830&formato=HTML



Biography
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo (born August 21, 1925 in Mercedes, Buenos Aires) was the de facto President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón. After the return to democracy, he was prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses, including widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of suspected and actual leftists under his rule. He is now under house arrest.

The coup

Brigade General Jorge Videla was named Commander-in-Chief by President Isabel Perón in 1974. Perón, former Vice-President to her husband Juan Perón, had come to the presidency following his death. Her authoritarian administration was unpopular and ineffectual. Videla headed a military coup which deposed her on 24 March 1976. A military junta was formed, made up of himself, representing the Army, Admiral Emilio Massera representing the Navy, and Brigadier General Orlando Ramón Agosti representing the Air Force. Two days after the coup, Videla formally assumed the post of President of Argentina.

Human rights violations

The military junta took power during a period of extreme instability, with terrorist attacks from the Marxist groups ERP and the Montoneros, who had turned underground after Juan Perón's death in July 1974, from one side and violent right-wing kidnappings, tortures, and assassinations from the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, led by José López Rega, Perón's Minister of Social Welfare, and other death squads on the other side. The members of the junta took advantage of this to justify the coup, by naming the administration "National Reorganization Process". The Argentine military government arrested, detained, tortured, and killed suspected terrorists and political opponents. As a result, human rights violations became commonplace. According to estimates, at least 8,960 and up to about 30,000 Argentinians were subject to forced disappearance (desaparecidos) and most probably killed; many were illegally detained and tortured, and others went into exile. Politically, all legislative power was concentrated in the hands of Videla's nine-man junta, and every single important position in the national government was filled with loyal military officers. The junta banned labor unions and strikes, abolished the judiciary, and effectively suspended most civil liberties. Despite the abuses, Videla's regime received support from the Argentine Roman Catholic Church and local media, though the extent to which such support was given willingly remains the subject of much debate.

In addition to direct abuses by the military, far-right paramilitary groups, particularly the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA), carried out widespread atrocities, given free reign by the new military government.

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Relationship with the United States

At first, the United States government was willing to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Argentina, though transcripts show U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the U.S. ambassador to Argentina in conflict over how the new regime should be treated, with Kissinger preferring to remain friendly based on anti-Communist interests despite talk of human rights abuses. This changed in 1977 with the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter, who implemented a strict stance against human rights abuses even when dealing with friendly governments. U.S.-Argentine relations remained lukewarm at best until Ronald Reagan became president in 1981. His administration sought the assistance of the Argentinean intelligence services in training the Contras for guerrilla warfare against the new Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Because of this, Videla maintained a relatively friendly relationship with the U.S. under the Reagan administration, though the junta later fell out of favor with the U.S. over the Falklands War after Videla had stepped down.

More:
http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/Videla/Jul2007VidelaEN.htm