RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Landmark Ruling Awards Damages for Political Exile

[Judi Lynn]

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA:
Landmark Ruling Awards Damages for Political Exile

Marcela Valente


BUENOS AIRES, Oct 15 (IPS) - In a landmark ruling, the Argentine Supreme Court has awarded damages to 88-year-old Susana Yofre, who was forced into exile almost 30 years, along with 26 relatives, to flee the persecution of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

The Supreme Court ruling is the most recent step made in government reparations for victims of the "dirty war" against leftists and real or perceived opponents of the de facto regime. Some 30,000 people fell victim to forced disappearance.
(snip)

General Luciano Benjamín Menéndez sent out men to track down the family of Mariano Pujadas, a member of the Montoneros who was killed in 1972 at a naval base in Trelew, in the southern province of Chubut, along with around 15 leaders of different guerrilla organisations.

Menéndez's men picked up Mariano's parents, brothers and sisters-in-law, who had nothing to do with the Montoneros, and were not even politically active. They were thrown into a pit, along with their domestic employee, and burnt alive.

"We clearly understood what awaited us if we stayed," said Yofre.
(snip)

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=25884

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Saturday, 15 April, 2000, 02:51 GMT 03:51 UK
'Disappeared' mass grave found in Argentina



Police would dispose of bodies in the night

The authorities in Argentina have sealed off a municipal cemetery outside Buenos Aires where they believe 90 victims of military rule are buried in mass graves.
The bodies were interred in several unmarked plots between 1976 and 1983, during the period known as the "Dirty War" when tens of thousands of people in Argentina died or disappeared.

The graves were marked with instructions not to disturb.
(snip)

Human rights organisations have said the actual number of victims is higher than 30,000.

Many of the regime's top leaders were tried and sent to prison, but were pardoned by President Carlos Menem after he came to power in 1989.

Investigations are continuing into charges that officials stole babies born in detention camps, a crime not covered by the pardon.
(snip/...)

President Menem pardoned leaders of the military regime

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/713996.stm

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May 21, 2002
Angry with Whom?

Economic Crisis Spurs Anger (Anthony Faiola, Washington Post Foreign Service, 19 May 2002)


......A series of perceived gaffes by Bush administration officials has also raised public ire. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in a May 6 speech that Argentina needed to overcome "institutional flaws" such as "corruption" to regain its economic course.

That angered Argentines, who wondered where the tough talk was in the 1990s, when the United States and IMF gave unyielding support to then-President Carlos Menem -- a personal friend of President George H.W. Bush but a reviled figure here. Menem stepped down in 1999 amid allegations of corruption and kickbacks from the sale of state-run industries to foreigners.
(snip/...)

http://www.treasaigh.com/ArgentBlog/000149.html

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George H. W. Bush, Carlos Menem