Last Argentine dictator jailed for 25 years

[Judi Lynn]

Last Argentine dictator jailed for 25 years
Reuters
Tuesday, April 20, 2010; 6:19 PM

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The last leader of Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday for his involvement in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 56 people in a clandestine concentration camp.

Reynaldo Bignone, 82, was convicted along with six other former military and police officers for ordering beatings and electrocutions of dissidents of the military regime.

Dozens of relatives holding pictures of the dictatorship's victims cheered after a judge read out the ruling in a makeshift courtroom set up in a gymnasium.

"Justice was slow in coming but it has finally arrived," said Estela de Carlotto, head of the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

More than 11,000 people died or disappeared during Argentina's "Dirty War," a systematic crackdown on leftists and other opponents of the military regime. Human rights groups say the number is closer to 30,000.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042004265.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Kissinger Backed Dirty War Against Left in Argentina

Published on Saturday, August 28, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Kissinger Backed Dirty War Against Left in Argentina
Transcripts show former secretary of state urged violent crackdown on opposition

by Julian Borger in Washington and Uki Goni in Buenos Aires

Henry Kissinger gave Argentina's military junta the green light to suppress political opposition at the start of the "dirty war" in 1976, telling the country's foreign minister: "If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly," according to newly-declassified documents published yesterday.

State department documents show the former secretary of state urged Argentina to crush the opposition just months after it seized power and before the US Congress convened to consider sanctions.

"We won't cause you unnecessary difficulties. If you can finish before Congress gets back, the better," Mr Kissinger told Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti, the foreign minister, according to the State Department's transcript.

Carlos Osorio, an analyst at the National Security Archive, a US pressure group which published the transcript, said it was likely to be seen by historians as "a smoking gun".

It is likely to be seized on by Mr Kissinger's critics who have been calling for him to face charges for abetting war crimes and human rights abuses in Cambodia, Chile and Argentina.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0828-02.htm

[Judi Lynn]

2. Argentina ex-dictator Gen Bignone jailed for 25 years

Page last updated at 23:02 GMT, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 00:02 UK
Argentina ex-dictator Gen Bignone jailed for 25 years

Argentina's former military ruler Reynaldo Bignone has been sentenced to 25 years for human rights abuses committed almost three decades ago.

Gen Bignone, 82, ordered abductions and torture while second in command of the country's largest torture centre between 1978 and 1979.

Relatives of victims held up photos of their loved ones and cheered at the end of the trial in Buenos Aires.

Six officials from the same era were also handed jail terms.

Gen Bignone, who served as de facto president between 1982-83, was found guilty of involvement in 56 cases of murder, torture and kidnappings.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8633823.stm

http://de.academic.ru.nyud.net:8090/pictures/dewiki/114/rbignone.jpg http://blstb.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/i/AC/AD9748E78E15B289FE3696F05358.jpg

http://www.tn.com.ar.nyud.net:8090/2009/11/02/thumb/juiciobignone.jpg

[Wilms]

3. Thanks for posting. n/t