An Argentine court convicted two former generals on Thursday for the murder of a senator during the country’s seven-year military dictatorship and sentenced them to life in prison.
Retired Generals Antonio Bussi and Luciano Menendez were found guilty of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Senator Guillermo Vargas Aignasse.
Vargas Aignasse disappeared on the day of a March 24, 1976, military coup. The military later said it had released him from prison, but he was never seen again.
Judge Gabriel Casas referred to the generals’ actions as “crimes against humanity.” He read the verdict to cheers from the courtroom audience in the country’s northern Tucuman Province, where the victim served as senator.
Government estimates say anywhere from 13,000 to 30,000 people were killed in a crackdown on leftist activists during Argentina’s seven-year dictatorship.
In a statement, Argentine Human Rights Secretary Eduardo Luis Duhalde praised the verdict.
“We are witnessing the end of impunity and the restoration of the truth, memory and justice,” he said.
Bussi, 82, will be allowed to remain under house arrest because he is over 75. That decision enraged human rights activists outside the courtroom, who threw rocks and swatted at police with sticks.
Police in riot gear used tear gas to restrain the angry crowd.
Menendez, who is 81, will remain in prison in another province, where he was convicted in July of human rights violations.
In his final words to the court, Menendez defended the actions of the armed forces during the dictatorship.
“Argentina flaunts the dubious merit of being the first country in history to judge its victorious soldiers,” he said. “They call the operations of the armed forces illegal repression.”
Bussi cried as he said, “I’ve never seen or done anything to Mr Vargas Aignasse in my entire life.”
After democracy was restored in 1983, Bussi was accused of kidnappings and assassinations, but an amnesty law prevented him from being prosecuted. He was elected mayor of the capital of Tucuman in 2003, then arrested three months later for the disappearance of Vargas Aignasse.
In 2005, Argentina’s Supreme Court struck down sweeping amnesties that had shielded hundreds of former officers from prosecution.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS