Judgment day for historic South America repression

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Judgment day for historic South America repression

By Liliana Samuel, Alexandre Peyrille (AFP) 4 hours ago.

South American ex-military leaders faced judgment Friday for their alleged role in the torture and assassination of leftist dissidents during a US-backed crackdown by the region's dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s.

Argentine judges were considering their verdict in the trial of 18 former army officers accused of taking part in "Operation Condor."

In that scheme, the military regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay helped each other track down and kill leftist dissidents.

On Friday, the court convened to deliver its verdict after a three-year trial -- the first to try the crimes committed under the Condor plan.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/judgment-day-for-historic-south-america-repression/article/466426

[L. Coyote]

1. Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Leftist Political and Social Activists

Deja DU: George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists

A long compilation thread, one excerpt:

Argentina's Dapper State-Terrorist
Aug 19, 1998 - http://www.consortiumnews.com/1990s/consor17.html

"What is your favorite book," a journalist asked Gen. Rafael Videla, after he ascended to power in Argentina in 1976.
"Book?" Videla replied.
The journalist was perspiring. He didn't think it was a hard question to ask someone leading the nation. But suddenly the journalist felt that the question could jeopardize not only his career but his life.
It was embarrassing that the new president could not come up with at least one title of one book. So the journalist tried to help out with suggestions: "The Bible perhaps? Martin Fierro (the most important book in Argentina's literature)?"
Videla said something about his first-grade reading book, but ... he could not remember its title. (Diario Perfil, an article by Omar Bravo, July 10, 1998)


By Marta Gurvich

Former Argentine president Jorge Rafael Videla, the 73-year-old dapper dictator who launched the so-called Dirty War in 1976, was arrested on June 9 for a particularly bizarre crime of state, one that rips at the heart of human relations. Videla, known for his English-tailored suits and his ruthless counterinsurgency theories, stands accused of permitting -- and concealing -- a scheme to harvest infants from pregnant women who were kept alive in military prisons only long enough to give birth. According to the charges, the babies were taken from the new mothers, sometimes by late-night Caesarean sections, and then distributed to military families or shipped to orphanages. After the babies were pulled away, the mothers were removed to another site for their executions. ...........

[forest444]

3. A telling anecdote indeed.

Videla was mockingly referred to as the 'Pink Panther' in Argentina because his skinny frame and genteel demeanor belied a penchant for illicit enrichment.

While he's best known for presiding over the Dirty War, it was also during Videla's regime that local industry was driven to the ground by free trade and Argentine banking was deregulated. This, of course, led to over $30 billion in bad debts (for a $100 billion economy at the time) and ultimately over 20 years of declining living standards.

A trial run of sorts for what later happened here during the Bush administration - except that Argentina doesn't have a Fed that print $20 trillion to bail out the banks (thank goodness for the almighty dollar).

[Tempest]

2. Operation Condor, another right wing terrorist program with Kissinger's blessing

Kissinger told Foreign Minister Cesar Guzzetti the U.S. would give him all and every support he wanted in carrying out the operation.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Operation Condor conspiracy faces day of judgment in Argentina court

Operation Condor conspiracy faces day of judgment in Argentina court

Eighteen former military officers accused of participating in a plan in the 70s and 80s to operate international death squads to eliminate leftwing exiles face verdict

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
Thursday 26 May 2016 05.10 EDT

It was an organised programme of state-sponsored murder in which US-backed regimes conspired to hunt down, kidnap and kill political opponents across South America and beyond.

Operation Condor – named after the world’s largest carrion bird – was devised to eliminate thousands of exiled leftwing activists who had dared confront the military dictators who ruled the continent in the 1970s and 80s.

The exact number of its victims may never be known, but this week judges in Buenos Aires will deliver their verdict on the first court case to specifically focus on the conspiracy.

Eighteen former military officers – including Argentina’s last dictator Reynaldo Bignone, 88 – will on Friday be sentenced on charges including kidnapping, torture and forced disappearance. Seven other defendants, including Jorge Videla – the general who headed Argentina’s junta during its bloodiest first three years – have died since the trial began in 2013.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/26/operation-condor-trial-argentina-court-death-squads

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Operation Condor: Former Argentine junta leader jailed for 20 years

Former Argentine junta leader Reynaldo Bignone has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes committed under Operation Condor - a conspiracy between South America's dictators.

Bignone and 17 other military officers were found guilty by a court in Argentina after a three-year trial.
...
Former Uruguayan Col Manuel Cordero - the only non-Argentine defendant - was jailed for 25 years.

The judges are continuing to deliberate the sentencing of the rest of the former military officers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36403909

[felix_numinous]

6. We need a judgement day in the US

the lack of which creates a wound that does not heal.