Argentina's last military dictator jailed over role in Operation Condor

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Argentina’s last military dictator, 88-year-old former general Reynaldo Bignone, was today sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in Operation Condor, under which an international death squad was set up by six South American military dictatorships during the 1970s and 80s. The plan allowed death squads from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay to cross into one another’s territory to kidnap, torture and kill political opponents who had fled across the border.

Most of the 105 cases of “illegal arrest” followed by death covered by the trial involved foreign nationals – 45 Uruguayans, 22 Chileans, 13 Paraguayans and11 Bolivians – killed while living in exile in Argentina.

Persecuted for political reasons in the military regimes in their own countries, many had escaped to Argentina before 1976, when the country became the last of the six nations to fall under a dictatorship. After their arrest, the victims were made to “disappear”, usually by being cremated, or thrown drugged but still alive from military planes into the Atlantic Ocean.

“This ruling is important because it is the first time the existence of Operation Condor has been proved in court,” said Luz Palmás Zaldúa, lawyer for the Argentinian human rights group Cels (Centre for Social and Legal Studies), which represented the victims’ families. “It is also the first time that former members of Condor have been sentenced for forming part of this criminal organisation.”

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/27/argentinas-last-military-dictator-jailed-over-role-in-operation-condor

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Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
Friday 27 May 2016 23.20 BST

[forest444]

1. And if he ever needs a cell mate:

These news are especially significant because this marks the first time a court has proved that Operation Condor was carried out as a criminal conspiracy by the U.S.-backed dictatorships at the time (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay).

The Kissinger klub, if you will.

Thanks for posting these momentous news, Eugene.

[Monk06]

4. Mein Fuhrer, I can walk !!!!!!

[forest444]

5. That Peter Sellers died at 54;

and this scumbag is still alive at 93 (Happy Birthday, Mr. Secretary), really sums up what's wrong with this world.

Thanks for that, monk. I haven't seen that movie in over 15 years; it's been much too long.

[Monk06]

6. When Kissinger dies someone should drive a wooden stake into his grave and cover the ground in salt

Rumor has it that Dr Strangelove was based on Kissinger or Edward Teller

The resemblance is closer to Kissinger plus during 1962 to 1965 Kissinger worked as a professor and consultant for the NSC So Kissinger is the obvious reference given he was born in Germany and Teller was born in America to Hungarian parents

Additonally, for the slam dunk, As part of the Council on Foreign Relations he published Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy

Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Kissinger-Henry.html#ixzz49usanCLk

Strangelove may refer to Kissinger's long rumored kinky sex life with young boys He even has a private cobana at the Bohemian Grove

Although that is probably just one of those wish it were true stories

[forest444]

7. Perfect fit for the MIC: a cold, and in so many ways twisted, mind.

I had never heard that he had an eye for young boys, although I can't say I'm too surprised. What's not surprising isn't that he might be bi/curious, certainly (what guy isn't, at least at some phase); but that his preferred idea of sex is basically some form of abuse.

At the end of the day, that was the centerpiece of his policy: abuse of one kind or another.

Thanks for the link and the info, Monk. My hope is that when he finally passes, the whole truth might finally be known about him - rather than just bits and pieces such as we have now. Enough material there for 10 blockbuster thrillers, I'm sure.

[L. Coyote]

2. If only he would sing like a bird now and implicate his boss.

Last edited Sat May 28, 2016, 12:26 AM - Edit history (1)

[forest444]

3. Indeed. And if only he had been stopped from shredding all those Dirty War documents in 1983.

But the only songs ol' Reynaldo ever sings whenever he's been in court over one of his many charges, are justifications of the Dirty War and diatribes against the Kirchners.

He picked the wrong career; he should have been a Wall Street Journal op-ed writer.

[L. Coyote]

8. Maybe the coup in Brazil is taking notice. I hope so. There is a price for overthrows.

Even if "constitutional" when it has been shown the motive was not constitutional.