Elliott Abrams' Dark History in Latin America and the Struggle for Justice

[Judi Lynn]

Elliott Abrams' Dark History in Latin America and the Struggle for Justice
Written by Cyril Mychalejko
Friday, 03 February 2012 19:07

Elliott Abrams, a former high level State Department official during the 1980s, testified last week that the Reagan administration knew that Argentina's military junta was systematically stealing babies from murdered and jailed democracy activists and giving them to right-wing families friendly to the regime.

In a meeting with the Junta's ambassador in Washington on December 3, 1982, Abrams suggested that the dictatorship could "improve its image" by creating a process with the Catholic Church of returning the children, some of whom were born in secret torture chambers, to their legitimate families. The contents of this meeting were recorded in a memo Abrams wrote, which was declassified by the State Department in 2002 and is now a key piece of evidence against former junta officials in this high profile trial.

“While the disappeared were dead, these children were alive and this was in a sense the gravest humanitarian problem,” Abrams read from his cable via videoconference testimony to a federal court in Buenos Aires. But this didn't deter the State Department at the time from granting Argentina certification indicating that the country's human rights record was improving.

Alan Iud, a lawyer representing The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, who claim that as many as 500 children were stolen, said that Abrams' testimony “exceeded our expectations.” However, Abrams' and the Reagan Administration's relationship with the military junta was not adversarial, something that has been lost in the story, if not the trial. In fact, in 1978, even before being elected president, Ronald Reagan wrote a column in The Miami News attacking President Jimmy Carter's criticisms of Argentina's record of human rights abuses. Reagan countered that the military junta “set out to restore order” and that too much was being made over the jailing of “a few innocents.” However, human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands of people were tortured, killed and disappeared during Argentina's “dirty war.” One of Reagan's first acts as president was to overturn military aid restrictions put in place by Carter as a result of the regime's horrendous human rights record. The administration even hosted Argentine generals “at an elegant state dinner.” Furthermore, Reagan paid members of Argentina's notorious death squads to travel to Honduras to train the Contras, as well as Honduran paramilitaries, such as the infamous death squad Battalion 3-16, as the Baltimore Sun revealed in a 1995 exposé.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3440-elliot-abrams-dark-history-in-latin-america-and-the-struggle-for-justice

[txlibdem]

1. So much in this post that the anti-Chavez posters need to read

And think about. Actually think for once. Stealing babies from murdered democracy advocates??? What kind of a world does US Imperialism create.

[naaman fletcher]

2. I read ths story

And it is horrific of course. What exactly of it do the "anti-chavez posters" need to read?

[txlibdem]

4. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink

Please read it again. I mean actually read it. You can do that can't you?

[naaman fletcher]

6. Yes

Now, what does it have to do with Chavez?

Please, use this as your opportunity to prove that you contribute something valuable as opposed to your last response.

[txlibdem]

7. I have nothing I need to "prove" to you or any of the other anti-union, anti-poor, pro-business folk

You're anti-Chavez, thus:
you're anti free healthcare for all (including the poor)
you're anti unions
you're against bringing corporate criminals to justice
you're in favor of the wealthy stealing land from the peasants with the barrel of a gun

There is absolutely nothing I need to prove to any anti-Chavez type.

[naaman fletcher]

8. Of course, none of what you say is true

And as usual, you contribute nothing to the forum.

[txlibdem]

9. On the attack with the ad hominem again?

Give it a rest and prove your anti-poor, anti-justice-for-all, pro-wealthy (and to hell with everyone else) postings on your own time.

[naaman fletcher]

10. all you do is ad hominem

and besides, I didn't attack you, i simply pointed out that you add nothing of value. You don't post articles or analysis. Just one sentence opinions that are factually untrue, like the one about me making pro-wealthy posts. Let's see you dig up one such pro-wealthy post.

[txlibdem]

11. which of my posts were factually untrue?

Show me these "untrue" posts of mine.

[naaman fletcher]

12. The ones in this theead

Why should I answer your questions when you don't answer mine?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Our corporate media has been an unacknowledged constant pipeline throughout the years,

acting to deliberately block the information flow of what the US bloody puppets have been doing, with "our" assistance to their own suffering people.

That's why the truth usually hasn't ever been allowed until after years of effort trying to get even a word released through the Freedom of Information Act. A fragment of the public still believes the corporate media, and right-wingers rely upon the media to provide only "information" which supports the official story which is ALWAYS counter to the truth. Everyone else has learned through simple life experience and observation, that the world will NEVER be clean again until these nations are finally free to create the democracy which our own institutional criminals have deprived them through deceit, greed, total, brutal disrespect for the human race.

[txlibdem]

5. Correct on all points, as usual

Great post, Judy Lynn, and I agree 100% with your conclusion.