Argentina 'death flight' pilots sentenced for deaths including pope's friend

[sandensea]

Two former Argentine military pilots have been given life sentences for their part in the death of a close friend of Pope Francis, who was hurled to her death from an aircraft during the country’s 1976-83 dictatorship.

The ruling on Wednesday marked the first Argentine judgement against participants in the so-called “death flights”, in which opponents of Argentina’s military regime were thrown into the freezing waters of the South Atlantic in an attempt to hide the murders.

The court heard that former coastguard pilots Mario Daniel Arrú and Alejandro Domingo D’Agostino were in the crew of the Skyvan PA-51 plane from which Esther Careaga and 11 other people were thrown to their death on the night of 14 December 1977. Careaga was a close friend of Jorge Bergoglio, who decades later became Pope Francis.

The pilots were among the 54 defendants in the massive trial, which also involved the cases of 789 victims of the Navy Mechanics Higher School, ESMA, in Buenos Aires, where up to 5,000 people are estimated to have been killed.

The victims included left-wing opponents of the regime and members of Argentina’s tiny urban guerrilla groups; but also labor leaders, human rights activists and relatives of people who had already been “disappeared” by the military. Around 22,000 dissidents were killed between 1975 and 1979.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/29/argentina-death-flight-pilots-sentenced-for-deaths-including-popes-friend

President Obama visiting Buenos Aires' Dirty War memorial last year. The memorial was built in 2007 near the sight of most of the death flights; some 8,000 victims were disposed of this way from 1976 to 1978.

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's still a shock trying to realize people have actually thrown other people out of planes.

Of course, we've learned it was also done in VietNam even earlier. We just didn't hear about it until very recently.

The first ones I heard about were the ones in Argentina. The very thought of all those poor, terrified, already tortured mercilessly people, thrown into airplanes, chained together, and hurled so far down into the ocean horrified me beyond anything I had ever heard at that time. How much do you have to hate to be able to do that?

Fascists. Born sick.

Hoping so much that Macri will not take the time to pardon these mega-criminals after a cooling off period, sandensea.

The article you posted is excellent. It's a very good day when these people finally got sentenced, after all these years. I hope they felt the grief and righteous anger springing from good people whose loved ones were so wildly broken, shattered, terrorized, then murdered in the worst way possible.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Argentina: Former military officials convicted for crimes against humanity

3 hours ago




REUTERS
Astiz - the so-called 'angel of death' - said he acted to save Argentina from left-wing terrorism



Two former navy officers in Argentina have been sentenced to life for crimes against humanity committed between 1976 and 1983 under military rule.

Captains Alfredo Astiz and Jorge Eduardo Acosta were found guilty of involvement in the torture and murder of hundreds of political opponents.

They are among 54 people who faced trial for crimes committed at the Naval Mechanical School, or Esma.

Astiz, known as the "angel of death", has refused to apologise.

More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42175752