U.S. declassifies 1976 Argentina coup files in largest ever handover
The United States handed thousands of documents Friday to Argentina on disappearances by the former US-backed military dictatorship, completing Washington's biggest-ever transfer of documents to another government.
Receiving the files from the archivist of the United States, Argentina's Justice Minister Germán Garavano said the documents "will be fundamental to justice."
The State Department said that the United States was releasing 6,000 new documents, bringing the total handed over through the project to 50,000 pages.
The files include memoranda and correspondence from the State Department, CIA and other agencies that detail what the United States knew about the abuses in Argentina.
Some 30,000 people were killed or remain missing from Argentina's "Dirty War" from 1975 to 1979, when security forces and right-wing paramilitaries hunted down any perceived leftists.
The Dirty War, initiated under President Isabel Perón to counter far-left violence, intensified after the 1976 coup. Amid an economic collapse, the dictatorship stepped down in 1983.
The National Security Archive, the history project at George Washington University that frequently takes legal action to declassify documents, praised the comprehensiveness of the release.
"The Argentina Project represents a new model of declassification diplomacy, and more," said Carlos Osorio, an analyst at the archive.
At: https://www.france24.com/en/20190412-us-declassifies-argentina-coup-files-largest-ever-handover
Footage from the March 24, 1976, coup in Argentina.
Other than the sight of troops and tanks in front of government buildings, it was for the most part deceptively quiet.
Newly-declassified CIA documents may shed light on what role U.S. policy may - or may not - have had.
The man who deposed Mrs. Perón, Gen. Jorge Videla, said in a 2011 interview that the motivation for the coup was disagreement on economic policy, rather than security policy or U.S. pressure.