Argentina, 30 Years After Bloody Coup
Newly declassified documents show U.S. role in 1970s Latin American dictatorships
Published 2006-03-28 13:45 (KST)
Last Friday, the Argentine people remembered the bloodiest dictatorship in their history, demanding justice and punishment for those guilty of wholesale violations of human rights.
A day before, on March 23, the National Security Archive posted a series of declassified U.S. documents, and, for the first time, secret documents from Southern Cone intelligence agencies detailing evidence of massive atrocities committed by the military junta in Argentina.
Two days after the military coup, on March 26, 1976, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, William Rogers, informed Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that "we've got to expect a fair amount of repression -- probably a good deal of blood -- in Argentina before too long. I think they're going to have to come down very hard not only on the terrorists but on the dissidents in trade unions and their parties."
That was a clear prediction of what would soon be happening. Nearly 30,000 opponents of the military junta were kidnapped, tortured, and assassinated, the bodies being buried clandestinely or thrown from helicopters into the sea.
More:
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=282073&rel_no=1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war'
Declassified US files expose 1970s backing for junta
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles The Guardian, Saturday December 6 2003
Henry Kissinger gave his approval to the "dirty war" in Argentina in the 1970s in which up to 30,000 people were killed, according to newly declassified US state department documents.
Mr Kissinger, who was America's secretary of state, is shown to have urged the Argentinian military regime to act before the US Congress resumed session, and told it that Washington would not cause it "unnecessary difficulties".
The revelations are likely to further damage Mr Kissinger's reputation. He has already been implicated in war crimes committed during his term in office, notably in connection with the 1973 Chilean coup.
The material, obtained by the Washington-based National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, consists of two memorandums of conversations that took place in October 1976 with the visiting Argentinian foreign minister, Admiral César Augusto Guzzetti. At the time the US Congress, concerned about allegations of widespread human rights abuses, was poised to approve sanctions against the military regime.
According to a verbatim transcript of a meeting on October 7 1976, Mr Kissinger reassured the foreign minister that he had US backing in whatever he did.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/06/argentina.usa
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