A judge's arrest order for former president Isabel Peron marked the widening scope of the investigation into Argentina's past human rights abuses, as scrutiny expands beyond dictatorship-era crimes to the death squads that terrorized the nation prior to the 1976 coup.
Federal Judge Raul Acosta on Thursday ordered the arrest of the third wife of former political strongman Juan Domingo Peron, saying he has questions about her chaotic 20-month rule, a time when shadowy right-wing violence destabilized Argentina ahead of her political downfall.
The call for the detention of Isabel Peron, who has lived in exile in Spain since 1981, followed the arrests in Argentina and Spain of two suspected leaders of the so-called "Triple A" death squad that human rights groups call a precursor to state-sponsored terror waged by the junta from 1976 to 1983.
Isabel Peron was ordered detained in connection with the disappearance of leftist Hector Gallego one month before she was ousted in the March 1976 coup that ushered in a bloody, seven-year dictatorship, authorities said.
Peron -- who married Juan Peron several years after the death of his second wife, the well-known Eva Peron -- was also wanted for questioning about three decrees she signed calling on the armed forces to combat "subversive elements" during the period predating the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship, the judge's spokesman said.
There was no immediate reply from Isabel Peron, who ruled Argentina from July 1974 until the 1976 coup. But her lawyer, Atilio Neira, told Argentine radio late on Thursday that he was awaiting the final resolution of the judge's arrest order.
Political analyst Felipe Noguera said that dozens of former police and military officers have been summoned for questioning since Argentina's Supreme Court in 2005 annulled a pair of 1980s amnesty laws blocking prosecution of human rights cases.
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