The principal dictator of Argentina’s 1976-1983 military junta, former Argentine president Jorge Videla, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for crimes against humanity committed during his murderous “dirty war” against left-wing dissidents.
Videla, an 85-year-old former army general, who ruled between 1976 and 1981, had acknowledged his actions, but denied they were human rights violations, insisting he was an unjustly convicted “political prisoner.”
The sentencing judge, Maria Elba Martinez, described him as “a manifestation of state terrorism.”
PHOTO: AFP
She ordered him incarcerated for the rest of his life in a Argentine federal penitentiary under civilian, not military, rules.
Another junta officer, General Luciano Menendez, 83, was also given a life term, added to other, identical sentences for human rights crimes carried out when he headed an army corp responsible for 11 provinces.
They were among 30 people — mostly police and military officers — tried for the junta’s atrocities. Sentences have ranged between six years and life behind bars.
Videla came to power at the head of the military junta after masterminding a 1976 coup that toppled the government of former Argentine president Isabel Peron.
The brutal regime was accused of making about 30,000 people “disappear,” including by throwing them from aircraft in night flights over the sea.
It operated 500 clandestine detention centers across the country where tens of thousands of people were held, many subjected to torture and death.
Argentina’s military government fell in 1983, a year after Videla’s successor, former Argentine -president Leopoldo Galtieri, waged an unsuccessful war against the UK for the Falkland Islands.
Videla’s trial began on July 2 with the ex-dictator acknowledging responsibility for “cruel” acts on his watch, but refusing to recognize the court.
In a pre-sentence hearing on Tuesday he repeated that position.
“I assume full responsibility ... My subordinates were only following orders,” he said.
“I claim the honor of victory and I regret the consequences,” Videla said, emphasizing he saw Argentina’s dirty war in the 1970s as a fight against “subversives.”
The charges against him included the abduction, torture and murder of 40 people, including a German student, Rolf Stawowiok, whose disappearance in 1978 prompted Berlin to ask for Videla’s extradition.
The former strongman was previously tried and sentenced in 1985 in Argentina to life in prison, but was pardoned five years later by then-Argentine president Carlos Menem.
A 2007 verdict finding Videla’s pardon unconstitutional set the scene for the new trial, which included charges that his regime stole babies from dissident prisoners.
At a separate trial on Tuesday, three former military officials of the regime each received life in prison for crimes against humanity, including “unlawful deprivation of liberty” and “aggravated torture.”
More than 130 people have been convicted of crimes committed during the military dictatorship, according to a report published last month, with dozens more currently on trial.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
RSS