Operation Condor on Trial in Argentina

[Judi Lynn]

Operation Condor on Trial in Argentina
By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 5 2013 (IPS) - The trial over a campaign of terror coordinated among the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America in the 1970s and 1980s began Tuesday in Buenos Aires with former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla as one of the main defendants, along with another 24 former military officers.

Under Operation Condor, as the coordination between the military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay was known, opponents of the regimes were tracked down, kidnapped, tortured, transferred across borders and killed – including guerrilla fighters, political activists, trade unionists, students, priests, journalists or mothers demanding to know what had happened to their missing sons and daughters.

“This is the first time in Latin America that a trial is being held over Operation Condor, to prosecute those responsible, above and beyond trials held in some countries for specific cases,” lawyer Luz Palmas of the Fundación Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos (FUNLADDHH), a human rights organisation, told IPS.

The 25 defendants include Videla and other former generals like Reynaldo Bignone and Luciano Benjamín Menéndez. Uruguayan general Manuel Cordero, prosecuted for the role he played in the illegal detention centre at Automotores Orletti in Buenos Aires, was extradited from Brazil for this trial.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/operation-condor-on-trial-in-argentina/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Argentina: Trial for Operation Condor

Argentina: Trial for Operation Condor
By Karafillis Giannoulis | March 6, 2013 - 10:01am

Argentina's former junta leader Rafael Videla, and Reynaldo Bignone, are scheduled to stand trial. The remaining 23 defendants originate from Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. A prosecutor told news agency AFP, that this is the first trial to focus on Condor Crimes and it will seek to reveal the coordinated efforts across borders.

The lawyer who represents victims from Argentina and Uruguay said, “what we must now prove is the existence of an illicit association between the dictatorships of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay to pursue and eliminate opponents in any of those countries, with the support of the United States.”

Lorena Balardini, research coordinator for the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), a local human rights group, told Interpress that this trial “is the biggest to be held so far in the region over Operation Condor, and could serve as an impetus for other countries where there have been delays or backsliding.”

The Operation Condor trial could stretch on for up to two years.

http://www.neurope.eu/article/argentina-trial-operation-condor