Argentina investigates dirty war rapes

[Judi Lynn]

Source: UPI

Argentina investigates dirty war rapes
April 17, 2007, 06:48 AM

BUENOS AIRES, April 16 (UPI) — Argentina is investigating whether police officials raped female prisoners during the country's military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

Prosecutors Monday for the first time asked courts to look into the possibility that police officials raped numerous prisoners held during the so-called Dirty War, from 1976 to 1983, La Nacion reported online.

According to human rights officials, about 30,000 people were killed or disappeared during the military regime.

In recent years, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has pushed for the annulment of amnesty laws that pardoned leaders of the former dictatorship, opening the door for the prosecutions of numerous leaders.



Read more: http://www.imedinews.ge/en/news_read/33827

[Judi Lynn]

1. Argentina Exposes Conservative Bias of US Media

Argentina Exposes Conservative Bias of US Media
by Randy Shaw‚ Apr. 17‚ 2007

Imagine a country where activist protests are the lead stories on local and national mainstream media broadcasts. A place where social movements, rather than elected officials, determine what’s news. A land that ignores the father of Anne Nicole-Smith’s baby, but whose news outlets instead prioritize stories that impact people’s lives. Argentina is such a country, and my recent visit showed me how the US media is far more conservative than progressives realize. No corporate owned media outlet in the United States offers the balanced news coverage routinely found in the Argentina media, whose willingness to provide activist and labor viewpoints leaves its US counterparts sounding like Fox News.

In the eighteen days I spent in Argentina, Buenos Aires experienced five mass protests and the equivalent of a general strike. These activist events dominated the television news, which supplemented their pictures with lengthy interviews with activists.

In the United States, even the huge anti-war protests prior to the Iraq war invariably included only 30-second interviews with activists. Some longer interviews were included in the immigration protests of 2006, but no corporate-owned news outlet gave activists five minutes or more to discuss their agenda.

In Argentina, interviews with activists dominate the news. The Argentina media gives social movements the attention they deserve---and its positive coverage promotes progressive causes and encourages collective action.

When I arrived in Buenos Aires on March 24, the headline in the pro-business English language Buenos Aires Herald was “Argentina tells US ‘butt out.’” This was in response to a US State Department staffer criticizing the Argentine government for allowing Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to hold a large anti-Bush rally in Buenos Aires. I saw enough anti-Bush signs and spray-painted slogans in Argentina and Uruguay to conclude that our President is even less popular in those nations than here.

More:
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Argentina_Exposes_Conservative_Bias_of_US_Media_4415.html

[w4rma]

2. Argentinans have learned a lot from having their nation nearly destroyed by neo-liberal economics

and a right-wing dictatorship.

[Peace Patriot]

3. This article needs to be an OP, and I will post it as such. nt

[raccoon]

4. Thanks for posting this. nt