Argentine Senate Gives Final Approval to Scrapping 1980s Amnesty Laws

[Judi Lynn]

Argentine Senate Gives Final Approval to Scrapping 1980s Amnesty Laws
By Debora Rey Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 21, 2003

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Argentina's Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to scrap a pair of amnesty laws dating to the 1980s that had ended trials for human rights abuses committed during the country's military dictatorship.
Human rights activists and relatives of the disappeared present broke into raucous applause when it was announced that Senators had voted 43 to seven with one abstention to scrap the laws. Twenty-one lawmakers were absent. The lower House of Congress had passed the proposal last week.

The final congressional approval marked a victory for human rights groups who are pressing for a national re-examination of the 1976-83 dictatorship.

President Nestor Kirchner, who has given human rights new prominence during his weeks in power, is expected to sign the bill. Observers said, however, that the Supreme Court will likely have the final decision on the laws. (snip)

(snip) Some 9,000 people were officially reported as dead or missing during the junta's years in power, but human rights groups estimated the number could be as high as 30,000 from the seven-year period in which leftist opponents were hunted down, kidnapped off the streets, tortured and made to disappear. (snip/...)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAJ18VIMJD.html

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Argentina's president during that time was Leopoldo Galtieri. He was a graduate in 1949 of the School of the Americas when it was located in Panama:

(snip) Tall, blue-eyed and handsome, then-US president Ronald Reagan nicknamed him the "majestic general," he often held office hours with a glass of whiskey in his hand. (snip)

(snip) Then in July 2002 Galtieri was arrested and placed under house arrest on charges related to the abductions and presumed killings of 19 leftist members of the Montoneros movement when he was a regional commander during the dictatorship years.

Nineteen Montoneros, a leftist faction of the Justicialist (Peronist)Party currently in power, were abducted in 1980 after they returned to Argentina from exile to launch a "strategic counteroffensive" against the right-wing military dictatorship.

The military dictatorship is blamed for the abductions and presumed deaths of between 11,000 and 30,000 people during what has become known as the "dirty war" against political opponents.

Argentines on Sunday expressed little sympathy for Galtieri's death.(snip/...)

http://www.inq7.net/brk/2002/jul/12/brkafp_1-1.htm

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Do searches, if you've not heard much on Argentina's right wing terrorism. It'll make you sick.

[Zhade]

1. YEAH!

Way to go, Argentina! That's terrific news!

[Paschall]

2. I wonder how Henry K is sleeping these days?

What with no 9/11 investigation to keep him busy, I mean.

http://icai-online.org/56490,46136.html