Argentina commemorates somber anniversary of coup

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BY JACK CHANGKnight Ridder NewspapersBUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Under a somber, gray sky, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Friday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Argentina's last coup, which ushered in South America's deadliest dictatorship.<snip>

Soldiers swept up members of guerrilla groups such the Montoneros and the Revolutionary Army of the People, eventually torturing and killing as many as 30,000 people suspected of political subversion. Execution techniques included throwing drugged, naked prisoners from planes into the ocean. <snip>

Last year, Argentina's Supreme Court repealed amnesties for dozens of low-ranking officers charged with human rights abuses. <snip>

Friday afternoon, protesters threw rocks and paint at the Buenos Aires residence of Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, who was the economy minister during the dictatorship. <snip>

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/world/14180521.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. In pictures: Argentina coup remembered (BBC)

The day's events began with a night-time vigil in Buenos Aires, attended by thousands of people.


President Nestor Kirchner met with activists from the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo group, which campaigns on behalf of the relatives of the missing.


In another protest which turned violent, demonstrators clashed with police outside the apartment of a coup-era government minister.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4843648.stm

[Judi Lynn]

8. Wonderful photos! What population would NOT be furious knowing

up to 30,000 of its citizens were murdered due to their right-wing military masters' wish to cleanse the entire country of "leftists," real or imagined. In many cases, they were thrown naked out of airplanes and helicopters, into the ocean.

Their children were, in many cases, taken and destributed to favored families of the military. Many of the kids are still missing from their remaining family members.

This country has every reason in the world to be rip roaring wildly mad. What's so damned unforgiveable, our own media were entirely silent in the YEARS and YEARS this was happening, undoubtedly silenced by certain right-wing leaders who didn't want anyone here to know how they had involved America in the filthy bloodbath.



Undated photos of former top Argentine military offciers;
(upper row from L) admiral Eduardo Massera, general
Antonio Domingo Bussi, dictator Jorge Videla and general
Guilermo Suarez Mason. (Bottom row from L), brigadier
Basilio Lami Dozo, captain Alfredo Astiz, admiral
Isaac Anaya and Armando Lambruschini, who among 38
others are sought by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon for
crimes commited by them during the 1976-83 Dirty War
dictatorship. © 2003 Reuters Ltd.

Macabre new details emerge about Argentina's 'dirty war'
March 23, 1996
Web posted at: 6:20 a.m. EST

From Correspondent Jonathan Mann

CIUDAD DE LA PLATA, Argentina (CNN) -- New, chilling details have surfaced on a story that is two decades old, but still unfolding.

An ex-Navy officer from Argentina, Adolfo Scilingo, said in an interview that in 1970s Argentina, not only were political prisoners routinely dropped over the sea to drown, but they were made to dance first in a macabre celebration of the freedom they were told was awaiting them.

The strange revelation comes on the anniversary of a turning point, though not a happy one, for the South American nation. On Sunday, Argentina marks 20 years since the military took power and began its "Dirty War" on dissent. In the mid-1970s, left-wing guerrillas had sought to destabilize the country. When the Junta took over, anyone perceived as a leftist paid for that, dearly.

Until now, the military has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in its campaign against leftist guerrillas and political dissidents. The bones have been found in mass graves, but there has been no final accounting of the numbers. Human rights groups estimate that 30,000 people "disappeared."


Scilingo, a cashiered Navy captain, says he knows where at least 4,000 of them went. First, to detention. Then, to their deaths.

"They were played lively music and made to dance for joy, because they were going to be transferred to the south," he said. "After that, they were told they had to be vaccinated due to the transfer, and they were injected with pentonadal. And shortly after, they became really drowsy, and from there we loaded them onto trucks and headed off for the airfield."
(snip/...)

http://www5.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/argentina.war/



Mothers protest regarding disappearance of children

Ex-dictator admits 8000 disappeared in 'dirty war'
September 3, 2003

Former Argentine dictator General Reynaldo Bignone has admitted that 8000 people were kidnapped and killed during the 1976-83 military regime and said the church leadership had given its approval to torture practices.

In an interview published on Monday in the newspaper Pagina 12, Bignone said French instructors had taught Argentina's military how to kidnap and torture suspected opponents of the regime and how to execute them.

Bignone said the ruling junta had asked Roman Catholic bishops in Argentina about the use of torture, and were told that it was permissible under certain circumstances.

The interview was filmed secretly by French journalist Marie-Monique Robin, who was working on a documentary.

The regime's brutal repression of opponents was modelled directly on the Battle of Algiers, he said.

French instructors gave conferences and consultations on how to carry out the strategy.
(snip/...)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/02/1062403517740.html?from=storyrhs



U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger meets with
Argentine foreign minister, Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti,
on October 7, 1976 (Photo courtesy of Clarín.com (Argentina),

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2. Argentine leader challenges pardons for ex-junta leaders

Victims remembered on 30th anniversary of military coup
Friday, March 24, 2006; Posted: 3:40 p.m. EST (20:40 GMT)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Argentina's president grimly shouted "Never Again!" as he marked Friday's 30th anniversary of a military coup by remembering the thousands of people killed during the ensuing seven-year dictatorship.

Applauded by his Cabinet and the white-handkerchiefed Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, President Nestor Kirchner also challenged a 1990 pardon for former junta leaders in a speech on the first national holiday to commemorate the 1976 coup.

"Maybe it's time to unravel the web of impunity woven by those pardons," said Kirchner, who last year successfully appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn 1980s-era amnesty laws shielding dozens of former officers from prosecution on human rights charges.

"May the justice system quickly determine their validity or their unconstitutionality," he said, denouncing junta leaders led by former army Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla.

Kirchner's speech at the white-colonnaded military college outside Buenos Aires was broadcast nationwide on a day of candlelit vigils, marches, folk concerts and rallies, the culmination of an unprecedented week of soul-searching by this South American nation. <snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/24/argentina.anniversary.ap/

[Judi Lynn]

7. Isn't it interesting learning that TWO South Americans who were tortured

by U.S.-supported regimes in their own countries (through Nixon/Kissinger, and Ford/Kissinger) have become presidents of their countries?

It's amazingly appropriate.

Kirchner and Bachelet both have a perspective of U.S. policy in Latin America which is unique.

I hope they will BOTH find a way to govern WITHOUT American right-wing meddling and intimidation, and can shake off ALL attempts from _Bush to undermine, destabilize, and destroy them. It's time Latin America found the voice it lost to the bullies.

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9. The damage was deep, and memory is long. Vazquez in Uruguay ..

.. has ordered exhumations of those who "disappeared" during the terror there.Working through a dirty past / Taipei Times 24 Mar 06
Unsurprisingly, the Nixonites knew quite a lot about covert external intervention to rig Uruguay's elections, leading to military control in the 1970's National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 71 ...

[Judi Lynn]

10. Great conclusion to the "Working through a dirty past" article!

"Letting such crimes go unpunished results in all other possible offenses going unpunished and undermines the entire political and judicial system," Verbitsky warned. "One cannot come to an arrangement with such a past because it infects everything."

The consolidation of democratic forces in the three countries is also closely coupled with the examination of the past dictatorships."The societies in a certain way have been inoculated against falling back into dictatorships by the examination of the injustices," Fuchs said.

The greatest legacy of the brutal politics practiced in the past is the formation of a broad democratic consensus across South America against military dictatorships of any kind.

I really, REALLY hope so!

Thanks for both articles. I'll read the second one later tonight. Very much appreciate it.

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3. Argentina demands more justice on coup anniversary

<snip> The presidential pardons made by former President Carlos Menem in the 1990s shield alleged abusers from prosecution and prison. They are considered by rights groups to be the last remaining obstacle to bringing the military to justice for the torture and murder of dissidents during one of Latin America's bloodiest dictatorships. <snip>

Officially, some 12,000 people were killed or disappeared at the hands of security forces during the Dirty War -- a systematic crackdown on leftists and dissidents by a military driven by Cold War politics. Human rights groups put the number at 30,000. <snip>

Wearing their trademark white handkerchiefs, the "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo" held photographs of their loved ones as bands belted out protest songs. <snip>

But Kirchner said on Friday that not all blame lay with the military for the breakdown of democracy in 1976, urging the Catholic Church, the media and political parties to own up to their part of the blame.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24188330.htm

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4. Group: Kissinger supported Argentine regime

BILL CORMIER Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A Washington-based research group said it had obtained a declassified transcript of a staff meeting in which former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger expressed support for Argentina's past military regime soon after a 1976 coup.

The National Security Archive, a Washington foreign policy study group that has periodically released declassified documents covering the 1976-83 dictatorship in Argentina, said Thursday the documents showed Kissinger convened a weekly staff meeting two days after the March 24, 1976, coup in Argentina.

The NSA did not say how or when it obtained the transcript made public a day ahead of the coup's 30th anniversary. <snip>

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/14172356.htm

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5. Families search for Dirty War's missing

A man looks at photos of people who disappeared during the "Dirty War" in Argentina during an event to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Argentine military coup, in Mexico City, Mexico on Mar. 24. At least 13,000 people are officially listed as disappeared or dead during the so-called "Dirty War" that right-wing military officers waged on leftists and other political dissidents after the coup. Human rights organizations put the toll of dead and missing at nearly 30,000. (AP Photo / Eduardo Verdugo)

By Lauren Smiley, Associated Press Writer | March 24, 2006

<snip> As the nation marks Friday's 30th anniversary of the military coup that ushered a crackdown on political opponents, relatives are doggedly searching for the missing children, trying to repair families torn apart long ago. <snip>

In many cases, the infants' names were changed, and they were distributed like "war booty" to be raised by other families, according to the 1984 government report "Never Again." Some were abducted along with their parents, others were born in captivity to political prisoners.

Some were reportedly abandoned unidentified in orphanages. Others were handed over through illegal adoptions to parents with varying degrees of knowledge of where the baby came from. Many were taken in by families of the same military and police officers involved in the repression.

So far 82 children have recovered their identities. Petrakos remembers watching one such case on the news -- a crying girl who was dragged away, returned to biological relatives in 1989. <snip>

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2006/03/24/families_search_for_dirty_wars_missing/

[Judi Lynn]

6. Past Argentinian President Menem, Bush family friend, is the one

who arranged the blanket pardon for Diry War officials which current President Kirchner seeks to reverse completely so the horrifically guilty parties can be dealt with appropriately.

He's a _Bush family friend. Here's some info. which could throw light on this criminal:

Bush Friend Arrested for Illegal Arms Trafficking
by Ana Simo

~snip~
George W. Bush's brother, Neil Bush, also had his fingers in the Argentina pie. He jetted to Buenos Aires for a tennis match with Menem the day after the latter was first elected, in 1989. Earlier, Neil had been involved in a failed plan to drill oil in Argentina, to be financed in part with a $900,000 loan from the Silverado Savings and Loan Bank in Denver, of which he was a director. The S&L collapsed in 1988 amidst a financial scandal, costing U.S. taxpayers more than $1 billion.

The elder Bush soon became an assiduous guest of the flamboyant Menem. He was the first U.S. President since Eisenhower to visit Argentina. Over the years, he clocked eight visits to Menem, for what the Buenos Aires daily Página 12 described as "lavish golf parties." Money and politics were discussed, particularly the three Bush investment areas of choice, according to the newspaper Clarín: oil, gas, and casinos.

In 1998, former President Bush asked Menem to grant a gambling license to the Mirage Casino Corporation, triggering yet another public outcry in Argentina. Mirage later contributed $449,000 to the Republican Party.

Ten days before the end of Menem's second presidential term, in November 1999, former President Bush dined with him, Argentina's president-elect Fernando de la Rúa, Uruguay's President Jorge Batlle, and several international bankers at the home of Carlos Rhom, owner of Banco General de Negocios. Rhom's bank has been linked to the laundering of kickback money connected to illegal arms trafficking, gold smuggling, and the 1994 IBM-Banco Nacional scandal in which IBM paid a $37 million bribe to government officials to win a contract.

Some of the dinner guests told Clarín and Página 12 that the dinner party had been engineered by Bush to find out what the new De la Rúa administration was going to do about CEI, the Argentine media company headed by Menem crony Raúl Moneta, who had fled the country while under investigation for fraud.

One of CEI's main partners was Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, a major funder of George W. Bush's presidential campaign, and a close friend of Moneta. Before fleeing the country, Moneta had turned over his CEI shares to Hick's investment fund, Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst. Since then, Moneta has returned to Argentina and has been indicted as the center of a widening money laundering scandal.

Over the years, Menem was also a frequent guest of the Bushes. In 1995, for example, he received an honorary degree from the University of Houston, a Bush family fiefdom. Former President Bush introduced him as "a visionary" and told the audience that he had enjoyed working with him from the first time they met. In December 1999, Menem met with George W. Bush in Austin, shortly before Bush launched his presidential campaign; the elder Bush joined them at an Austin country club for a round of golf.
(snip/...)

http://www.thegully.com/essays/argentina/010607bush_menem.html

Don't Cry for Bush, Argentina
News: George W. may not recall the names of world leaders, but when it comes to foreign affairs, he knows the value of his own family's name.

By Louis Dubose and Carmen Coiro

March/April 2000 Issue

Texans watched with interest last winter as Governor George W. Bush was home-schooled on international affairs by former Secretary of State George Shultz and other veterans of his father's foreign-policy team. Even Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden, was brought in for a tutorial at the governor's mansion, in the hope that his recent U.N. experience in the Balkans could help Bush understand that Kosovars are not "Kosavarians" and that Greeks are not "Grecians."

But no one had to prepare a prompt card to remind him who stepped down as president of Argentina in December. Shortly before Bush announced his own campaign for president, he had received a visit from Carlos Saul Menem, the right-wing leader of Argentina for the past decade. The two men retired to an Austin country club, where they were joined by Bush's father. Governor Bush had the flu, so he contented himself with riding along as the former president and Menem played a round of golf.

The capitol press corps trailed along, dutifully recording the governor's cordial relationship with a visiting head of state. Unknown to the assembled reporters, however, was the story of how Bush and his family became immersed in Argentine politics. The little-known tale begins with George W. making a phone call to secure a $300-million deal for a U.S. pipeline company -- a deal that provoked a political firestorm in Argentina, drawing scrutiny from legislators and a special prosecutor. The episode marked one of George W.'s first ventures into foreign affairs, demonstrating the fundamental rule by which the Texas governor and his family conduct business: Always know that the Bush name is a marketable commodity.
(snip/...)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/03/argentina.html

[Judi Lynn]

11. Recalling coup, Argentina vows 'never again'

Recalling coup, Argentina vows 'never again'
By Larry Rohter The New York Times

SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2006

BUENOS AIRES The posters and billboards vowing "never again" were put up days in advance, accompanied by special museum displays, photographic exhibitions, books, public forums, and television programs.

Then Argentina came to a halt to mark the 30th anniversary of the military coup that ushered in the dictatorship that may have been the most murderous in modern South American history.

Overcoming some resistance in Congress, President Néstor Kirchner succeeded earlier this month in making March 24 a permanent holiday, to be called the National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice.

In response, many Argentines BUENOS AIRES The posters and billboards vowing "never again" were put up days in advance, accompanied by special museum displays, photographic exhibitions, books, public forums, and television programs.

At a ceremony at the military academy Friday afternoon, with human rights leaders sitting in the front row, just a few feet away from the military high command, Kirchner unveiled a plaque that promised "Never again coups and state terrorism."
(snip/...)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/26/news/argentina.php