Two former Ford executives in Argentina have been given long jail sentences for collaborating with the country's brutal military regime in 1976-83. Factory manager Pedro Muller was sentenced to 10 years and ex-security chief Hector Sibilla given 12 years.
There is no doubt about the participation of the United States in Argentina’s bloody 1976-1983 military dictatorship, Human Rights Secretary Claudio Avruj said in Buenos Aires following the news that Washington announced it will declassify military and intelligence files from the Dirty War period ahead of Barack Obama’s visit to the country.
The New York Times published on Thursday an editorial in which the newspaper referred to president Barack Obama’s visit to Argentina next week and the role played by the United States in the country’s 1976-1983 civil-military dictatorship, saying the president of that country “should make a pledge that Washington will more fully reveal its role in a dark chapter of Argentine history.”
The 83-year-old head of the Argentine human rights movement which works to track down babies stolen by the country's brutal 1976-83 military dictatorship has found her grandson after a 35-year search, a relative said on Tuesday.
Argentina's Defense minister Agustín Rossi said that secret minutes dating back to the military dictatorship of 1976-83 will be available for the public to read and study, while admitting that he did not know why the documents had not been discovered previously.
Neatly kept and organized documents dating to the start of Argentina’s last dictatorship, 1976/1983, shows the names of activists who went missing and citizens blacklisted under the regime, officials announced in Buenos Aires. The documents also show that the military junta had planned to hold onto power until 2000.
A majority of US Supreme Court justices raised doubts this week over whether Germany’s Daimler-Chrysler can be sued in federal court for allegations that a subsidiary violated the human rights of workers at a plant in Argentina during the last military dictatorship that was in power from 1976-1983.
An Argentine court has sentenced former dictator General Jorge Videla to 50 years in jail for stealing babies from political prisoners. There were also heavy penalties for other military officers involved in the practice.
The Argentine Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a French request to extradite former navy captain Alfredo Astiz, who was convicted in absentia in Europe for killing two French nuns during the 1976-1983 Dirty War.
United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged that the lessons learned from Argentina’s turn from dictatorship to democracy be applied widely, particularly in North Africa and the Middle East, and he called on Syria to allow humanitarian aid into areas affected by ongoing violence.