Argentine court is set to issue verdict on Plan Condor trial that involved Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay

Record ID: 101892

  • Title: Argentine court is set to issue verdict on Plan Condor trial that involved Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
  • Date: 26th May 2016
  • Summary: SANTIAGO, CHILE (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CHILEAN DICTATOR AND ARMY GENERAL, AUGUSTO PINOCHET, WITH AIR FORCE GENERAL, FERNANDO MATTHEEI AT MILITARY EVENT CHILEAN GENERAL AND DIRECTOR OF CHILEAN NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE (DINE), MANUEL CONTRERAS, LEAVING COURT
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2016 15:30
  • Keywords: Argentine court Operation Condor conspiracy judgement military dictators
  • Location: BUENOS AIRES, MENDOZA, UNKNOWN LOCATION, ARGENTINA; SANTIAGO, UNKNOWN LOCATION, CHILE; ASUNCION, PARAGUAY
  • City: BUENOS AIRES, MENDOZA, UNKNOWN LOCATION, ARGENTINA; SANTIAGO, UNKNOWN LOCATION, CHILE; ASUNCION, PARAGUAY
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014JG3OSJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Judges in Buenos Aires are expected to deliver their verdict on Friday (May 27) in a landmark trial on the notorious 'Operation Condor,' a coordinated persecution of leftists and dissidents by Latin America's military rulers in the 1970s.
    One of the plaintiffs was Manuel Contreras, who led Chile's now-defunct and much feared secret police force for several years under former dictator Augusto Pinochet. Contreras died in 2015 at the age of 86.
    Eighteen former military officers accused of human rights violations, such as kidnapping, torture and forced disappearance, faced trial in the case. They included Argentina's last dictator Reynaldo Bignone aged 88.
    Seven other defendants, such as Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander who led Argentina during the bloodiest period of a "dirty war" dictatorship and was unrepentant about kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, have passed away since the trial started in 2013.
    During the past few years, the court has heard evidence on the deaths of more than 100 left wing activists - from Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Chile - who were murdered in Argentina.
    Videla was the first president to head the military junta that "disappeared" thousands of suspected leftists from 1976 to 1983, and he spent his final years behind bars for human rights crimes including the systematic theft of babies born to political prisoners in secret torture centres.
    He died of natural causes in his jail cell in a prison outside the capital, Buenos Aires. Videla had been jailed for life in 2010.
    At least 30,000 people were killed by Argentine military juntas from 1976 to 1983, according to rights groups.
    This video footage shows Argentine anthropological and forensics team unearthing remains of victims in the province of Buenos Aires.
    File images from the late 1970s show family members and mothers of the disappeared holding posters of photos of the missing children in Buenos Aires.
    Among those interested in the verdict will be Edgardo Binstock, whose wife, Monica Pinus, was detained and later disappeared as part of Operation Condor. Binstock's brother, Guillermo Binstock, was also detained and later disappeared.
    Another on Latin America's list of dictators is former Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner who died in 2006 aged 93. He was overthrown in 1989 after a 35-year dictatorship.
    Many of the plaintiffs have been represented by the human rights group Cels (Centre for Legal and Social Studies) in Buenos Aires, who have repeatedly said that declassified U.S. documents provided proof of the operation's main objective, which was to get rid of those who thought differently.
    The plaintiffs alleged Operation Condor was the union of Argentine, Uruguayan, Chilean, Bolivian, Paraguayan and Brazilian dictators with the objective of getting rid of opponents with the help of the U.S. government.
    Evidence was presented, in the form of declassified documents from the U.S. State Department with memos sent by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to the representatives of various embassies in these countries, saying that they had complete freedom to detain people.
    During a visit to Britain in 2002, Kissinger said mistakes were "possibly" made when referring to the past crimes of South American dictatorships.
    Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife were killed in Buenos Aires in 1974 in an operation carried out by Enrique Arancibia Clavel, an agent from Chile's secret police under dictator Augusto Pinochet. After nearly 20 years in prison Arancibia was freed on parole in 2007, but was found stabbed to death in Buenos Aires in 2011.
    Returning to the case of Binstock's wife and brother, a former mechanic shop, 'Automotores Orletti', was later proven to be the clandestine torture centre in the Argentine capital where Binstocks's brother was detained and where many foreigners, principally Uruguayans, were taken and later disappeared.
    Binstock's wife, Monica, was sent to Batallion 601 in Campo de Mayo after having been kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro and was never heard from again.
    Binstock, who served as Secretary of Human Rights for the province of Buenos Aires, has said that declassified U.S. documents demonstrate how governments at the time collaborated together.
    In 2012, Videla admitted that the country's dictatorship had "disappeared" leftist opponents. He is seen here, together with the other plaintiffs during a court hearing.
    According to Chile's centre-left opposition, some 3,195 people were killed or "disappeared" during Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule and around 28,000 people were tortured.
    Pinochet died from congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema in 2006.
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