ARGENTINA: Members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and justice officials lauded court decision to lift a pardon of military officials who were charged with human rights abuses during Argentina's dictatorship

Record ID: 445773

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and justice officials lauded court decision to lift a pardon of military officials who were charged with human rights abuses during Argentina's dictatorship
  • Date: 27th April 2007
  • Summary: NEWSPAPER HEADLINE SHOWING PARDON OF MILITARY LEADERS
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAB6JE33GULDQ11VTT28AJ0F2LV
  • Story Text: Members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and justice officials lauded Wednesday's court decision to lift a pardon of military officials who were charged with human rights abuses during Argentina's dictatorship. Argentines reacted a day after a federal court on struck down a presidential pardon shielding two leaders of Argentina's military dictatorship from human rights prosecutions, restoring a ruling that found them guilty of abuses.
    The decision forces former General Jorge Videla and former Adm. Emilio Massera to serve out a 1985 sentence that said the men led a systematic plan by the military to abduct, torture and execute suspected opponents of the regime.
    It also removed a final legal obstacle for human rights groups and prosecutors working to bring them to justice. The two were among the junta leaders that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 when, according to human rights groups, some 30,000 people either or disappeared during a military campaign to snuff out leftist dissent.
    Human rights groups like the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who lost children during the dictatorship, have fought relentlessly to bring military heads to justice and find the children of assassinated individuals.
    The leaders of Argentina's military junta were found guilty of rights abuses and sentenced to life in prison in 1985. But former President Carlos Menem, facing threats of military uprisings, pardoned them five years later.
    In 1990, Videla walked out of a Buenos Aires' court free and remained that way until prosecutors, with the help of insistent protests by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, arrested him again in June 1998 on charges of handing over the children of slain dissidents to members of the armed forces.
    Videla, now 81, went under house arrest for charges of relocating children and has remained that way since.
    Enriqueta Maroni, one of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, said the Mothers welcomed the lifting of the pardons.
    "What we want was for him (Videla) to go to prison and that is what we are asking for. I'm happy and in general all the mothers are very happy. The annulment of the pardon is a gift for our 30th birthday," she said.
    The humans rights group celebrates their 30th anniversary on Monday.
    Another human rights group CELS (Center for Legal and Social Sudies) also said the decision was a step forward, but director Andrea Pochak said at this point it is only a symbolic victory.
    "This decision is really a symbolic one and not so much a practical one. In the situation of Massera and Videla, they are both already involved in other cases. Does it change anything? Not much. But it does reaffirm the course of justice and it reaffirms the rejection of impunity," she said.
    Pochak went on the explain that while the decision won't affect Massera and Videla directly, but if it is ratified by the Supreme Court, it could open the door to prosecute other officials protected by Menem's pardon.
    CELS was formed in 1979 at the height of the dictatorship's reign as a way to fight against the violent repression and has since struggled to put the military leaders behind bars.
    In 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court repealed two amnesty laws shielding military offices from prosecution, clearing the way for hundreds to be tried.
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