Time out or time's up

...Alfonsin has asked the courts to take into consideration in trials whether the officers charged complied strictly with orders, whether they gave orders, or whether they exceeded orders...

...He is co-author of El Salvador: Central America in the New Cold War (Grove Press: 1987...

...Critics to the left of Alfonsin's ruling Radical party and human rights groups, all of whom opposed the February 22, puntofinal deadline for filing charges, are vigorously opposed to the concept of "levels of responsibility...

...The other four were exonerated...

...He's literally getting away with murder...

...This step back, some feel, makes Argentina something less than an exception to the rule in Latin America, insofar as holding officers accountable for rights abuses are concerned...

...Alfonsin has said that he felt "uncomfortable" with the fact that some "guilty parties" would go free under the proposed law but stated that the penalty should be exacted from those who conceived the repression and used "methods of coercion" to exact obedience from junior officers...

...Alfonsin's legislation — which has now passed both houses of the Argentine Congress, but which is sure to face court tests in the future — would exempt all officers below the rank of lieutenant colonel from prosecution, leaving only about 80 of the 450-odd accused to be judged...

...I order you to take out your tanks...

...Cut to 1987...

...And I need to know if you are the officer in charge of the entire operation and will be responsible for the consequences...

...Lieutenant Colonel Rico surrendered his command personally to Alfonsin, and the Argentine president returned to a euphoria that exceeded even Argentina's World Cup soccer victory last year...

...Uneasiness among the officer corps — especially among colonels, majors, captains and lieutenants — grew...

...On another front, Alfonsin was enjoying less success...

...By now, however, rebellious units underthe command of Lieutenant Colonel Aldo Rico, a veteran of the Malvinas War against Great Britain in 1982, had sealed off the Infantry School at Campo de Mayo...

...What...

...Sixty-two separate army units, most under pressure from their junior officers, refused to move...

...You can discard the last sausage if you don't like it, but you have to change the machinery if you want a different type of sausage...

...In this joint Swedish-Argentine work, titled Owners of Silence, a Swedish journalist — a kind of middle-aged Social Democratic James Bond — arrives under the cover of a businessman during the height of the Dirty War...

...Nearly a million people gathered in the Plaza de Mayo fronting the Casa Rosada (the presidential palace) on Easter Sunday — unionists, businesspeople, families, all the political parties — right to left...

...Nine thousand people were killed and thousands more detained and/or tortured during the Argentine military's web of repression directed first against urban Montonero guerrillas and, later, against all dissidents...

...His captor, a suave junior officer, takes delight in torturing a prisoner before his very eyes...

...President Raul Alfonsin is currently asking the Argentine Congress to adopt legislation that would free most of the military officers currently up on charges of human rights abuse...

...I order you to secure your tanks and proceed to the Campo de Mayo.'' "With what objective, my General...

...Responding to the crisis, Alfonsin moved first to secure the support of all the political parties, unions, and business groups with the signing of a "document of democratic commitment" 19 June 1987: 375 to support his government in this time of crisis...

...According to government sources, the issue of trials has to be resolved so that the new army leadership can re-establish the now-tattered chain of command...

...Hoping to avoid a clash of arms with the rebels but preparing all of his options, Alfonsin and his generals put out the call to garrisons around the country to proceed to the Campo de Mayo...

...There is no time...

...With all respect, General, for this I lack a telegram which specifies the objective to be fulfilled...

...Only days after Alfonsin's triumph, trouble briefly flared up again in two garrisons, despite the dismissal of General Rios Ereriu as chief of staff...

...Whether Argentina will be judged so kindly in the 376: Commonweal future, however, depends on the outcome of how Alfonsin, the military, and, ultimately, the Argentine people handle this continuing dilemma...

...Some leftist groups have charged that Alfonsin did in fact negotiate away a piece of Argentine democracy to quiet the military rebellion...

...The discontent broke into the open during Holy Week...

...Despite opposition from the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who have kept up a steady drumbeat of concern and protest on behalf of their disappeared relatives, the proposal passed into law...

...Human rights groups rushed to file charges against military suspects and the number of officers charged ballooned to as many as 450...

...Their demands were the dismissal of Alfonsin loyalist General Rios Ereriu as army chief of staff and government recognition that junior officers had acted only under orders from superiors in the Dirty War and thus were not liable for violations...

...In Guatemala and El Salvador, for instance, civilian governments have resigned themselves under military pressure to an unofficial amnesty...

...Now it was over, most thought, and their democracy hadn't been compromised...

...Until now, Argentina has received high marks in this department...

...In addition I need an official route...

...A typical conversation went something like this: "Hello...

...Or had it...

...This is General Tito...

...In Argentina's neighbor, Uruguay, President Mario Sanguinetti rammed through an amnesty for all military and security personnel and former Tupamaro guerrillas last year...

...Major Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro refused to present himself before the federal court in the state of Cordoba to answer charges of human rights abuses...

...Though the uprisings quickly petered out the writing was on the wall for Alfonsin...

...The Uruguayan left, however, is engaged in a mammoth petition drive to bring the amnesty issue before the voters in a referendum...

...Alfonsin, with opposition political leaders at his side, declared to the multitude that he would not negotiate Argentine democracy with the rebels...

...Retired Argentine Col...

...And, so the message of the film goes, he should be...

...Last year, Alfonsin, arguing that the country should put an end to ceaseless recriminations and forge ahead united to build a greater Argentina, pushed through legislation calling for a punto final — a time deadline of February 22 on filing human rights charges against military officers...

...As with the punto final, the debate is over how to balance justice and responsibility with national unity and hard political choices...

...With all respect, my General, in these conditions I will not commit the tanks of my regiment...

...He's looking for that captain's face...

...REPORT FROM ARGENTINA TIME OUT OR TIME'S UP ALFONSIN & THE MILITARY A movie making the rounds these days in Buenos Aires speaks volumes about the continuing swirl of controversy in Argen- tina over the question of punishment for military officers guilty of human rights abuses during the so-called "Dirty War" of 1977-82...

...The garrison there declared itself in rebellion, then surrendered, and Barreiro fled into hiding...

...He doesn't find the gal (she's already dead), does find the document, and finds himself under arrest...

...The army is like a sausage factory," he explained...

...I will go to the Campo de Mayo," he declared dramatically, asking the hundreds of thousands to await his return...

...Given the conflictive nature of Argentine politics, the fact that the Peronists joined with Alfonsin's Radicals to cement a common front was nothing short of unprecedented...

...For days the crisis had been topic number one in the streets of Buenos Aires and in the plazas of the provinces...

...Throughout the month of May he floated proposals to define different "levels of responsibility" for rights abuses...

...Some had urged that he put down the rebellion by force rather than negotiate, and still others at the time had called for a "People's Power" blockade of the rebellious garrison a la the pro-Aquino/anti-Marcos movement in the Philippines...

...To repress the rebellion...

...He's smiling...

...It did not have the desired effect...

...With his military options foreclosed, Alfonsin called for popular demonstrations throughout the country to support democracy...

...The same journalist scans the photograph placards at a demonstration against the Alfonsin government's proposal to fix a time limit on prosecutions of military officers for rights abuses...

...Of the uprising at the Infantry School...

...His mission: to find a Swedish-Argentine lass' 'disappeared'' by the military and get his hands on a document purporting to show a systematic plan by the Argentine military to dispose of thousands of Argentine citizens...

...PATRICK lacefield Patrick Lacefield just returned from a trip to Argentina...

...The journalist antes up the document and is deported back to Sweden...

...Cut to the captain on horseback riding through the woods, his young wife and children at his side...

...Horacio Ballester, a military reformer, sees it differently...

...Lieutenant Aleman...

...Of whom...

...In human rights trials to date, five of the nine former military commanders who served on ruling juntas between 1976 and 1983 have been convicted on human rights charges and are serving sentences up to life...