Military Rumblings
MacSherry, J. Patrice
As the increasingly independent judicial branch in Argentina has taken important steps to address the legacy of military human rights abuses, disquiet has grown within the military officer corps....
...His computer hard drive was stolen and a large knife was left on a table, a message reminiscent of past death squads...
...2. The military tribunal reports to the Executive and is an administrative body responsible only for sanctioning narrow military infractions...
...1 This move seemed to turn back the clock to the 980s, when the question of military accountability stirred dangerous tensions after the transition from military rule...
...These are troubling trends for Argentine democracy...
...There, Judge Cristina Garz6n de Lascano is investigating the 1976 killings of 30 political prisoners by the military...
...Military Rumblings in Argentina 1. Daniel Gallo, "Un tribunal castrense rechaza la justicia civil," La Naci6n (Buenos Aires), March 31, 2000...
...2 L6pez Murphy insisted that he should not intervene...
...had ever been a systematic campaign to legally abduct children of the disappeared, and he criticized the arrests of officers who refused to testify or who gave false testimony in a "right to truth" case underway in C6rdoba...
...Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) that declares as issues of concern to the military problems as diverse as extreme poverty, social unrest, international terrorism, drug-trafficking, environmental destruction, migration and religious fundamentalism...
...In this context, L6pez Murphy has called for the military to "assume new roles...
...In February, during a search of the Campo de Mayo army base, Judge Bagnasco found partially destroyed birth registries dating from the period 1974 to 1978 that contained information about transfers of babies born to prisoners...
...Defense Minister Lopez Murphy has advocated the expansive "new threats" paradigm being promoted by the U.S...
...Another sign of military hostility was a series of public statements by the new army chief, Gen...
...Some cases, based on the "right to truth," aim at establishing what happened to the victims of state terror, even if the previous amnesty laws and pardons effectively preclude sanctions for the guilty...
...A handful of judges have opened up a number of investigations into the fate of the disappeared...
...Following these discoveries, documents, photographs and instruction manuals from the dirty war were destroyed by army intelligence.4 In other ominous incidents, Maria Servini de Cubria, a judge who is investigating suspected baby-trafficking by the navy, was forced off the road while driving last December, and in May, her assistant's house was broken into...
...in March, this case led to an outburst of military animosity, when the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces suddenly demanded jurisdiction...
...The military court called the case an example of "persecution of the armed forces by the judicial branch, constituting a confrontation between two ideologies...
...Judge Bagnasco complained that Defense Minister Ricardo Lopez Murphy should have issued "instructions" to the military prosecutor, as his civilian superior, clarifying that the case legally belonged in the constitutional court, and should have strongly defended the authority of the judicial branch...
...in 1996, Judge Adolfo Bagnasco began investigating a major case of baby theft, including the question of whether the practice was systematic and organized from the top...
...In April he denied that there I Patrice McSherry is Associate Professor of Political Sconce at Long island University-Brooklyn and author of Incomplete Transiuon: Military Power and Denmocracy in Argentna(St...
...The resurgence of politicized military behavior in Argentina-and the government's passive response--is disturbing, particularly since the De la Rua government also seems to be moving toward broadening the military mission...
...10, No...
...The administration has also deined to cooperate with Spanish judge Baltasar Garz6n in his case against military commanders from the last dictatorship, moving away from campaign pledges made in 1999...
...This show of force gave an institutional cast to military defiance of the civilian justice system, More worrisome were Defense Minister L6pez Murphy's comments that he supported the visit and was unconcerned about renewed military political protagonism...
...One judge discovered an army doc- ument from the 1970s entitled "Operations Against Subversive Elements," which included instructions on what to do with children of the disappeared...
...Before Menem pardoned him in 1989, Menendez was accused of 77 cases of torture, 47 homicides and four baby thefts...
...She is aiso a member of NALAs Editorial Board Leader of the 1976 coup and junta member Jorge Rafael Videla betg arrested in June 998...
...Other courts are investigating the military's illegal appropriation of children of the disappeared, a crime exemoted from the amnesty laws...
...The Council's new posture may signal a hardening of military attitudes and renewed politicization now that General Martin Balza-the army chief known for his mrnea culpa regarding the dirty war-has stepped down The government of Fernando de la Rua reacted to the Supreme Council's demand by ordering the removal of its president...
...11 (March 24, 2000...
...Bossi is a vigorous proponent of military internal security and intelligence operations to combat "narcoterrorism...
...The final decision regarding jurisdiction may go to the Supreme Court...
...Also disturbing is the administration's apparent retreat from human rights concerns...
...In 1984 the same Council resigned en masse rather than condemn the "dirty war" or sanction accused officers, and between 1987 and 1990 seditious officers staged four major uprisings...
...Martin's Press, 1997...
...In April, Brinzoni sent an official delegation headed by the Secretary General of the Army to C6rdoba to visit the detained officer, the first of several such visits...
...The Human Rights Undersecretary also justified army behavior and questioned the seriousness of the C6rdoba trial, though she later withdrew her comment.' Despite Gen...
...He has since ordered the arrests of some 12 former commanders, including junta members Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera...
...Ricardo Brinzoni, this year...
...4. See "Argentina: Army Intentionally Destroys Documentation Regarding Human Rights Abuses," Latin America Data Base, Vol...
...Among those temporarily detained this year were several active-duty officers as well as the feared ex-commander of the province's Third Army Corps, General Luciano B. Menbndez, for refusing to testify...
...And earlier this year the administration, in a quasi-clandestine manner, gave a newly retired army general, Ernesto Bossi, a leadership position in the state intelligence secretariat (SIDE) and the recently reactivated National Intelligence Center (CNI), a body that brings together all military and civilian intelligence agencies...
...Other threats and break-ins of human rights groups' offices have occurred as well...
...His expansive concept of "integral security" erases the distinction between internal security and defense, recalling the national security doctrine and calling into question the arduous struggle to remove the military from internal security and intelligence operations, codified in laws passed years ago...
...3. The Human Rights secretariat is within the Justice Ministry...
...Brinzoni's denial, there is considerable evidence that baby theft was systematic during the dictatorship...
...Serving demanded that the government intervene to stop the intimidation and, privately, directly implicated the navy in the threats against her...
...It is not part of the judicial branch of government...
...Early this year, for example, the administration supported the promotion of officers accused of human rights violations from the dirty war era, despite pressure from human rights groups...
Vol. 34 • July 2000 • No. 1
