ÀRGENTINA: Forty-three army officers have been detained in Argentina at the weekend after President Nestor Kirchner annulled a law which protected troops from extradition proceedings in cases involving crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship era, 1976-83. Michael McCaughan reports from Caracas.
One of the detained was Alfredo Astiz, the "angel of death" who infiltrated the Mothers of the Disappeared in 1977 and took part in the kidnap and murder of two French nuns. Astiz has already been condemned to life imprisonment in absentia by a French court.
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon formally requested the extradition of 46 Argentinian repressors in 1998 but proceedings were halted by former President Fernando de la Rua, by means of a presidential decree.
Two of the officers on Judge Garzon's list have since died while one, Antonio Arrechea, is hiding out in rural Argentina.
Retired Gen Antonio Domingo Bussi, recently elected mayor of Tucuman province, handed himself over to the authorities on Saturday. Bussi was governor of Tucuman in the mid-1970s, co-ordinating the torture and disappearance of an estimated 2,000 political suspects.
Another army officer on the list, Juan Antonio Azic, tortured one man by passing electric currents through his body while placing his infant child on his chest and forcing his wife to watch.
"I want nothing more than justice," said Carlos Lordkipanise, who survived the terrifying ordeal, "and I want the repressors to have the legal rights which were denied to us."
Soon after his arrest warrant was made public, Azic attempted suicide. He is being held at a navy hospital, his condition described as serious. Azic belonged to a snatch squad operating out of the Navy School of Mechanics in Buenos Aires, where about 5,000 political suspects were interrogated, tortured and disappeared.
"These cases will take months if not years to process," said Judge Rodolfo Canicobal Corral, the Argentinian judge in charge of the proceedings.
Several of the repressors were already in custody on charges of child theft, notably junta leaders Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera, as these charges were not covered by amnesty laws.
"There will be no extraditions to Europe," said Florencia Varela, a lawyer representing several of the detained army officers. "Garzon is acting out of ideological ambition and these cases have already been dismissed."