Judgment day for historic South America repression
South American ex-military leaders faced judgment yesterday for their alleged role in the torture and assassination of leftist dissidents during a US-backed crackdown by the region's dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s.
Argentine judges were considering their verdict in the trial of 18 former army officers accused of taking part in "Operation Condor."
In that scheme, the military regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay helped each other track down and kill leftist dissidents.
On Friday, the court convened to deliver its verdict after a three-year trial -- the first to try the crimes committed under the Condor plan.
The operation began in the 1970s at the height of the Cold War. It is blamed for scores of executions and kidnapping -- 89 in Argentina alone.
Among those waiting at the court for the verdict were former abductees and victims' relatives who testified in the trial.
"Justice is coming late, if it is coming at all. But at least it will set a precedent. People should know what happened," said one of them, Lidia Cabrera de Franco, 67, a Paraguayan who was held by the Argentine military in 1977-1978.
Prosecutors based their case partly on declassified US intelligence documents showing how the South American regimes worked together to identify political exiles in neighboring countries and kill them or send them back to their home countries.
Hundreds of army officers and police have been tried in Argentina for atrocities carried out under the country's 1976 to 1983 dictatorship.
Among the accused is Argentina's last military dictator, Reynaldo Bignone. Now aged 88, he faces 20 years in prison, on top of the 15 he is already serving for the theft of babies born to political prisoners.
The court examined evidence relating to 105 victims from Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina.
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