BUENOS AIRES-Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla (1976-1978) was arrested June 9 on charges that he was responsible for the kidnapping of children born to women who were imprisoned and "disappeared" during the period of military rule (1976-1983). If convicted, Videla could receive a 25-year sentence.
Videla was one of the leaders of the 1976 coup that ousted President María Estela Martínez de Perón (1974-1976), and he headed the first military junta following the coup. During Argentina's dirty war, Videla had final authority over the death squads that tortured and murdered as many as 30,000 political opponents, mainly leftists.
During the years of the dirty war, a number of infants were born in the regime's secret torture centers, including the infamous Naval Engineering School (ESMA). Those infants, as well as children who were abducted along with their parents, were later given to military couples purportedly so they would receive a "Christian upbringing." Now young adults, many of them still do not know who their parents were or if they were killed by the military.
After the return to democracy, former president Raul Alfonsín (1983-1989) set a South American precedent by putting the junta leaders on trial, though he later passed a law to protect members of the security forces from further prosecution. Gen. Videla was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison on 66 counts of murder, 306 abductions, 97 cases of torture and 26 robberies. In 1990, Videla and all middle-ranking and senior officers were pardoned by President Carlos Saúl Menem. The pardons, however, do not cover child stealing or illegal adoptions.
Federal Judge Roberto Marquevich has been investigating whether a systematic plan existed by the military to take children born in clandestine jails and hospitals and give them to military officers and their wives.
On June 9, Marquevich ordered the arrest of 72-year-old Videla on charges of child kidnapping and falsifying identity documents. Videla was taken into custody at his home in a northern Buenos Aires suburb, then to a facility in San Isidro, 15 miles north of the capital.
Videla is accused of being responsible for the kidnapping of five children, including two who were given to former military physician Norberto Bianco and his wife Susana, who fled to Paraguay after democracy was restored in Argentina in order to escape prosecution. They were later arrested and extradited to Argentina where they pleaded guilty to kidnapping.
Videla could be indicted in other cases of child abduction as well. Marquevich said that his arrest was related to some 38 cases of children who disappeared during military rule.
Human rights advocates hailed Videla's arrest as a victory. "This is the result of more than 20 years of struggling for justice," said opposition deputy Alfredo Bravo, co-president of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, who was jailed and tortured during the dirty war. "Videla and his accomplices in genocide should have never been pardoned."
Estela de Carlotto, director of Grandparents of the Plaza de Mayo, stated that her organization has documented over 230 cases involving the disappearance of children whose parents were detained during the military regime. Of those cases, 59 children have been found.
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