Warrant for arrest of ex-president of Argentina

A judge issued the second arrest warrant in less than a week against former Argentinian president Isabel Peron, summoning her for questioning about a death squad that terrorised the country during her 1974-76 rule.

A judge issued the second arrest warrant in less than a week against former Argentinean president Isabel Peron, summoning her for questioning about a death squad that terrorised the country during her 1974-76 rule.

Judge Norberto Oyarbide ordered the arrest of the 75-year-old former leader in an investigation of kidnappings and killings blamed on the Argentine Anti-communist Alliance, a shadowy paramilitary group best known as the Triple A, a judge’s aide said.

Oyarbide must now request Peron’s extradition from Spain, where she has lived for 25 years, the court official said.

Last Thursday, Judge Raul Acosta issued an unprecedented warrant for Peron’s arrest in connection with the disappearance of a member of the Peronist party in the western Argentine province of Mendoza in February 1976.

The former president, whose formal name is Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, led a chaotic, 20-month government after her husband, Gen. Juan Domingo Peron, died in office during his third elected term in July 1974. She had been vice president.

Isabel Peron governed fitfully and was overthrown in a 1976 military coup, ushering in a seven-year dictatorship blamed in official reports for nearly 13,000 deaths and disappearances. Human rights groups put the toll at closer to 30,000 victims from the campaign against dissent that later became known as the “dirty war.”

Briefly detained and questioned by Spanish police on Friday, Peron has been allowed to remain free at her Madrid home while her lawyers address her mounting legal issues. She went into exile in Spain in 1981 after she was released by coup leaders who had jailed her.

Many human rights activists say the dirty war violence began under Peron, who in October 1975 issued decrees calling on the armed forces to “annihilate” the operations of those deemed “subversive elements.”

Testifying as a witness in a 1997 Spanish case, Peron said she recalled approving the decrees but did not remember details and was unaware of any abuses during her presidency. Her lawyers say the decrees ordered the armed forces only to eradicate the operational capabilities of the guerrillas.

The Triple A is blamed for at least 1,500 killings between 1974 and 1976, a turbulent time of flagging democracy in Argentina when leftists, students, intellectuals, unionists and others were targeted for death. Some of their bodies were found badly burned, others with their hands chopped off during the reign of terror that led up to Peron’s removal.

The cases against Peron are the first in which Argentine courts have focused on human rights crimes before the dictatorship.

Federal judges in Argentina generally enjoy wide latitude to conduct independent investigations, determining whom to question and how to run probes that can be parallel to those of their colleagues.

Acosta, based in Mendoza, has been investigating the disappearance of a 24-year-old Peronist party member there.

Oyarbide, from his court in Buenos Aires, signalled his probe of other crimes encompasses organisational aspects of the Triple A, saying in a statement yesterday that he is examining a suspected “criminal and terrorist” group allegedly part of “institutionally implemented” policies.

Humberto Linares Fontaine, one of Isabel Peron’s lawyers, told the Todo Noticias broadcast network that the fact that two judges issued arrest warrants in such a short time, so many years after the events under investigation, appeared tantamount to “persecution” and would strengthen Peron’s defence in Spain.

The cases have triggered debate in Argentina over who bears legal responsibility for death-squad crimes prior to the dictatorship.

Some leading jurists have scoffed at the attempts to prosecute Peron while others say the justice system should scrutinise others blamed for organising the Triple A, procuring arms, recruiting hit squads and drawing up assassination lists.