Leopoldo Galtieri --
Argentine Junta Ruler, Torturer, Mass Murderer
General Leopold F. Galttieri a graduate of the notorious Schools of the Americas died in 2003 at the age of 76. This man is most noted for causing the Falklands war in 1982 when he tried to reclaim the Falklands Islands from British rule. General Galtieri summarily lost the Falklands war as Britain sent out its navy to thwart the Argentines. His dictatorship over Argentina lost face in this battle for the Falklands Islands and led to a coup displacing him as dictator of Argentina Galtieri's junta was soon found guilty of up to 30,000 'disappeared' in the dictators 'dirty war' on the Argentine people.
Galtiera had been accused of a variety of human rights abuses during his tenure from 1976-1983. He was charged with being involved with the disappearance of children of leftists and was also found guilty of the kidnapping and torturing of 20 members of the left-wing guerrilla group. The General and other leaders of this very militaristic junta were tried for human rights crimes when democracy was restored in 1983. One of their grossest crimes was the drugging of thousands of dissidents who were thrown alive from aircraft into the ocean or rivers. Other dissidents were buried in secret graves and babies born to detainees were often stolen and the prisoners killed.
Even though found guilty of these horrendous crimes the leaders were give amnesties and freed in the late 80s and early 90s. However in 2004 the amnesty was found to be unconstitutional and he was once more detained.
But what led Argentina toward a fascist right wing, murderous, torturous junta? At the beginning leading up to the crises was the fact that the middle class in Argentina were losing the battle to anti-union, low paying multinational corporations. As David Rockefeller made loans to the junta to help back repression of unions and liberal thinking people he stated of the murderous regime, " I have the impression that finally Argentina has a regime which understands the private enterprise system." Ah, the madness of a self indulgence mind.
Rockefeller was only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The prime thrust came from the world's (laughable) leader of democracy. The US trained more than 80,000 people in their School of the Americas and other academies and the treachery has spread across Latin and South America as well as the Middle East and other far flung countries.
Here are some examples of what the US School of the Americas, General Galtieri's junta, multinationals, and rich men such as Rockefeller created in Argentina. And please remember, though this is the past it remains much the same today and into the future.
-Adolfo Perez Esquivel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was imprisoned foe a year and 2 months in an Argentine jail.
-Carla Ates was only 9 months old when she and her mother were abducted by the Argentine Federal Police and taken to a detention centre. Carla's mother was beaten and tortured by Eduardo Ruffo (chief of the State Intelligence Agency, an admirer of Hitler, had been a member of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance which was/is a very violent right-wing death squad made up of military personnel and police.
-Carla, having been adopted by Ruffo, was beaten with anything handy and whipped with a belt. Carla's grandmother searched for nine years to find Carla. She, along with hundreds of grandmothers, demonstrated for the return of their grandchildren. One time an eight year old Carla saw her grandmother with her photo on television and recognized herself. Carla asked Ruffo about this and was beaten. Another two years went by until finally Ruffo was arrested and Carla re-united with her grandmother. Nevertheless they were constantly harassed by Ruffo's AAA friends and managed to move to Spain.
It should be noted that Carla's horror story is one of the very few that was resolved for the better. Five hundred babies were kidnapped during the life and strife of the junta as it was promoted by countries such as the USA by the School of the Americas, individuals such as Rockefeller and American based multi-nationals.. Only 66 of these stolen babies were ever recovered.
It should be noted that the stealing of babies from the liberal society in Argentina was a program that came down from the top leaders of the junta. The babies were stolen from what the junta purported to be "sick, Marxist, subversives" and given to childless military families for a "Christian" upbringing. Some babies were deemed damaged and were killed. One political prisoner was made to watch his 20 day old baby tortured with electric cattle prods to make the parent talk.
All mothers were killed after the birth of their babies. The mothers were blindfolded, chained to their beds and given caesarian births. Many of these births took place at the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA). Of the 5,000 prisoners held at ESMA only 150 got out alive.
This is true terror and I'm sure that there are very few who would back up these insanities of an ultra right wing junta government. But back them up they did! The junta was approved by the US. The Argentine military was trained, armed, and financed by Washington. The Argentine military was following the horrid instructions it had been given in the Pentagon schools. It was 1976 when Kissinger met with Admiral Cesar Guzetti who was the junta's foreign minister. They were both at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Santiago, Chilé. In conversation Kissinger approved of the actions of the Argentine junta. This is no surprise as he had approved also of the Pinochet junta in Chilé. It is also known that US Intelligence officials were well aware of the lies that kept the Argentina dirty war going as well as how guerrilla groups had been infiltrated by the military.
It is interesting to note that from 1950 to 1975 there were 2,766 members of the Argentine military that had attended US military schools with over 600 going to the horrid, terrorist US Army School of the Americas. It was here that some of the junta members were sold on total war of extermination using murder, torture, extortion, blackmail, kidnapping, sabotage and bribery. There were two junta leaders in Argentina at this time who had graduated School of the Americas. They were Army Generals Roberto Viola and Leopoldo Galtieri as well as Elpidio Rosario Tejeda who was called "Texas" was based at the La Perla camp in Cordoba, which held 2,500 prisoners. Texas was a vicious torturer. Graciela Geuna testified: "Once after he [Texas] had beaten me, I managed to steal a razor blade from the desk. All I wanted was to kill myself, it was the only way to escape the horror. Texas confiscated it, saying `You're not going to be able to die, little girl, until we want you to. We are God here.'
While President Jimmy Carter reduced military aid to the junta in Argentina and publicly pressured it to improve its human rights record. Carter's Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Patricia Derian resigned because of the double message being sent by the US. While Carter talked about human rights the military congratulated the junta. She stated, "Through these agencies," Derian warned, "the U.S. government is sending a dangerous and double message. If this continues, it will subvert our entire human rights policy."
However, Ronald Reagan became president and he and his administration fully backed the (it's hard to find the words for this continued horror) bastards of the junta in Argentina. Reagan praised the elimination (murdering) of the Marxist Threat (innocent liberal minded people). Reagan referred to General Galtieri as 'majestic'. Reagan also encouraged slaughter in Argentina to such a degree that he used Argentine officers to spread the disease of the US School of the Americas across to Central America where under US Command the junta helped train the Contras who killed 40,000 Nicaraguans. This too is the time when Battalion 601 along with the CIA became active in drug trafficking and money laundering. Too bad Reagan had not been prosecuted and sent to jail!
