International
pressure brings local justice
Pablo Waisberg
The
prosecution of former dictators and
human rights violators from Argentina
in foreign courts has paved the way
for local trials of the people behind
the last military dictatorship
(1976-83). The external pressure that
led to officials, judges and
institutions taking action was
invaluable to victims’ relatives and
authorities campaigning for the trial
and punishment of perpetrators of
crimes against humanity.
International
support helped penetrate a wall built
from laws known as "Final
Point" and "Due
Obedience" — passed in 1986 and
1987 respectively by former President
Raúl Alfonsín (1983-89) — which
obstructs the trial of former human
rights violators. Fifteen years after
their congressional approval, the
so-called "impunity laws"
were questioned by various federal
judges, who took the issue to the
Supreme Court of Justice, which is yet
to rule on a request from judges that
the laws be declared null (LP, April
9, 2001).
"The
trials abroad helped unfetter the
local justice situation. International
justice acted as a boomerang,"
said María José Guembe, director of
the Program of Memory and Struggle
against Impunity, run by the Center of
Legal and Social Studies (CELS).
The
effects of international pressure were
first felt in the second half of 1998,
when the Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón,
applying the "universal
jurisdiction" principle — which
permits the trial of anyone
responsible for crimes against
humanity, independent of their
nationality or the country where the
crimes were committed — called for
the extradition from the United
Kingdom and trial of the former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
(1973-90) for crimes against humanity
(LP, Nov. 26, 1998). Although Pinochet
was not extradited, the action had
consequences not only in Chile, but
also Argentina, where the wheels of
previously paralyzed prosecutions
began to turn again (LP, April 12,
1999).
In the
last months of 1998, the case
presented by the Grandmothers of the
Plaza de Mayo, which investigated the
existence of a systematic plan to
appropriate children born in the
clandestine jails of the last
dictatorship, at last bore fruit when
the leaders of the de facto government
were imprisoned (LP, Jan. 25, 1999).
Advances in local justice were also
evident in the so-called "truth
trials," which sought to
establish what happened to the
disappeared and the whereabouts of
their bodies (LP, July 23, 2001).
"The
question, instead of conducting the
trials abroad, is how these trials
affect judges and authorities in
Argentina," said Guembe, adding
that "the progress of the
universal jurisdiction principle will
only matter if it facilitates the
development of local processes,
because local trials lead to greater
public analysis and convictions by
local institutions."
Guembe
cited the ongoing trial that began in
1995 in Spain of everyone involved in
the dictatorship, including armed
forces and police or civilians accused
of torture, genocide, forced
disappearance or kidnapping. The trial
"was a major annoyance" for
the government of Carlos Menem
(1989-99), who signed a presidential
decree categorically refusing any kind
of collaboration with Spanish justice.
The
government of Fernando de la Rúa
(1999-2001) took the same line,
refusing Garzón’s extradition
requests for 198 civilians and former
members of the military accused of
genocide and terrorism (LP, Oct. 9,
2000).
Lawyer
Carlos Slepoy, who represents
relatives of the disappeared before
the Spanish judges, said the
extradition orders issued by various
foreign courts "showed criminals
that they can no longer travel freely
and that their last refuge is the
country where they committed the
crimes.
"These
processes, and the sense of
international support they provide,
have encouraged victims, human rights
activists and Argentine judges,"
added Slepoy, "and represent
significant progress in the universal
prosecution of crimes against
humanity."
The
process of bringing former dictators
and human rights abusers before
justice, which was supported by
massive demonstrations every
anniversary of the March 24, 1976
military coup, also included
prosecutions in Germany, Sweden,
France and Italy for the
disappearance, torture and murder of
citizens of those countries in
Argentina.
The new
government of President Néstor
Kirchner took a different line to that
of De la Rúa and Menem, allowing the
June 28 extradition to Spain of former
Argentine Navy Captain Ricardo Miguel
Cavallo, detained in Mexico at the
request of Garzón, who is
investigating the officer for crimes
of genocide, torture and terrorism
(LP, Oct. 9, 2000 and June 18, 2003).
"The
extradition [of Cavallo] will have a
very positive effect on the struggle
against impunity in Argentina,"
said Slepoy, adding that while
"it is an achievement for the
people, it is a source of shame for
Argentine institutions."
On July
8, Garzón repeated his request,
originally made in 2000, for the
detention and extradition of 46
members of the military accused of the
same crimes as Cavallo.
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