Legal action after the Argentine junta of 1976-83

Scott Horton in his important article in the Dec 2008 Harper's, "Justice After Bush: Prosecuting an outlaw administration" states:

In recent decades, the commission of inquiry, often in the form of a "truth and reconciliation commission," has established itself as the preferred means of approaching politically sensitive issues such as war crimes while avoiding the destabilization that might result from direct prosecutions. In Argentina, Chile, East Timor, Peru, and South Africa, newly elected leaders feared that the criminal prosecution of their predecessors would wreck the fragile political consensus that had been used to establish both peace and a legitimate democracy. ... In other cases, however, the commission's fact-finding process gradually built a public consensus that prosecutorial action was needed. In Peru and Chile, prosecutions occurred even after comprehensive pardons had been granted, as the courts relied on international-law concepts to disregard those pardons. [my emphasis]

There was also a trial of the leaders of the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83 that took place in 2005, known as "el juicio a las juntas".

The Argentine channel Todo Noticias in 2005 presented a Spanish-language documentary on the trials called Juicio a las juntas militares. Lo que nunca se vio.

This Taringa! site has the documentary in two Google videos, with the first part below the second part.

The first part's Google page address is here, but I don't seem to be able to get an embed for here. The playback on this one also seems to be better at the Taringa! site.

The second part of the documentary that sums up the results can be found at Google (also at the Taringa! site):

An article on the documentary, Un revelador documental recordó el histórico juicio a las Juntas Militares por Francisco Rabini Clarín 09.12.2005 reports:

Iniciado el 22 de abril de 1985, el proceso culminó con las condenas a los ex dictadores Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Massera, Roberto Viola, Armando Lambruschini, Raúl Agosti, Rubén Graffigna, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jorge Anaya y Basilio Lami Dozo.

[Beginning on the 22nd of April 1985, the trial culminated in the convictions of the ex-dictators Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Massera, Roberto Viola, Armando Lambruschini, Raúl Agosti, Rubén Graffigna, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jorge Anaya and Basilio Lami Dozo.]

There was a series of disputes afterwards about impunity for less senior officials involved in criminal actions.

Two laws limiting the trial of other perpetrators, called "Obediencia debida" and "Punto Final" were struck down by the Argentine Supreme Court in 2005, clearing the way for other prosecutions. There have been other convictions since then, including against Gen. Luciano Benjamín Menéndez and other officials by a court in Córdoba (July 2008) and against Gens. Antonio Domingo Bussi and Luciano Benjamín Menéndez (again) in Tucamán (Sept 2008).

Tags: argentina, el proceso, juicio a las juntas