Argentina, Brazil, Operation Condor

The Mercopress has the story of dissident "tracking" stations for Argentina, staged in Brazil (Argentina under Plan Condor had tracking stations in Brazil, Jan 7, 2008):

The 1976-1983 Argentine dictatorship held information bases in San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which were meant to “detect people connected to the subversion”, according to a legal prosecution started in Argentina, reported the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper on Sunday.

The probe, which investigated the existence of Argentine bases in neighboring countries during the 1970s and 80s under the framework of the Cóndor Plan, a military scheme organized by Latin American regimes in the 70s and 80s to eliminate political dissidents, was opened at the request of Argentina’s prosecutor office.

The case concluded last December 18, when one policeman and seven military officers, among them former Army commander Cristino Nicolaides, were convicted of human rights violations.

The document, based on the testimony of the Argentine Army Intelligence Battalion 601 prison warden Néstor Norberto Cendón, revealed the Argentine bases were connected to this military unit, an interrogation and torture centre located in Buenos Aires city.

The bases were in charge of intercepting members of the Montoneros guerilla group in foreign territory, and of keeping the Argentine military authorities informed of their movements.

Cendón declared the Army’s intelligence also had bases in Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay as part of a military operation against the Montoneros, called “Murciélago,” as part of the Cóndor Plan.

A week ago, another Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, published declarations by General Agnaldo Del Nero Augusto admitting the neighboring country’s collaboration in the detention of Argentine and other leftist militants as part of the Cóndor Plan.

Del Nero Augusto denied that Argentine detainees had been killed by his government but admitted Brazil’s collaboration in intelligence and training tasks with other dictatorships.

“We didn’t kill. We detained them and handed them over. That’s no crime”, he said, adding that “when we were tipped that a suspect was coming into Brazil the praxis was to arrest him and send him back to his country of origin. I believe that is what happened with the two Argentine-Italians, both Montoneros”.

General Del Nero Augusto was defiant about the actions of the time, “they were members of a communist subversive organization trying to enter the country. What crime is to have them detained?” The detainees were handed to Argentina where they joined the long list of thousands of disappeared.

The Brazilian general said the Condor plan was a “necessary” response to the Revolutionary Coordination Junta of subversive groups from the area which was organized in Paris following the downfall of Chilean Socialist president Salvador Allende.

“We were forced to react” against an organization which included Argentina’s ERP, Uruguay’s Tupamaros; Chile’s MIR and Bolivia’s ELN insisted General Del Nero Augusto.

However he underlined that the Brazilian participation in the Plan Condor was “limited to collaborating with information, handing over foreign agents and monitoring subversives”. The general said that “terrorist groups ignore and violate the rule of the law yet they demand democratic guarantees”.

“Our mistake was not declaring the state of war, just saying “we’re at war” and that would have been the end of all of it”.

A few days later, another Brazilian military officer played down his country’s participation in the Cóndor Plan, and argued that they would not have deported the rebels if they had known they were to be killed.

Italian Pursuit of Operation Condor Participants ... Extradition "NonViable"

Mercopress on December 27 had this update to the story of those seeking justice for Operation Condor:

Brazilian authorities said they were awaiting notification from Italy on arrest warrants for suspects in the coordinated repression campaign during South America's dictatorship era, but also anticipated that Brazilian citizens could not be extradited for trial abroad.

An Italian judge on Monday issued arrest warrants for 146 Latin Americans suspected of involvement in Operation Condor --a coordinated campaign by South American military rulers in the 1970s, early eighties to persecute leftists and dissidents.

The warrants name Argentines, Bolivians, Brazilians, Chileans, Paraguayans, Uruguayans and Peruvians sought for complicity in the deaths of 25 Italian citizens. The list included 13 Brazilians.

"We have received no information, be it from the Italian or Brazilian governments," a Federal Police spokeswoman in Brasilia said. "There is no such thing as extradition of Brazilian citizens for trial abroad. There can be a request from them to be arrested here, but that will depend on the analysis by the Brazilian justice system".

Justice Minister Tarso Genro confirmed an extradition was unlikely. "We have a cooperation treaty on criminal justice with (Italy) but, in principle, Brazilian law doesn't permit extradition," Genro told reporters in Brasilia.

The constitution permits extradition only in the case of common crimes and only of naturalized Brazilians, the minister said. Crimes committed by Brazilians abroad are subject to domestic law. The Supreme Court had the final word, Genro said.

Brazil was under military rule from 1964 to 1985 but unlike the post-dictatorship governments of Chile and Argentina, has made little attempt to bring military men behind human rights abuses to justice.

Families of torture victims and those who disappeared have expressed disappointment in the lack of action by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader who was himself briefly imprisoned under military rule.

Operation Condor was a secret operation among several South American military regimes to coordinate operations to abduct or kill their political opponents, including allowing death squads to cross borders to hunt them down.

A joint information center was set up at the headquarters of Chile's notorious secret police in Santiago. Rights groups say the U.S. government knew of and supported the operation.

O’Globo newspaper said this week that Brazil was not officially part of the secret operation but it allowed "freelance" military and police units to cooperate in certain missions with their counterparts from other countries.

However it was not clear if the Italian judge's action against those on the list who are living in Latin American or elsewhere outside Italy was symbolic or whether the judge would try to have them extradited to Italy. The list includes such notorious characters as Argentina’s military junta members, General Vidiella, Admiral Emilio Massera and deceased Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Italians Pursue Operation Condor Participants

The Mercopress (South America) has this report from Christmas day:

Prosecutors in Italy have issued arrest warrants for 140 people who participated in the South American dictatorships coordinated repression of the seventies, which was known as Operation Condor.

The list includes the former Argentine dictator General Jorge Videla, former head of the Argentine Navy Admiral Emilio Massera and former Uruguayan president Juan María Bordaberry.

Of the long list some have died such as Chile’s notorious Augusto Pinochet and one of them Captain Jorge Fernandez Troccoli from the Uruguayan Navy intelligence services was arrested in Salerno, where he was retired, reported the Italian press.

Troccoli is accused of the disappearance of four people and will be transferred to Rome to face questioning on December 27.

Under Operation Condor, six governments (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) worked together from the 1970s to hunt down and kill left-wing opponents. Italian authorities have been looking into the plot since the late 1990s.

The investigation followed complaints by relatives of South American citizens of Italian origin who had disappeared. Judge Luisann Figliola issued the arrest warrants on Monday, following a request from state prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo.

Those named face charges ranging from lesser crimes to kidnappings and multiple murders. Under Operation Condor the military governments agreed to co-operate in sending teams into other countries to track, monitor and kill their political opponents.

As a result, many left-wing opponents of military regimes in the region who had fled to neighboring countries found themselves hunted down in exile. The Italian Justice is expected to begin in the coming days procedures for the extradition of those people in the list, according to the Italian press.

The list of suspects allegedly includes 61 from Argentina; 32 from Uruguay; 22 from Chile; 13 from Brazil; 7 from Bolivia; 7 from Paraguay and 5 from Peru.

Peter Popham on The Independent adds these details to the story today:

...Among the thousands of deaths of which they are accused is the assassination of Orlando Leletier, a former minister in Salvador Allende's Chilean government, in a 1976 car bomb in Washington....

...The plot between the six countries, details of which have emerged only slowly since the collapse of the military regimes, is said to have been cooked up in Santiago in 1975 when leaders of the military intelligence services from each of the countries met to co-ordinate their extra-legal efforts to wipe out their Marxist and socialist opponents. It was a bid to systematise efforts already under way to bolster and cement in power right-wingers whose first success had been the overthrow and murder of Allende, the first Communist to be elected head of state of a western country, by Pinochet in 1973.

Like the Chilean coup d'etat that preceded it, Operation Condor enjoyed at least the tacit support of the US. The enemies were ostensibly armed left-wing guerrillas, but in fact a wide range of opponents were "disappeared", ranging from activists and trade unionists to intellectuals and artists, often with their families. At least 30,000 people are believed to have been eliminated in the Argentinian Dirty War alone.

Operation Condor was wound up in 1983 after the collapse of the Argentine military junta....

Bolivia, Brazil, Chile reach Atlantic-Pacific highway deal

The MercoPress has the story on South America's transcontinental highway:

The massive project is expected to be finished in 2009, according to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and will benefit the three nations by speeding up trade between them and with the rest of the world.

Local businessmen said the future 4,700-kilometer (2,900-mile) highway will especially benefit Brazilian exporters to Asia and Asian companies seeking greater access to Brazil's 180 million consumers.

For landlocked Bolivia, the transcontinental highway will carry 70% of its exports, said Bolivia's Highway Administration President Patricia Ballivian....