Argentine President in pointless Falklands gesture

So it looks as if Argentina is making a pointless protest over the fact that the Falklands are the Falklands and not the Malvinas: The Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will not  attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in a diplomatic snub.


The Argentine embassy in London confirmed to The Independent today that President Fernandez would not be attending at any point during the Games. The spokesman refused to be drawn on whether the decision was a deliberate diplomatic snub to Britain.

Argentina’s president has taken an increasingly hard line on the Falkland Islands, presumably as a pathetic diversion from the fact that the Argentine economy is in a shitty way,

President Fernandez has however called on Argentina’s athletes to refrain from making any overt political gestures during their time in London, a move which was welcomed by the International Olympic Committee.

If the people of the Falklands wanted to be Argentine then I would happily see the Islands cease to be British territory in a hearybeat. Since they don't and many will remember well the last time Argentines visited the islands in numbers it is not going to happen any time soon. Fernandez would do better to look at her country's economy and plenty f other issues rather than engage in these silly postures.

Merry Christmas Mr Videla Ho Ho Ho!

The Telegraph reports that Argentine dictator Jorge Videla, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Videla, 85, ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1981 and was the architect of the "dirty war" during which around 30,000 people were murdered. However, he was convicted for the murder of 31 prisoners who were pulled from civilian jail cells and "shot while trying to escape" in the period after his regime toppled president Isabel Peron.

"Videla ... is a manifestation of state terrorism," judge Maria Elba Martinez said as she handed down the sentence in the central Argentine city of Cordoba.

The former dictator remained unrepentant, telling the court the day before his sentencing that Argentine society had demanded the crackdown to prevent a Marxist revolution and claiming that the country was now run by "terrorists".

Videla also defiantly told the court that he was a political prisoner and denied human rights violations despite saying he accepted "full responsibility" for his actions as his subordinates were only following orders.

He was ordered to be detained for the rest of his life in a federal jail under civilian rather than military rules, denying him any special privileges.

Videla was previously tried and sentenced to life in prison in 1985 but was pardoned five years later by the then-president, Carlos Menem. Three years ago a court ruled that the pardon was unconstitutional, paving the way for the latest trial.

It is a shame that Videla isn’t repentant. That would have made his incarceration all the more miserable. However, that he has been sent to prison is will just have to be good enough..


Perhaps his cell should be decorated with a life size photograph of Dgmar Hagelin (above), the 18 year old Swedish girl who was murdered in the ESMA torture camp.

One thing that irritates me is that while fellow leftists screamed blue murder (quite rightly) about the scumbag Pinochet, there was hardly been a peep about the murderous regime in Argentina.

Oh well. I look forward to reading his obituary in at least 15 years time

The last leader of Argentina’s Junta gets 25 years

The Times reports today that Reynaldo Bignone, Argentina’s last dictator, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights abuses, including kidnappings, torture and murder committed during the country’s “Dirty War”

Bignone, 82, served as Argentina's de facto president between 1982 and 1983. He was convicted with five other former military officers for ordering the torture of dissidents at the Campo de Mayo army base, a clandestine interrogation camp, in the late 1970s. Of the 4,000 political prisoners incarcerated at the prison, only 50 emerged alive.The military also ran a secret maternity unit where dissidents who gave birth had their babies taken away to be adopted by army families

Relatives of victims of the military regime held up photos of their loved ones and cheered as the judge handed down the ruling. “Like with the Nazis, wherever they run, wherever they go, we will find them,” some chanted.

General Bignone, who is currently under house arrest, has been ordered to serve out his sentence in a civilian prison but is likely to appeal on grounds of ill health.

Better justice comes late than never at all. Luckily for him he will not face that which many thousands faced at his hands

Argentine Dirty War suspect arrested

According to the BBC Transavia pilot Julio Alberto Poch, has been arrested in Spain over his alleged role in Argentina's 1976-1983 "Dirty War". He was held at Valencia airport as he was about to fly a passenger plane to Amsterdam, Spanish officials say.

Poch, who has dual Dutch and Argentine nationalities, is said to have been a military pilot at Argentina's Naval Mechanics School – an infamous torture and detention centres of the Argentine military regime. He is alleged to have been involved in the so-called "death flights", in which political prisoners of Argentina's military were drugged and dumped into the sea from the planes.

It is expected that the Argentine Government will ask for his extradition to face trial. Argentine judge Sergio Torres had previously called for the Netherlands to extradite Poch at the end of 2008, after he received testimony from witnesses implicating him in the "death flights".

Judge Torres says he has proof that Poch was involved in the abuses at the ESMA, naval mechanics school. Torres received testimony from a Transavia pilot who said Poch had described to him how the regime's political opponents were thrown into the sea.

"He told me that on board his planes, people were thrown into the sea while still alive with the goal of killing them, and he justified the practice by saying that the people were terrorists," the pilot told the criminal investigation. Another source's testimony also implicates Poch for having "flown regular flights during which groups of people were thrown from his plane into the sea."

Some 30,000 people disappeared during the military dictatorship in Argentina, according to human rights organisations.

If there is enough evidence to extradite Poch I hope he is sent back to Aragentina to face trial. If he is guilty then he deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his worthless life.

Two poems by Alicia Partnoy

Survivor

I carry my rage like a dead fish,
limp and stinking in my arms.
I press it against my breast,
whisper to it,
people on the streets flee from me …
I don't know: is it the smell of death
that makes them flee
or is it the fear
that my body's warmth
might bring rage back to life?


Testimony

This microphone
with its cable coiling around it,
bows to me.
I walk up to it,
open my eyes
open
my book
open
my mouth.
That’s right, I open my mouth wide
and begin my story.
They say
I speak too softly,
that I am practically mumbling,
that they can’t hear
the screams piercing.
I open
my memory
like a rotten cantaloupe.

They say
I have not managed
to forcefully convey the pitiless rage
of the cattle prod.
They say that in matters such as this
nothing must be left
open
to the imagination or to doubt.
I take out
the Amnesty report
and begin speaking through that ink.
I urge: “Read.”
I, in my turn, coil around
my bowing accomplice,
this microphone.
I urge action as a prescription,
information as an infallible antidote
and, one every knot is untied,
I recite my verses.
I resist. I am whole.

This microphone
with its cable coiling around it,
bows to me.

Activist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Partnoy Alicia Partnoy spent over two years in detention during the Argentinian Dirty War, during which she was beaten, starved and sexually assaulted. Her novel The Little School is based on her experiences.