Prisoners Sentenced to Life Imprisonment by Argentina - Miguel Etchecolatz (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (born 1929) was a senior Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006, on charges of homicide, illegal deprivation of freedom (kidnapping), and torture. The tribunal, besides passing the sentence, stated that Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina". The term "genocide" was thus employed for the first time in the official treatment of "Dirty War" crimes, as requested by the accusers. The "Dirty War" was a series of the atrocities committed under the military dictatorship of Argentina during 1976 to 1983. The dictatorship began with a coup d'tat against President Isabel Peron followed by the accession of a military junta led by General Jorge Rafael Videla. During military rule, thousands of political dissidents were either killed or "forcibly disappeared". Etchecolatz was the Commissioner General of Police and the right-hand man of Police Chief Ramn Camps. He served as Director of Investigations of the provincial police from March 1976 until late 1977. During his period in office, Buenos Aires Province had the highest number of illegal detentions in the country. In particular, Etchecolatz was second in command during the Night of the Pencils, when several students were detained and then tortured and murdered. In 1983 democratic rule returned to Argentina. In 1986, Etchecolatz was sentenced to 23 years for illegal detention and forced disappearances, but was spared prison because of the "Pardon Laws" (the Ley de Punto Final and the Ley de Obediencia Debida), wh... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5974682