![Moreno ocampo juicio juntas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Moreno_ocampo_juicio_juntas.jpg)
The Trial of the Juntas ( es, Juicio a las Juntas) was the judicial trial of the members of the ''de facto'' military government that ruled
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
during the dictatorship of the
Proceso de Reorganización Nacional
The National Reorganization Process (Spanish: ''Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'', often simply ''el Proceso'', "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, in which it was supported by the United Sta ...
(''el proceso''), which lasted from 1976 to 1983.
The trial took place in 1985 and is so far the only example of such a large scale procedure by a democratic government against a former dictatorial government of the same country in Latin America.
Those on trial were:
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla (; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and dictator, Commander in Chief of the Army, member of the Military Junta, and ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981. H ...
,
Emilio Eduardo Massera
Emilio Eduardo Massera (19 October 1925 – 8 November 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer, and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2 (also known as ''Propaganda Due'' ...
,
Roberto Eduardo Viola
Roberto Eduardo Viola (13 October 1924 – 30 September 1994) was an Argentine military officer who briefly served as president of Argentina from 29 March to 11 December 1981 as a military dictator.
Early life
He was born as Roberto Eduardo Vio ...
,
Armando Lambruschini
Armando Lambruschini (June 15, 1924 – August 15, 2004) was an admiral in the Argentine Navy.
Life and career
Lambruschini enrolled at the Argentine Naval School in 1942, and graduated as a midshipman in 1946. He was later named Captain of ...
,
Orlando Ramón Agosti
Orlando Ramón Agosti (22 August 1924 – 6 October 1997) was an Argentine general, Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Air Force from 1976 to 1979. With General Jorge Rafael Videla, he ruled Argentina as part of the military ''junta'' betwee ...
,
Omar Graffigna
Omar Domingo Rubens Graffigna (April 2, 1926 – December 9, 2019) was an Argentine Air Force officer who served in the second military junta of the National Reorganization Process dictatorship. Along with Santiago Omar Riveros, he was one of th ...
,
Leopoldo Galtieri,
Jorge Anaya
Admiral Jorge Isaac Anaya (27 September 1926 – 9 January 2008) was a Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy. He was born in Bahía Blanca, in the province of Buenos Aires. He participated in the right-wing military dictatorship known as t ...
and
Basilio Lami Dozo
Basilio Arturo Ignacio Lami Dozo (1 February 1929 – 1 February 2017) was a member of the Argentine Air Force. He participated in the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganisation Process (1976–1983) and, along with Leopoldo For ...
.
Overview
The Trial of the Juntas began on 22 April 1985, during the presidential administration of
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (12 March 1927 – 31 March 2009) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after more than ...
, the first elected government after the restoration of democracy in 1983. The main prosecutors were
Julio César Strassera
Julio César Strassera (September 18, 1933 – February 27, 2015) was an Argentine lawyer and jurist. He served as Chief Prosecutor during the Trial of the Juntas in 1985.
Life and times
Early life
Strassera was born in Buenos Aires in 1933. H ...
and his assistant
Luis Moreno Ocampo
Luis Moreno OcampoMoreno Ocampo's surnames are often hyphenated in English-language media to mark Moreno as a surname, not a given name. (born 4 June 1952) is an Argentine lawyer who served as the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Co ...
(who would go on to become the first Chief Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...
.) The trial was presided over by a tribunal of six judges:
León Arslanián, Jorge Torlasco,
Ricardo Gil Lavedra
Ricardo Gil Lavedra (born 24 July 1949) is an Argentine lawyer, magistrate, and politician. A member of the Radical Civic Union, Gil Lavedra served as Minister of Justice during the early presidency of Fernando de la Rúa, from 1999 to 2000. From ...
, Andrés D'Alessio, Jorge Valerga Aráoz, and Guillermo Ledesma.
The dictatorship was a series of several military governments under four
military junta
A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
s. The fourth junta, before calling for elections and relinquishing power to the democratic authorities, enacted a Self-Amnesty Law on April 18, 1983, as well as a secret decree that ordered the destruction of records and other evidence of their past crimes.
Preparation
Three days after his inauguration, on 13 December 1983, President Alfonsín signed Decree No. 158, which mandated the initiation of legal proceedings against the nine military officers of the first three juntas, but not the fourth (ruled by General
Reynaldo Bignone). The
National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons
National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Spanish: ', CONADEP) was an Argentine organization created by President Raúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, shortly after his inauguration, to investigate the fate of the ''desaparecidos'' (v ...
was established two days later to collect testimonies from thousands of witnesses, and presented 8,960 cases of
forced disappearances
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
to the president on 20 September 1984. Following the refusal of a
military court
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
to try former junta members, Alfonsín established a National Criminal Court of Appeals for the purpose on 14 October.
Trial of the Juntas
This trial, which officially began on 22 April 1985, is so far the only example of such a large scale procedure by a democratic government against a former dictatorial government of the same country in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. It was the first major trial held for war crimes since the
Nüremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...
in Germany following World War II, and the first to be conducted by a civilian court. It succeeded in prosecuting the crimes of the juntas, which included kidnapping,
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
,
forced disappearance
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a State (polity), state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or po ...
, and
murder of an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 people during what was called the
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 as ...
against political dissidents. Opposition to the trial was largely limited to critical commentary by politicians, lawyers, and media figures sympathetic to the dictatorship. Some protest became violent: during the
sentencing
In law, a sentence is the punishment for a crime ordered by a trial court after conviction in a criminal procedure, normally at the conclusion of a trial. A sentence may consist of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions. Sentences for mult ...
phase of the trial, 29 bomb threats were made to several Buenos Aires schools, and a number of bombs were detonated in key government installations, including the
Ministry of Defense
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...
. On October 25, President Alfonsín declared a 60-day
state of emergency.
Prosecutors presented 709 cases, of which 280 were heard. A total of 833 witnesses testified during the
cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan known as examination-in-chief) and ...
phase, which lasted until 14 August. Witnesses included former President
Alejandro Lanusse
Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander.
Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander ( Czech, Polish), Alexandre (French), Alexandros ( Greek), Alsander ( Irish), Alessandro ( Italian), Aleksand ...
, writer
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
,
Estela Barnes de Carlotto, President of
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo ( es, italic=no, Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) is a human rights organization with the goal of finding the children stolen and illegally adopted during the 1976–1983 Argentine military dicta ...
; "
Night of the Pencils" survivor Pablo Díaz;
Patricia M. Derian
Patricia "Patt" Murphy Derian ( Murphy; August 12, 1929 – May 20, 2016) was an American civil rights and human rights activist who fought racism in Mississippi and went on to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanita ...
,
Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights in the
Carter Administration; Dutch jurist
Theo van Boven
Theodoor Cornelis (Theo) van Boven (born 16 May 1934, Voorburg) is a Dutch jurist and professor emeritus in international law.
In 1977, he was appointed director of the United Nations' Division for Human Rights, a precursor of the UN Human Rights ...
, and renowned
forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...
anthropologist Clyde Snow
Clyde Snow (January 7, 1928 – May 16, 2014) was an American forensic anthropologist. Some of his skeletal confirmations include John F. Kennedy, victims of John Wayne Gacy, King Tutankhamun, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, and Nazi doctor ...
.
[Ciancaglini, Sergio, and Granovsky, Martín. ''Nada más que la verdad: el juicio a las juntas''] (Nothing more than the truth: the trial of the juntas), ''Buenos Aires: Planeta'', 1995.]
Closing arguments were heard on September 18. Chief prosecutor Strassera concluded by declaring that:
File:NUNCA MAS.ogv, Chief Prosecutor Julio César Strassera reads closing arguments.
Sentencing
Sentencing was read on 9 December: General
Jorge Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla (; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and dictator, Commander in Chief of the Army, member of the Military Junta, and ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981. ...
and Admiral
Emilio Massera
Emilio Eduardo Massera (19 October 1925 – 8 November 2010) was an Argentine Naval military officer, and a leading participant in the Argentine coup d'état of 1976. In 1981, he was found to be a member of P2 (also known as ''Propaganda Due'' ...
were sentenced to
life imprisonment, General
Roberto Viola
Roberto Eduardo Viola (13 October 1924 – 30 September 1994) was an Argentine military officer who briefly served as president of Argentina from 29 March to 11 December 1981 as a military dictator.
Early life
He was born as Roberto Eduardo Vio ...
: seventeen years, Admiral
Armando Lambruschini
Armando Lambruschini (June 15, 1924 – August 15, 2004) was an admiral in the Argentine Navy.
Life and career
Lambruschini enrolled at the Argentine Naval School in 1942, and graduated as a midshipman in 1946. He was later named Captain of ...
: eight years, General
Orlando Agosti
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures relea ...
: four and a half years.
Omar Graffigna
Omar Domingo Rubens Graffigna (April 2, 1926 – December 9, 2019) was an Argentine Air Force officer who served in the second military junta of the National Reorganization Process dictatorship. Along with Santiago Omar Riveros, he was one of th ...
,
Leopoldo Galtieri,
Jorge Anaya
Admiral Jorge Isaac Anaya (27 September 1926 – 9 January 2008) was a Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Navy. He was born in Bahía Blanca, in the province of Buenos Aires. He participated in the right-wing military dictatorship known as t ...
and
Basilio Lami Dozo
Basilio Arturo Ignacio Lami Dozo (1 February 1929 – 1 February 2017) was a member of the Argentine Air Force. He participated in the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganisation Process (1976–1983) and, along with Leopoldo For ...
were acquitted, though the latter three were concomitantly
court martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
ed for malfeasance in waging the
Falklands War of 1982. Charges against 600 others were brought to court, but these lawsuits were hampered by the
Full Stop Law
The Full stop law, ''Ley de Punto Final'', was passed by the National Congress of Argentina in 1986, three years after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976 to 1983) and restoration of democracy. F ...
of 1986, which limited suits to those indicted within 60 days of the law's enactment, and the
Law of Due Obedience of 1987, which effectively halted most remaining trials of Dirty War perpetrators.
Aftermath
Between 1989 and 1990, President
Carlos Menem pardoned the men who had been sentenced or court-martialed. President
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, Secretary General of UNASUR and ...
obtained an
Argentine Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Argentina ( es, link=no, Corte Suprema de Argentina), officially known as the Supreme Court of Justice of the Argentine Nation ( es, link=no, Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina, CSJN), is the highest court of l ...
ruling permitting
extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
s in cases of
crimes against humanity in 2003, and that same year the Congress repealed the Full Stop Law. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that the 1986 and 1987 laws shielding officers accused of crimes were unconstitutional.
In 2006 the government tried
Miguel Etchecolatz
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (1 May 1929 – 2 July 2022) was an Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship of the 1970s. Etchecolatz was deeply involved in the " ...
, the first to be prosecuted of potentially 600 defendants. Witnesses and the judges were threatened, and immediately after the sentencing,
Julio Jorge López Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to:
*Julio (given name)
*Julio (surname)
*Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
* ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...
disappeared. A victim of state violence and witness for the prosecution, he was feared dead and has never been found.
Archives
The original video tapes of the trial have been in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
since 1988. All of the Trial's judges traveled to
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
on April 25 of that year with 147
VHS tapes which were given to the
Norwegian Parliament
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
in order to keep them safe and avoid any commercial use. They are kept next to the original text of the
Constitution of Norway.
Aquellos testimonios del Juicio a las Juntas
/ref>
See also
*Ley de Obediencia Debida
The Law of Due Obedience ( es, Ley de obediencia debida) was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (which started with a coup d'état in 1976 and e ...
*Ley de Punto Final
The Full stop law, ''Ley de Punto Final'', was passed by the National Congress of Argentina in 1986, three years after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976 to 1983) and restoration of democracy. Fo ...
*Carapintada
The ' ( en, Painted Faces) were a group of mutineers in the Argentine Army, who took part in various uprisings between 1987 and 1990 during the presidencies of Raúl Alfonsín and Carlos Menem in Argentina. The rebellions, while at first thought ...
s
*CONADEP
National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Spanish: ', CONADEP) was an Argentine organization created by President Raúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, shortly after his inauguration, to investigate the fate of the ''desaparecidos'' (v ...
*Greek junta trials
The Greek junta trials ( el, Οι Δίκες της Χούντας translated as: The Τrials of the Junta) were the trials involving members of the military junta that ruled Greece from 21 April 1967 to 23 July 1974. These trials involved the ins ...
*''Argentina, 1985
''Argentina, 1985'' is a 2022 Argentine historical legal drama film produced and directed by Santiago Mitre. Written by Mitre and Mariano Llinás, it stars Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner and Norman Briski. The film follows ...
'', a historical drama about the trial
References
Decree No. 158
- Presidential decree that mandated the prosecution of the juntas.
with Julio César Strassera.
* Clarín, 2005-12-09
{{Raúl Alfonsín
Presidency of Raúl Alfonsín
Legal history of Argentina
Dirty War
Trials in Argentina
1985 in Argentina
Articles containing video clips