The Batallón de Inteligencia 601 ( Spanish for "601 Intelligence Battalion") was a special

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

intelligence service An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of info ...

of the

Argentine Army The Argentine Army () is the Army, land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander-in-chief of the Armed For ...

whose structure was set up in the late 1970s, active in the

Dirty War The Dirty War () is the name used by the military junta or National Reorganization Process, civic-military dictatorship of Argentina () for its period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and secu ...

and

Operation Condor Operation Condor (; ) was a campaign of political repression by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, involving intelligence operations, coups, and assassinations of left-wing sympathizers in South America which fo ...

, and disbanded in 2000. Its personnel infiltrated and collected information on

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

groups and

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

organisations; and coordinated killings,

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

s and other abuses. The Batallón was under the orders of Guillermo Suárez Mason and ultimately reported to junta leader

Leopoldo Galtieri Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli (15 July 1926 12 January 2003) was an Argentine military officer who served as the ''de facto'' President of Argentina from December 1981 to June 1982. Galtieri ruled as a military dictator, military ruler d ...

.Argentina: Secret U.S. Documents Declassified on Dirty War Atrocities
, The National Security Archive, The George Washington University. The unit took part in Luis García Meza Tejada's '' Cocaine Coup'' in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

in 1980 and trained Contra units in Lepaterique base in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

in the 1980s. It also trained members of the Honduran Battalion 316.

Declassification of documents

On 1 January 2010, President Cristina Fernández of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

ordered that documents pertaining to Batallón 601 be declassified. The documents presented before federal Judge Ariel Lijo contain data on 3,952 civilians, from university professors to concierges, and 345 army personnel who worked for Battalion 601, according to the director of the National Archive of Memory.

References

External links

Declassified US Department of State files
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batallon De Inteligencia 601 1980s in Argentina Anti-communism in Argentina Army units and formations of Argentina Defunct Argentine intelligence agencies Counterterrorism in Argentina Operation Condor Political repression in Argentina 1970s in Argentina 1990s in Argentina 2000s in Argentina

Declassification of documents

See also

References

External links