Orlando Ramón Agosti (22 August 1924 – 6 October 1997) was an Argentine general, Commander-in-Chief of the

Argentine Air Force The Argentine Air Force (, or simply ''FAA'') is the air force of Argentina and one of three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. In 2018, it had 13,837 military and 6,900 civilian personnel. FAA commander in chief is Brigadie ...

from 1976 to 1979. With General Jorge Rafael Videla, he ruled

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 ...

as part of the military '' junta'' between 1976 and 1981.

Early life and education

Orlando Agosti was born in San Andres de Giles, a district of Buenos Aires, on Aug. 22, 1924, to parents of Italian descent. He graduated from the Military Aviation School in 1947. Soon after, he married Elba Esther Boccardo, and they had two children together.

Career

He advanced quickly in the Air Force, and was selected for prominent positions. He was appointed as a

military attaché A military attaché or defence attaché (DA),Defence Attachés
''Geneva C ...

to the United States and Canada. By 1976 he had been promoted to a Brigadier General.

Military dictatorship

Appointed Commander in Chief of the Air Force on January 1, 1976, Agosti became one of the ruling junta under General Jorge Videla in 1976, after the military coup d'état of

Isabel Perón Isabel Martínez de Perón (, born María Estela Martínez Cartas; 4 February 1931) is an Argentine politician who served as the 41st president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the List of elected and appointed female heads of s ...

's government. It carried out a counter-insurgency campaign of terrorist and political repression against those it loosely defined as leftist dissidents from 1976 to 1983, known as 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 ...

. This crushing of the opposition resulted in an estimated 30,000 "disappeared" and dead, according to human rights groups. Many victims were tortured in hundreds of secret detention centers that were set up around the country, often in military schools or installations. The Air Force was less directly involved than other parts of the armed forces in the political repression and terrorism. An estimated 500,000 people fled the country into exile, to survive. These included many journalists, artists and writers, and intellectuals."Orlando Agosti"
, TRIAL Watch (Swiss Association against Impunity) website, 2010, accessed 13 June 2013

Restoration of democracy

After the restoration of democracy, the former military leaders were tried for crimes committed under the dictatorship in the 1985 Trial of the Juntas. In 1985, he was accused of commanding 88

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

s, 581 illegal arrests, 278 cases of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

(of which seven resulted in death), 110 thefts in aggravating circumstances, and 11 abductions of minors. The Air Force had played a smaller role in the

state terrorism State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state's citizens. It contrasts with '' state-sponsored terrorism'', in which a violent non-state actor conducts an act of terror under sponsorship of a state. ...

during the Dirty War than the other armed services. In December 1985, Agosti was found guilty of eight specific counts of torture and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. The Argentine Supreme Court further reduced the sentence to three years and nine months. The only one of the top-ranking junta to serve his complete sentence, Agosti was released from prison on May 9, 1989. In 1990, he and other former top officers were pardoned by President Carlos Saul Menem as part of a reconciliation process. His appeal in 1993 to have his military rank restored was not successful in the courts. Orlando Ramón Agosti died in 1997.

References

External links

"Orlando Agosti"
TRIAL Watch (Swiss Association against Impunity) website, 2010
"Orlando Ramon Agosti"
S9.com/ Biographical Dictionary website , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Agosti, Orlando Ramon 1924 births 1997 deaths Operatives of the Dirty War Argentine people of Italian descent Deaths from cancer in Argentina Argentine people convicted of crimes against humanity Argentine Air Force brigadiers People convicted of torture People from Buenos Aires Province Prisoners and detainees of Argentina Recipients of Argentine presidential pardons