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forest444

(5,902 posts) Fri Mar 18, 2016, 08:33 AM Mar 2016

U.S. to declassify dictatorship-era files on Argentina.

Last edited Fri Mar 18, 2016, 09:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

In a historic move that could help shine light on one of the darkest chapters of Argentina’s past, President Barack Obama will declassify decades-old intelligence and military documents to help the ongoing investigations into crimes against humanity. The news, announced yesterday by the White House, sends a strong message days before the 40th anniversary of the last military coup and Obama’s arrival to the country on March 22.

A day after officials announced that President Obama wanted to honor the victims of the last military regime, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice confirmed that Obama will participate in a ceremony at the Memorial Park in Buenos Aires on March 24 - the day of the anniversary.

President Mauricio Macri will likely join him, as will Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, said government sources. Human rights activists such as the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo will be meeting today to define whether they will join the ceremony or if they will instead request a private meeting with the U.S. president.

“To underscore our shared commitment to human rights, the President will visit the Memorial Park to honor the victims of Argentina’s dirty war,” Rice announced yesterday. “In addition to more than 4,000 documents that the US has already released from that dark period, President Obama — at the request of the Argentine government — will announce a comprehensive effort to declassify additional documents —including, for the first time, military and intelligence records,” the adviser said, merely hours after the New York Times called in an editorial for the release the files and to help with the investigations in order to acknowledge the role Washington had during the 1970s and 1980s in the region.

“On this anniversary and beyond, we’re determined to do our part as Argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation,” Rice added.

Read more: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/210947/us-to-declassify-dictatorshipera-files

7 replies

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U.S. to declassify dictatorship-era files on Argentina. (Original Post) forest444 Mar 2016 OP

This could be interesting cannabis_flower Mar 2016 #1

If only. forest444 Mar 2016 #2

What will this mean for Kissinger? shawn703 Mar 2016 #3

Oh, I doubt ol' Henry is sweating this one. forest444 Mar 2016 #4

Nothing at all. a la izquierda Mar 2016 #7

as if they are going to release the files of HOW it became a dictatorship. nt Javaman Mar 2016 #5

Kissinger said it best: forest444 Mar 2016 #6

cannabis_flower

(3,764 posts)

1. This could be interesting

Reply to forest444 (Original post)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 08:36 AM

Mar 2016

it would be nice if this actually led to the criminal Henry Kissinger being charged with crimes and extradited.

forest444

(5,902 posts)

2. If only.

Reply to cannabis_flower (Reply #1)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 08:41 AM

Mar 2016

That old blob is probably beyond the reach of man's justice, sadly. Once his sorry soul departs, that'll be a different story.

shawn703

(2,702 posts)

3. What will this mean for Kissinger?

Reply to forest444 (Original post)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 10:22 AM

Mar 2016

forest444

(5,902 posts)

4. Oh, I doubt ol' Henry is sweating this one.

Reply to shawn703 (Reply #3)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 11:48 AM

Mar 2016

I'm pretty sure he had everything that could incriminate him removed from the declassification pile.

a la izquierda

(11,795 posts)

7. Nothing at all.

Reply to shawn703 (Reply #3)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 09:41 PM

Mar 2016

There's enough declassified info to nail him to the wall...yet, nothing has happened. I use declassified phone record in my classes and his name is all over them.

Javaman

(62,532 posts)

5. as if they are going to release the files of HOW it became a dictatorship. nt

Reply to forest444 (Original post)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 11:50 AM

Mar 2016

forest444

(5,902 posts)

6. Kissinger said it best:

Reply to Javaman (Reply #5)

Fri Mar 18, 2016, 09:23 PM

Mar 2016

"The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes longer."

In all seriousness though, as much as Kissinger and the CIA supported the coup it really was mostly the work of Argentina's own very reactionary elites.

The dictator that took power in 1976, Gen. Jorge Videla (the Army Chief of Staff up to that point), admitted shortly before his death in 2013 that the military and President Isabel Perón were more or less on the same page in terms of police state tactics (although the dictatorship took it much further than Mrs. Perón did).

The real motivation for the coup, according to Videla, was the clamoring on the part of economic interests (mostly local, but some foreign ones as well - notably David Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan).

Big landowners, banking, and large employers all wanted deep tax cuts, deregulation, a sharp reduction in labor costs (Argentine workers were the most unionized and best paid in the region), and of course the elimination of labor unions, populists, and everyone else they considered a thorn on their sides.

The coup took place in March, just 8 months before the next elections. But allowing the hapless Isabel Perón to limp along until the end of her term and an elected successor to succeed her (even a conservative one) would have deprived Argentina's elite of what they saw as a unique opportunity to reshape the country along basically fascist lines. They just couldn't let a crisis go to waste and an opportunity like that pass them by.

Kissinger and the CIA agreed.

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