Argentina: Menendez Gets Life

General Luciano Benjamin Menendez, who had ultimate responsibility over detention centres including La Perla, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the killing of 4 'dissidents' in 1977. And, what is more, he will actually spend the rest of his life in jail: not under house arrest, not in a military institution, but in an actual jail.

Anyone who feels a mite sorry for the octogenarian prisoner might consider his own closing statement to the court:

Menéndez justified the repression of "Marxist subversion," describing it as "defensive efforts" in response to guerrilla attacks. He said Argentina "is the first country to bring victorious soldiers to trial."

Completely unrepentant, the former general said "the terrorists who were illegal before are now legal" and "the guerrillas of the 1970s are now in power."

But "I am confident that they will not be able to carry out their aim of imposing their authoritarian regime on us," he added, to the indignation of the families of the dictatorship’s victims.

Would he have shown any mercy to an infirm 'subversive'? I don't think so.

No House Arrest for Elderly Former General (IPS)