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TheTrial of the Juntas (Spanish:Juicio a las Juntas) was the judicial trial of the members of thede facto military government that ruledArgentina during the dictatorship of theProceso de Reorganización Nacional (el Proceso), which lasted from 1976 to 1983.It 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.
The Trial of the Juntas began on 22 April 1985, during the presidential administration ofRaúl Alfonsín, the first elected government after the restoration of democracy in 1983. The main prosecutors wereJulio César Strassera and his assistantLuis Moreno Ocampo (who would go on to become the first Chief Prosecutor of theInternational Criminal Court). The trial was presided over by a tribunal of six judges:León Arslanián, Jorge Torlasco,Ricardo Gil Lavedra, Andrés D'Alessio, Jorge Valerga Aráoz, and Guillermo Ledesma.
Those on trial were:Jorge Rafael Videla,Emilio Eduardo Massera,Roberto Eduardo Viola,Armando Lambruschini,Orlando Ramón Agosti,Omar Graffigna,Leopoldo Galtieri,Jorge Anaya andBasilio Lami Dozo.
The dictatorship was a series of several military governments under fourmilitary juntas. The fourth junta, before calling for elections and relinquishing power to the democratic authorities, enacted aSelf-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.
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 GeneralReynaldo Bignone). TheNational Commission on the Disappearance of Persons was established two days later to collect testimonies from thousands of witnesses, and presented 8,960 cases offorced disappearances to the president on 20 September 1984. Following the refusal of amilitary court to try former junta members, Alfonsín established a National Criminal Court of Appeals for the purpose on 14 October.
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 inLatin America. It was the first major trial held for war crimes since theNüremberg Trials in Germany and theInternational Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo 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,forced disappearance, andmurder of an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 people during what was called theDirty War 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 thesentencing 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 theMinistry of Defense. On October 25, President Alfonsín declared a 60-daystate of emergency.[1]
Prosecutors presented 709 cases, of which 280 were heard. A total of 833 witnesses testified during thecross-examination phase, which lasted until 14 August. Witnesses included former PresidentAlejandro Lanusse, writerJorge Luis Borges,Estela Barnes de Carlotto, President ofGrandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo; "Night of the Pencils" survivor Pablo Díaz;Patricia M. Derian,Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights in theCarter Administration; Dutch juristTheo van Boven, and renownedforensicanthropologistClyde Snow.[2]
Closing arguments were heard on September 18. Chief prosecutor Strassera concluded by declaring that:
I wish to waive any claim to originality in closing this indictment. I wish to use a phrase that is not my own, because it already belongs to all the Argentine people. Your Honors: Never again!(¡Nunca más!)[2]
Sentencing was read on 9 December: GeneralJorge Videla and AdmiralEmilio Massera were sentenced tolife imprisonment, GeneralRoberto Viola: seventeen years, AdmiralArmando Lambruschini: eight years, GeneralOrlando Agosti: four and a half years.
Omar Graffigna,Leopoldo Galtieri,Jorge Anaya andBasilio Lami Dozo were acquitted, though the latter three were concomitantlycourt martialed for malfeasance in waging theFalklands War of 1982. Charges against 600 others were brought to court, but these lawsuits were hampered by theFull Stop Law of 1986, which limited suits to those indicted within 60 days of the law's enactment, and theLaw of Due Obedience of 1987, which effectively halted most remaining trials of Dirty War perpetrators.
Between 1989 and 1990, PresidentCarlos Menem pardoned the men who had been sentenced or court-martialed. PresidentNéstor Kirchner obtained anArgentine Supreme Court ruling permittingextraditions in cases ofcrimes 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.[3]
On 6 September 2006, Judge Norberto Oyarbide ruled that the pardons granted by President Menem were unconstitutional.[4] On 25 April 2007, a federal court struck downVidela's presidential pardon and restored his convictions for human rights abuses.
In 2006, the government triedMiguel Etchecolatz, the first to be prosecuted of potentially 600 defendants. Witnesses and the judges were threatened, and immediately after the sentencing,Julio Jorge López disappeared. A victim of state violence and witness for the prosecution, he was feared dead and has never been found.[5]
The original video tapes of the trial have been inNorway since 1988. All of the Trial's judges traveled toOslo on April 25 of that year with 147VHS tapes which were given to theNorwegian Parliament in order to keep them safe and avoid any commercial use.[6] They are kept next to the original text of theConstitution of Norway.[7]
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