Argentina: Ex-spy charged with Dirty War deaths

In April former Argentine de facto president Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to 25 years in jail for Dirty War-era human rights violations.

Last week imprisoned ex-strongman Jorge Videla was presented with 49 charges of torture, kidnapping, and murder.

On Monday another figure linked to the infamous military regime that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983 was caught by the long arm of the law.

Former spy Miguel Angel Furci was charged with seventy kidnappings during his time as a secret service member. In addition, he was accused of torturing political prisoners at a Buenos Aires detention center that was housed in an automotive garage. Hundreds of the detainees at Automotores Orletti were reputedly victims of Operation Condor, described by BBC News as such:

Dozens of Uruguayans were reportedly held there as part of Operation Condor, which involved the kidnapping, torture and assassination of leftists and dissidents in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.

During his pre-trial court hearing Furci- who previously served a seven-year sentence for the kidnapping of a “disappeared” Uruguayan- admitted that he was aware of the secret prison and also helped in the “functional dependence” of Argentina’s SIDE secret police agency.

Furci’s trial begins next month and he will be tried along with six other defendants including former SIDE agents and senior officials.

Image- radiofmq.com (Current locate of the infamous Automotores Orletti secret prison in Buenos Aires)
Online Sources- Telam, BBC News, The Latin Americanist, ABC.es