Daily Headlines: March 21, 2008

* An accused senior member of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance “death squad” returned to Argentina from Spain to face trial.

* Colombia’s FARC guerillas denied accusations over receiving funds and arms from the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela.

* Starting in April, Chile will begin to receive 117 refugees who fled violence in Iraq.

* Will Cuba relax restrictions for those wishing to travel off the island?

Sources- CNN, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Associated Press, BBC News

Image- BBC Mundo (Rodolfo Eduardo Almirón Sena has been accused of having belonged to the “Triple A”)

Today’s Video: Triple A

This week’s video theme of Latin American guerilla and paramilitary groups continues with a look at the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, a.k.a. the Triple A.

The right-wing paramilitary organization lasted a few years especially during the rule of Isabel Peron. However, one report blamed the Triple A for killing 1,122 people and the group would eventually fold into the ruling Argentine military junta during the “Dirty War”.

Below is a subtitled portion of a 1979 Argentine film on the Triple A entitled Las AAA son las tres armas (“The Armed Forces are the AAA”). The film’s writer was killed after joining the Montoneros while the director would end up as one of the thousands of “disappeared.”

(Video link):

Sources- boston.com, BBC News, Wikipedia, tkb.org, imdb.com