Alfredo Astiz
Encyclopedia
Alfredo Ignacio Astiz was a Commander
, intelligence office and maritime commando in the Argentine Navy
during the dictatorial rule of Jorge Rafael Videla
in the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976–1983). He was known as El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte (the "Blond Angel of Death
").
He was a member of GT332 (Task Force 332) based in the Naval Mechanics School (ESMA
) in Buenos Aires
during the Dirty War
of the late 1970s. GT332 was involved in the deaths of many of the 9,000 to 30,000 victims of forced disappearance
during this period, and ESMA became a secret concentration camp where as many as five thousand political prisoner
s were held, torture
d and murdered.
Astiz, a specialist in the infiltration
of human rights NGOs, was charged in 1976 with the kidnapping of Azucena Villaflor
, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. He surrendered to British forces at the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War
, and although he was wanted by Sweden and France for the forced disappearance
s in 1977 of Dagmar Ingrid Hagelin, a 17-year old, Argentine-born girl holding Swedish citizenship, and of two French nuns, Alice Domon
and Léonie Duquet
, he was repatriated to Argentina. A French court
convicted him in absentia
to a life sentence in 1990.
After the Argentine Supreme Court's 2003 decision that the amnesty implemented during the transition to democracy (Ley de Obediencia Debida
and Ley de Punto Final
) was unconstitutional, legal action against Astiz was renewed and he was given a life sentence by the supreme court on 26 October 2011.
lawyer named Martín Gras, a survivor of the many Astiz kidnapped, claimed that Astiz was a charming man who rarely tortured or murdered those he kidnapped but merely handed them on to others in the system. Yet Astiz was well thought of within the armed forces for his effective interrogation techniques, and in 1979 he was sent to the Argentine embassy in South Africa
to give a series of seminars on torture techniques to the South African security police. While there, he also participated in a number of discussion groups to exchange ideas regarding methods of interrogation.
In 1977 Astiz kidnapped Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti
, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a non-violent group of mothers protesting against the disappearance of their children. Neither she, nor any of the other early members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo kidnapped by Astiz on the same night, were ever seen again. While Astiz kidnapped hundreds of people during 1976 and 1977, it was his kidnap and mistreatment of three foreigners that was later to cause him minor inconvenience as a prisoner of war
.
On January 27, 1977 Dagmar Hagelin
, a 17-year-old girl having Swedish
citizenship through her father, the Swedish citizen Ragnar-Erland Hagelin, who has been tirelessly battling to bring Astiz to justice since the early 1980s (her mother was an Argentine called Buccicardi), was shot and wounded by Astiz while attempting to escape; it is said that Astiz mistook her for a Montoneros
activist to whom she bore some physical resemblance and who was a mutual acquaintance of fellow-activist Norma Susana Burgos. Witnesses saw her later at the ESMA
torture center and alleged that Astiz was in charge of her interrogation. According to the Argentine Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs tasked to follow up Swedish complaints at the time of Hagelin's shooting and abduction, Captain Jorge Eduardo Acosta
, the commander of GT332, stated "setting her free is out of the question. We must not give in to public opinion. We must appear strong" – apparently because of the seriousness of the injuries caused by Dagmar's shooting that had rendered her paralyzed, also affecting her cognitive abilities. Inés Carazzo, then a detainee enslaved and regularly raped by Captain Antonio Pernias, another GT332 officer, claims that Acosta ordered that Hagelin be put to death in a "death flight". Hagelin joined the ranks of the "disappeared" and is thought to have been killed and cremated
at the ESMA. There is no direct evidence that Astiz had any part in the affair after shooting and kidnapping Hagelin, but there is also no evidence of who killed her, who interrogated her or even whether she was interrogated at all. As a result of the very nature of "disappearances" cases, such evidence is notoriously hard to find, which explains why Astiz has been charged with only a few of the crimes he is suspected of having carried out.
Alice Domon
and Léonie Duquet
, two French nuns, were members of a support group for victims of forced disappearance which was infiltrated by Astiz. A forged photograph aimed at pretending that they had been kidnapped by the Peronist leftist group the Montoneros was leaked to the graphic media before their assassination. Astiz kidnapped them in December 1977 and was witnessed torturing them by beating them, immersing them in water and applying electrified cattle prods to their breasts and into their genitals and mouths. Their bodies were identified (along with that of Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti) by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
(also known by their finding and identification of Che Guevara
's corpse in Bolivia) in August 2005.
(frogmen
), dubbed los lagartos (the lizards), which carried out the first act of aggression in the Falklands War
. On March 19, 1982 they landed on South Georgia
, under the guise of the workers of the Argentine scrap metal dealer Constantino Davidoff. Officially they were there to scrap three derelict whaling
stations at Leith Harbour
which had been purchased by their employer in 1979. Instead, they dressed up in uniform and raised the Argentine flag in full view of a British Antarctic Survey
party.
The next day, March 20, the local head of the British Antarctic Survey handed Astiz a note transcribed from a radio message by the Governor of the Falklands. The note told Astiz to take down his flag and leave. Astiz took down the flag but did not leave. Later that day, , the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, was dispatched from Stanley
on the Falklands
to Grytviken
, the main British Antarctic Survey base on South Georgia, with 22 Royal Marines ordered to evict him. They arrived on March 23, hours before a number of Argentine marines landed near Grytviken. More Argentine marines turned up over the following days and there was an armed clash at Grytviken. After damaging an Argentine frigate and forcing down an Aerospatiale Puma helicopter, inflicting casualties in both cases, the Royal Marines surrendered to overwhelming force in order to avoid needless loss of life. They were quickly repatriated to the UK. Astiz, a junior officer, was not in command of this operation and neither he nor his frogmen were involved in either this or later fighting.
In spite of atrocious weather that wrecked two helicopters attempting to land SAS teams for reconnaissance, British forces successfully attacked and disabled the Argentine submarine ARA San Luis. The photograph of the sunken submarine in Grytviken harbour became one of the iconic images of the conflict. A hastily assembled 75-man force of Royal Marines, SAS and SBS supported by naval gunfire was helicoptered ashore and advanced upon Grytviken, forcing the capitulation of the Argentine garrison on 23 April. TV crews missed the signing of the surrender document by the Argentine commander because it occurred so rapidly after the end of the fighting, but Astiz insisted on signing a surrender document for himself and his small band even though they were covered by the surrender of his commanding officer. The face and name of Alfredo Astiz was, incorrectly, splashed over the world media as the commander of the garrison on South Georgia. This publicity led to an erroneous Rambo
-like image, but soon caused problems for Astiz.
Astiz is known to have committed several war crimes during this period, notably attempting to lure Royal Navy helicopters to land on a helipad he had previously mined
, after he had surrendered to British forces. The pilots were suspicious, and landed elsewhere.
Astiz also attempted to encourage Royal Marines across a minefield, after he had surrendered. The mines did not function correctly, as their trigger mechanisms had been frozen solid by the sub-zero weather conditions. Astiz was never tried for these crimes.
, the Argentine Foreign Minister, stated that Argentina was technically in a state of war with the UK. At about the same time an Argentine prisoner (Félix Artuso) was shot dead by a Royal Marine who mistakenly thought he was trying to scuttle a captured submarine. The UK informed Argentina, through Brazilian diplomats, that a board of inquiry would be convened under the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
. The next day the UK claimed the Argentine prisoners were not prisoners of war because they were taken before Argentina declared hostilities. Six days later they changed their mind. In a 1983 article, Meyer opines that this was because the UK had already implied the Argentine detainees were prisoners of war by applying provisions of the Geneva Conventions. It was justified by the reference in the common articles to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to their applicability to "declared war or any other armed conflict" between signatories.
About three weeks after they were captured the UK announced it would repatriate all 151 soldiers and 39 civilians, five of whom were not Argentine citizens, held in detention on South Georgia. The wide publicity surrounding the surrender of Astiz had already prompted first the Swedish and then the French to make the UK aware that Astiz was accused of criminal acts against their nationals. As they were being shipped to Ascension Island
to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) and flown home, Sweden asked to question Astiz. Soon after the French government asked that Astiz be held while they sought legal remedies for the "disappearances" of the nuns. Both countries stated that they had eyewitnesses for the "disappearances." The UK initially responded that concerned parties should talk to the ICRC as they would be handing Astiz to them. However, the ICRC steadfastly refused the countries' requests to talk to Astiz should he be handed into their custody. Both nations stepped up diplomatic pressure on the United Kingdom not to hand him over to the ICRC. The UK decided to send home the 189 other detainees, "as an act of compassion", while Astiz was to be held until "the end of the belligerency", initially on Ascension.
The UK government had chosen to read the Third Geneva Convention as protecting Astiz from criminal prosecution in the UK or extradition
. Meyer argues that this was an incorrect reading but was justified at the time by four points. Astiz was in protective custody because of special circumstances i.e. surrendering during war. The Geneva Conventions exhort custodial powers to leniency. Astiz was accused of crimes—kidnapping, wounding and torture—which were illegal in Argentina and he could, in theory, be prosecuted there. In the end Meyer argues that nothing in the Geneva Conventions themselves expressly prohibited the prosecution or extradition of Astiz. However, the extradition treaties between the UK and both Sweden and France referred only to crimes committed within the territory of the requesting state and crimes against international law. But Astiz was accused of crimes against the citizens of these states in Argentina, which were not, at the time, crimes under international law
.
On the other hand, criminal prosecution within the UK was ruled out during his detention because Astiz committed no crimes against British subjects, their possessions or the British State.
Meyer argues that victims of Astiz, or their representatives, might have been successful in securing damages from him if they had brought a civil action while he was in the UK. As with criminal prosecution there is nothing in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 removing the civil liability of prisoners of war for actions committed prior to capture. A British court has jurisdiction over a foreign tort whenever the defendant is in the UK if the alleged act would have been actionable as a tort if committed in Britain and it was an offence under the laws of the foreign country. Torture and kidnap by government officials is actionable as a tort if committed in England. Proving that it was an offence under the laws of Argentina is more difficult. English courts assume that the authorised actions of officials of a foreign government within its sovereign territory are not actionable within their jurisdiction unless those actions are outside the scope of the powers of the government. Since torture is expressly forbidden in the Argentine constitution there is a good argument that Astiz was acting outside his powers as an agent of the Argentine government in torturing Alice Domon
and Léonie Duquet
. Although there were witnesses prepared to testify that they had seen Astiz torture Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet this approach did not seem to have been thought of in time and no such case was brought.
.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15472396
On 16 March 1990 Astiz was convicted and sentenced in absentia
to life imprisonment by a French Assize Court
for his role in the torture and disappearance of the two French nuns, Alice Domon
and Léonie Duquet
. French law allows trials, in absentia if necessary, of foreigners accused of breaking French laws in other jurisdictions if the crimes are committed against French nationals.
Astiz had been arrested several times in Argentina since his repatriation after the Falklands War but until his October 27, 2011 conviction no prosecution against him had been successful. In 2003 the Argentine Supreme Court declared the amnesty laws introduced during the transition to democracy (Ley de Obediencia Debida
and Ley de Punto Final
) unconstitutional. Legal action has since been taken against Astiz, and France is still waiting for his extradition.
He has several times been physically attacked by civilians; a famous assault took place in Bariloche in the mid-1990s.
Along with Luis María Mendía
, former chief of naval operations in 1976–77, Astiz testified in January 2007 before Argentine judges that a French intelligence agent, Bertrand de Perseval, had participated in the abduction of the two French nuns. Perseval, who lives today in Thailand, denied any links with the abduction, but did admit being a former member of the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS), an underground group which fought to subvert the French government of Charles de Gaulle
, and having escaped to Argentina after the March 1962 Evian Accords
which put an end to the 1954–62 Algerian War.
It has long been suspected that French intelligence agents trained their Argentine counterparts in counter-insurgency
techniques involving massive use of torture as in Algeria. Referring to Marie Monique Robin's film documentary titled The Death Squads - the French School (Les escadrons de la mort - l'école française), which claims this, Mendía asked the Argentine Court to summon the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
, the former French premier Pierre Messmer
, the former French ambassador to Buenos Aires Françoise de la Gosse, and all those in office in the French embassy in Buenos Aires between 1976 and 1983. Besides this "French connection" Mendía has also blamed the former head of state Isabel Perón and the former ministers Carlos Ruckauf
and Antonio Cafiero
, who had signed anti-subversion decrees before Videla's 1976 coup d'état. According to the ESMA survivor Graciela Daleo this is another tactic to absolve the actual perpetrators of culpability, like the 1987 Obediencia Debida Act, by trying to shift it to the predecessors of the military government, and the French. Daleo points out that claiming to be obeying Isabel Perón's anti-subversion decrees is grotesque, as those who murdered in the name of the decrees were the ones who had deposed her.
Astiz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
in 2004.
after his surrender in South Georgia are currently exhibited in the Imperial War Museum
, London.
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
, intelligence office and maritime commando in the Argentine Navy
Argentine Navy
The Navy of the Argentine Republic or Armada of the Argentine Republic is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Army and the Air Force....
during the dictatorial rule of Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo is a former senior commander in the Argentine Army who was the de facto President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón...
in the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976–1983). He was known as El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte (the "Blond Angel of Death
Death (personification)
The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood...
").
He was a member of GT332 (Task Force 332) based in the Naval Mechanics School (ESMA
ESMA
The Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics , commonly referred to by its abbreviation ESMA, is a facility of the Argentine Navy that was employed as an illegal detention center during the dictatorial rule of the National Reorganization Process...
) in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
during the Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
of the late 1970s. GT332 was involved in the deaths of many of the 9,000 to 30,000 victims of forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
during this period, and ESMA became a secret concentration camp where as many as five thousand political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s were held, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d and murdered.
Astiz, a specialist in the infiltration
Infiltration tactics
In warfare, infiltration tactics involve small, lightly equipped infantry forces attacking enemy rear areas while bypassing enemy front line strongpoints and isolating them for attack by follow-up troops with heavier weapons.-Development during World War I:...
of human rights NGOs, was charged in 1976 with the kidnapping of Azucena Villaflor
Azucena Villaflor
Azucena Villaflor was an Argentine social activist, and one of the founders of the human rights association called Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which looked for desaparecidos .Villaflor was the daughter of a lower class family, and her mother, Emma Nitz, was only 15...
, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. He surrendered to British forces at the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, and although he was wanted by Sweden and France for the forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
s in 1977 of Dagmar Ingrid Hagelin, a 17-year old, Argentine-born girl holding Swedish citizenship, and of two French nuns, Alice Domon
Alice Domon
Alice Domon, Caty, was a Roman Catholic nun from France whose forced disappearance occurred in Argentina during the military dictatorship of the "National Reorganization Process" .-Life:Alice Domon was born in Charquemont in France's Doubs region...
and Léonie Duquet
Leonie Duquet
Léonie Duquet was a French nun who was killed by the military regime of Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla during the Dirty War.-Biography:...
, he was repatriated to Argentina. A French court
Cour d'assises
A French cour d'assises or Assize Court is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of major felonies or indictable offences, or crimes in French, and one of the few to be decided by jury trialUnder French law, a crime is any...
convicted him in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
to a life sentence in 1990.
After the Argentine Supreme Court's 2003 decision that the amnesty implemented during the transition to democracy (Ley de Obediencia Debida
Ley de Obediencia Debida
Ley de Obediencia Debida was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Obediencia Debida (Spanish, Law of Due Obedience) was a law passed by the...
and Ley de Punto Final
Ley de Punto Final
Ley de Punto Final was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Punto Final (Spanish, roughly translated Full Stop Law) was a law passed by the...
) was unconstitutional, legal action against Astiz was renewed and he was given a life sentence by the supreme court on 26 October 2011.
Kidnapping and torture
Using the false name of Gustavo Niño, Astiz specialized in infiltrating peaceful organisations protesting against extrajudicial execution, identifying their members and, after a sufficient number had been identified, kidnapping them. In 1982 a human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
lawyer named Martín Gras, a survivor of the many Astiz kidnapped, claimed that Astiz was a charming man who rarely tortured or murdered those he kidnapped but merely handed them on to others in the system. Yet Astiz was well thought of within the armed forces for his effective interrogation techniques, and in 1979 he was sent to the Argentine embassy in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
to give a series of seminars on torture techniques to the South African security police. While there, he also participated in a number of discussion groups to exchange ideas regarding methods of interrogation.
In 1977 Astiz kidnapped Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti
Azucena Villaflor
Azucena Villaflor was an Argentine social activist, and one of the founders of the human rights association called Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which looked for desaparecidos .Villaflor was the daughter of a lower class family, and her mother, Emma Nitz, was only 15...
, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a non-violent group of mothers protesting against the disappearance of their children. Neither she, nor any of the other early members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo kidnapped by Astiz on the same night, were ever seen again. While Astiz kidnapped hundreds of people during 1976 and 1977, it was his kidnap and mistreatment of three foreigners that was later to cause him minor inconvenience as a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
.
On January 27, 1977 Dagmar Hagelin
Dagmar Hagelin
Dagmar Hagelin was an Argentine-Swedish girl who disappeared during the Dirty War on January 27, 1977 and is presumed to have been arrested by security forces in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and murdered in a case of mistaken identity...
, a 17-year-old girl having Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
citizenship through her father, the Swedish citizen Ragnar-Erland Hagelin, who has been tirelessly battling to bring Astiz to justice since the early 1980s (her mother was an Argentine called Buccicardi), was shot and wounded by Astiz while attempting to escape; it is said that Astiz mistook her for a Montoneros
Montoneros
Montoneros was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing...
activist to whom she bore some physical resemblance and who was a mutual acquaintance of fellow-activist Norma Susana Burgos. Witnesses saw her later at the ESMA
ESMA
The Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics , commonly referred to by its abbreviation ESMA, is a facility of the Argentine Navy that was employed as an illegal detention center during the dictatorial rule of the National Reorganization Process...
torture center and alleged that Astiz was in charge of her interrogation. According to the Argentine Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs tasked to follow up Swedish complaints at the time of Hagelin's shooting and abduction, Captain Jorge Eduardo Acosta
Jorge Eduardo Acosta
Jorge Eduardo Acosta , alias "el Tigre" was an Argentine captain of corvette, head of the Work Group 3.3.2 of the ESMA naval school and in charge of this detention center during the Dirty War. He was allegedly the one taking decisions concerning torture and assassinations in the ESMA center...
, the commander of GT332, stated "setting her free is out of the question. We must not give in to public opinion. We must appear strong" – apparently because of the seriousness of the injuries caused by Dagmar's shooting that had rendered her paralyzed, also affecting her cognitive abilities. Inés Carazzo, then a detainee enslaved and regularly raped by Captain Antonio Pernias, another GT332 officer, claims that Acosta ordered that Hagelin be put to death in a "death flight". Hagelin joined the ranks of the "disappeared" and is thought to have been killed and cremated
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
at the ESMA. There is no direct evidence that Astiz had any part in the affair after shooting and kidnapping Hagelin, but there is also no evidence of who killed her, who interrogated her or even whether she was interrogated at all. As a result of the very nature of "disappearances" cases, such evidence is notoriously hard to find, which explains why Astiz has been charged with only a few of the crimes he is suspected of having carried out.
Alice Domon
Alice Domon
Alice Domon, Caty, was a Roman Catholic nun from France whose forced disappearance occurred in Argentina during the military dictatorship of the "National Reorganization Process" .-Life:Alice Domon was born in Charquemont in France's Doubs region...
and Léonie Duquet
Leonie Duquet
Léonie Duquet was a French nun who was killed by the military regime of Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla during the Dirty War.-Biography:...
, two French nuns, were members of a support group for victims of forced disappearance which was infiltrated by Astiz. A forged photograph aimed at pretending that they had been kidnapped by the Peronist leftist group the Montoneros was leaked to the graphic media before their assassination. Astiz kidnapped them in December 1977 and was witnessed torturing them by beating them, immersing them in water and applying electrified cattle prods to their breasts and into their genitals and mouths. Their bodies were identified (along with that of Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti) by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team is an Argentine not-for-profit scientific non-governmental organisation...
(also known by their finding and identification of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
's corpse in Bolivia) in August 2005.
Falklands War
Lieutenant Commander Alfredo Astiz commanded a special team of fifteen Tactical Divers GroupTactical Divers Group
The Tactical Divers Group is the premier special operations force of the Argentine Navy. The Buzos Tácticos are based at Base Naval Mar del Plata on the Atlantic coast of Argentina. Its men are highly qualified combat divers, EOD/demolition technicians, and parachutists.The APBT was the first...
(frogmen
Frogman
A frogman is someone who is trained to scuba diving or swim underwater in a military capacity which can include combat. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver or combatant diver or combat swimmer....
), dubbed los lagartos (the lizards), which carried out the first act of aggression in the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
. On March 19, 1982 they landed on South Georgia
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands, known as the South Sandwich...
, under the guise of the workers of the Argentine scrap metal dealer Constantino Davidoff. Officially they were there to scrap three derelict whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
stations at Leith Harbour
Leith Harbour
Leith Harbour , also known as Port Leith, was a whaling station up on the northeast coast of South Georgia, established and operated by Christian Salvesen Ltd, Edinburgh. The station was in operation from 1909 until 1965. It was the largest of seven whaling stations, situated near the mouth of...
which had been purchased by their employer in 1979. Instead, they dressed up in uniform and raised the Argentine flag in full view of a British Antarctic Survey
British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operation and has an active role in Antarctic affairs. BAS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council and has over 400 staff. It operates five research stations, two ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica....
party.
The next day, March 20, the local head of the British Antarctic Survey handed Astiz a note transcribed from a radio message by the Governor of the Falklands. The note told Astiz to take down his flag and leave. Astiz took down the flag but did not leave. Later that day, , the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, was dispatched from Stanley
Stanley, Falkland Islands
Stanley is the capital and only true cityin the Falkland Islands. It is located on the isle of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2006 census, the city had a population of 2,115...
on the Falklands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
to Grytviken
Grytviken
Grytviken is the principal settlement in the British territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. It was so named in 1902 by the Swedish surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson who found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a...
, the main British Antarctic Survey base on South Georgia, with 22 Royal Marines ordered to evict him. They arrived on March 23, hours before a number of Argentine marines landed near Grytviken. More Argentine marines turned up over the following days and there was an armed clash at Grytviken. After damaging an Argentine frigate and forcing down an Aerospatiale Puma helicopter, inflicting casualties in both cases, the Royal Marines surrendered to overwhelming force in order to avoid needless loss of life. They were quickly repatriated to the UK. Astiz, a junior officer, was not in command of this operation and neither he nor his frogmen were involved in either this or later fighting.
In spite of atrocious weather that wrecked two helicopters attempting to land SAS teams for reconnaissance, British forces successfully attacked and disabled the Argentine submarine ARA San Luis. The photograph of the sunken submarine in Grytviken harbour became one of the iconic images of the conflict. A hastily assembled 75-man force of Royal Marines, SAS and SBS supported by naval gunfire was helicoptered ashore and advanced upon Grytviken, forcing the capitulation of the Argentine garrison on 23 April. TV crews missed the signing of the surrender document by the Argentine commander because it occurred so rapidly after the end of the fighting, but Astiz insisted on signing a surrender document for himself and his small band even though they were covered by the surrender of his commanding officer. The face and name of Alfredo Astiz was, incorrectly, splashed over the world media as the commander of the garrison on South Georgia. This publicity led to an erroneous Rambo
John Rambo
John Rambo is an iconic fictional character and the basis of the Rambo saga. He first appeared in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, but later became more famous in the film series, played by Sylvester Stallone...
-like image, but soon caused problems for Astiz.
Astiz is known to have committed several war crimes during this period, notably attempting to lure Royal Navy helicopters to land on a helipad he had previously mined
Anti-tank mine
An anti-tank mine, , is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles....
, after he had surrendered to British forces. The pilots were suspicious, and landed elsewhere.
Astiz also attempted to encourage Royal Marines across a minefield, after he had surrendered. The mines did not function correctly, as their trigger mechanisms had been frozen solid by the sub-zero weather conditions. Astiz was never tried for these crimes.
Prisoners of war
Soon after the British recapture of South Georgia, Nicanor Costa MéndezNicanor Costa Méndez
Nicanor Costa Méndez was an Argentine diplomat.Costa Méndez was born into a privileged background in Buenos Aires, in 1922. He attended the University of Buenos Aires, graduating with a Law Degree in 1943...
, the Argentine Foreign Minister, stated that Argentina was technically in a state of war with the UK. At about the same time an Argentine prisoner (Félix Artuso) was shot dead by a Royal Marine who mistakenly thought he was trying to scuttle a captured submarine. The UK informed Argentina, through Brazilian diplomats, that a board of inquiry would be convened under the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
. The next day the UK claimed the Argentine prisoners were not prisoners of war because they were taken before Argentina declared hostilities. Six days later they changed their mind. In a 1983 article, Meyer opines that this was because the UK had already implied the Argentine detainees were prisoners of war by applying provisions of the Geneva Conventions. It was justified by the reference in the common articles to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to their applicability to "declared war or any other armed conflict" between signatories.
About three weeks after they were captured the UK announced it would repatriate all 151 soldiers and 39 civilians, five of whom were not Argentine citizens, held in detention on South Georgia. The wide publicity surrounding the surrender of Astiz had already prompted first the Swedish and then the French to make the UK aware that Astiz was accused of criminal acts against their nationals. As they were being shipped to Ascension Island
Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
(ICRC) and flown home, Sweden asked to question Astiz. Soon after the French government asked that Astiz be held while they sought legal remedies for the "disappearances" of the nuns. Both countries stated that they had eyewitnesses for the "disappearances." The UK initially responded that concerned parties should talk to the ICRC as they would be handing Astiz to them. However, the ICRC steadfastly refused the countries' requests to talk to Astiz should he be handed into their custody. Both nations stepped up diplomatic pressure on the United Kingdom not to hand him over to the ICRC. The UK decided to send home the 189 other detainees, "as an act of compassion", while Astiz was to be held until "the end of the belligerency", initially on Ascension.
Repatriation
Two weeks later, under pressure from public opinion at home and the French and Swedish governments, the UK decided to buy time by putting Astiz on a boat from Ascension to the UK. While Astiz was in transit the UK announced he would be made available for interview by representatives of the French and Swedish governments. Soon after the Argentine government made veiled threats against the welfare of three UK journalists they had arrested as spies and linked their release to that of Astiz. The questioning went ahead in June but was performed by a Detective Chief Superintendent of the Sussex Constabulary. Both times he was questioned Astiz kept silent. A detailed report was prepared and given to the Swedish and French governments, but was probably not informative, as Astiz said nothing during the questioning. Astiz was repatriated to Argentina on 10 June 1982, just before the start of the battle for Port Stanley and the Argentine capitulation on 14 June.The UK government had chosen to read the Third Geneva Convention as protecting Astiz from criminal prosecution in the UK or extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
. Meyer argues that this was an incorrect reading but was justified at the time by four points. Astiz was in protective custody because of special circumstances i.e. surrendering during war. The Geneva Conventions exhort custodial powers to leniency. Astiz was accused of crimes—kidnapping, wounding and torture—which were illegal in Argentina and he could, in theory, be prosecuted there. In the end Meyer argues that nothing in the Geneva Conventions themselves expressly prohibited the prosecution or extradition of Astiz. However, the extradition treaties between the UK and both Sweden and France referred only to crimes committed within the territory of the requesting state and crimes against international law. But Astiz was accused of crimes against the citizens of these states in Argentina, which were not, at the time, crimes under international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
.
On the other hand, criminal prosecution within the UK was ruled out during his detention because Astiz committed no crimes against British subjects, their possessions or the British State.
Meyer argues that victims of Astiz, or their representatives, might have been successful in securing damages from him if they had brought a civil action while he was in the UK. As with criminal prosecution there is nothing in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 removing the civil liability of prisoners of war for actions committed prior to capture. A British court has jurisdiction over a foreign tort whenever the defendant is in the UK if the alleged act would have been actionable as a tort if committed in Britain and it was an offence under the laws of the foreign country. Torture and kidnap by government officials is actionable as a tort if committed in England. Proving that it was an offence under the laws of Argentina is more difficult. English courts assume that the authorised actions of officials of a foreign government within its sovereign territory are not actionable within their jurisdiction unless those actions are outside the scope of the powers of the government. Since torture is expressly forbidden in the Argentine constitution there is a good argument that Astiz was acting outside his powers as an agent of the Argentine government in torturing Alice Domon
Alice Domon
Alice Domon, Caty, was a Roman Catholic nun from France whose forced disappearance occurred in Argentina during the military dictatorship of the "National Reorganization Process" .-Life:Alice Domon was born in Charquemont in France's Doubs region...
and Léonie Duquet
Leonie Duquet
Léonie Duquet was a French nun who was killed by the military regime of Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla during the Dirty War.-Biography:...
. Although there were witnesses prepared to testify that they had seen Astiz torture Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet this approach did not seem to have been thought of in time and no such case was brought.
Legal action
On October 27, 2011 Alfredo Astiz was convicted by an Argentinian court and sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed during the Dirty WarDirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15472396
On 16 March 1990 Astiz was convicted and sentenced in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
to life imprisonment by a French Assize Court
Cour d'assises
A French cour d'assises or Assize Court is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of major felonies or indictable offences, or crimes in French, and one of the few to be decided by jury trialUnder French law, a crime is any...
for his role in the torture and disappearance of the two French nuns, Alice Domon
Alice Domon
Alice Domon, Caty, was a Roman Catholic nun from France whose forced disappearance occurred in Argentina during the military dictatorship of the "National Reorganization Process" .-Life:Alice Domon was born in Charquemont in France's Doubs region...
and Léonie Duquet
Leonie Duquet
Léonie Duquet was a French nun who was killed by the military regime of Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla during the Dirty War.-Biography:...
. French law allows trials, in absentia if necessary, of foreigners accused of breaking French laws in other jurisdictions if the crimes are committed against French nationals.
Astiz had been arrested several times in Argentina since his repatriation after the Falklands War but until his October 27, 2011 conviction no prosecution against him had been successful. In 2003 the Argentine Supreme Court declared the amnesty laws introduced during the transition to democracy (Ley de Obediencia Debida
Ley de Obediencia Debida
Ley de Obediencia Debida was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Obediencia Debida (Spanish, Law of Due Obedience) was a law passed by the...
and Ley de Punto Final
Ley de Punto Final
Ley de Punto Final was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional . Formally, this law is referred to by number Ley de Punto Final (Spanish, roughly translated Full Stop Law) was a law passed by the...
) unconstitutional. Legal action has since been taken against Astiz, and France is still waiting for his extradition.
He has several times been physically attacked by civilians; a famous assault took place in Bariloche in the mid-1990s.
Along with Luis María Mendía
Luis María Mendía
Luis María Mendía was the Argentine Chief of Naval Operations in 1976-77, with the rank of vice-admiral. According to confessions gathered by Horacio Verbitsky and made by Adolfo Scilingo , Luis María Mendía was the architect of the "death flight" assassination method whereby the Argentine state...
, former chief of naval operations in 1976–77, Astiz testified in January 2007 before Argentine judges that a French intelligence agent, Bertrand de Perseval, had participated in the abduction of the two French nuns. Perseval, who lives today in Thailand, denied any links with the abduction, but did admit being a former member of the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS), an underground group which fought to subvert the French government of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, and having escaped to Argentina after the March 1962 Evian Accords
Évian Accords
The Évian Accords comprise a treaty which was signed in 1962 in Évian-les-Bains, France by France and the F.L.N. . The Accords put an end to the Algerian War with a formal cease-fire proclaimed for March 19, and formalized the idea of cooperative exchange between the two countries...
which put an end to the 1954–62 Algerian War.
It has long been suspected that French intelligence agents trained their Argentine counterparts in counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
techniques involving massive use of torture as in Algeria. Referring to Marie Monique Robin's film documentary titled The Death Squads - the French School (Les escadrons de la mort - l'école française), which claims this, Mendía asked the Argentine Court to summon the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...
, the former French premier Pierre Messmer
Pierre Messmer
Pierre Joseph Auguste Messmer was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Minister of Armies under Charles de Gaulle from 1960 to 1969 – the longest serving since Étienne François, duc de Choiseul under Louis XV – and then as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1972 to 1974...
, the former French ambassador to Buenos Aires Françoise de la Gosse, and all those in office in the French embassy in Buenos Aires between 1976 and 1983. Besides this "French connection" Mendía has also blamed the former head of state Isabel Perón and the former ministers Carlos Ruckauf
Carlos Ruckauf
Carlos Federico Ruckauf is a Peronist politician in Argentina, member of the Justicialist Party.-Biography:Carlos Federico Ruckauf was born in the western Buenos Aires suburb of Ramos Mejía. His parents separated when he was seven, and he lived in Mar del Plata, Salta, and Buenos Aires during the...
and Antonio Cafiero
Antonio Cafiero
Antonio Francisco Cafiero is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician.-Biography:Cafiero was born in Buenos Aires. He joined Catholic Action in 1938, and enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires, becoming President of the Students' Association...
, who had signed anti-subversion decrees before Videla's 1976 coup d'état. According to the ESMA survivor Graciela Daleo this is another tactic to absolve the actual perpetrators of culpability, like the 1987 Obediencia Debida Act, by trying to shift it to the predecessors of the military government, and the French. Daleo points out that claiming to be obeying Isabel Perón's anti-subversion decrees is grotesque, as those who murdered in the name of the decrees were the ones who had deposed her.
Astiz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
in 2004.
Miscellania
Astiz's pocket book and badges of rank taken by a member of the British Special Boat ServiceSpecial Boat Service
The Special Boat Service is the special forces unit of the British Royal Navy. Together with the Special Air Service, Special Reconnaissance Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group they form the United Kingdom Special Forces and come under joint control of the same Director Special...
after his surrender in South Georgia are currently exhibited in the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
, London.
Further reading
- Uki GoñiUki GoñiUki Goñi is an Argentine author who is principally known for his work documenting the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe.Goñi's research studies the role of the Vatican, Swiss authorities and the government of Argentina in organizing 'ratline', escape routes for fugitive criminals and...
. 1996. "El Infiltrado: La Verdadera Historia de Alfredo Astiz." Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. ISBN 950-07-1197-4. - Horacio VerbitskyHoracio VerbitskyHoracio Verbitsky is a prominent Argentine investigative journalist and author. He writes for the left-leaning Argentine newspaper Página/12 and heads up the Center for Legal and Social Studies , an Argentine human-rights organization.He is also a member of the Directive Board of Human Rights...
. 1996. "The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior." New York: New Press. ISBN 1-56584-009-7. - Meyer, "Liability of Prisoners of War for Offences committed prior to Capture: the Astiz Affair", International Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 1983, pp. 949–980.
- Rosenberg, Tina. "The Good Sailor." Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America. Penguin Books: New York, 1991.
External links
- Argentina's "Angel of Death" Is Arrested The Guardian, by Uki GoñiUki GoñiUki Goñi is an Argentine author who is principally known for his work documenting the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe.Goñi's research studies the role of the Vatican, Swiss authorities and the government of Argentina in organizing 'ratline', escape routes for fugitive criminals and...
- Las Visitas Desaparecidas Página/12, by Uki GoñiUki GoñiUki Goñi is an Argentine author who is principally known for his work documenting the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe.Goñi's research studies the role of the Vatican, Swiss authorities and the government of Argentina in organizing 'ratline', escape routes for fugitive criminals and...
(Spanish) - Arrest
- Facing trial in Argentina to escape French justice
- Site on French victims of Alfredo Astiz (video in french)