Perón arrested on accusations of human rights abuses

Isabel Perón, the former Argentine president and widow of Juan Perón, was arrested at her home in Madrid on Jan. 12 after a judge in her home country launched an investigation into alleged human rights abuses during her tumultuous rule in the 1970s. Police acted on an international arrest warrant issued by the judge, Raul Acosta. Perón was driven to court and bailed pending an extradition request expected to follow by the end of February. Acosta wants her extradited to Argentina to face questions about dissident killings during her 20-month rule. Perón is accused of having links to right-wing death squads which abducted and murdered left-wing activists during her 1974-1976 rule, a chaotic period ending with a coup which ousted her and ushered in a dictatorship. Acosta ordered the arrest in connection with three decrees she signed instructing security forces to crack down on "subversive elements." The judge also wanted to question her over the disappearance of Héctor Aldo Fagetti Gallego in February 1976, one month before she was overthrown. The order came after a wave of investigations into Argentina's "dirty war," a state-backed campaign against left-wing opponents from the mid-70s to 1983, during which up to 30,000 people disappeared. The judicial reckoning was made possible by a Supreme Court ruling in 2005 which annulled two 1980s amnesty laws blocking prosecution of human rights cases. Dozens of former members of the security force have been questioned about their role in the junta which seized power in 1976, but the arrest order for Perón has turned the spotlight on crimes committed during the preceding two years, when she was in office. "This seems to drive home the point that a lot of violence against the left-wing started during the Perónist time, before and not during the junta," Felipe Noguera, a political analyst, told the Associated Press. Some estimate that 1,500 people disappeared during Perón's rule. Hebe de Bonafini, an activist of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, called the announcement "spectacular" and said she hoped it would bring to light a "part of our history that was dark, obscure and papered over." But some are uneasy about pursuing the former president. When the possibility was floated in November, a local governor said the probe was "exaggerated" and that Acosta was trying to pin blame for military abuses on Perón.