[Marxism] Italy seeks Condor plot suspects

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

  BBC NEWS
Italy seeks Condor plot suspects
Prosecutors in Italy have issued arrest warrants for 140 people over  
a decades-old plot by South American dictatorships called Operation  
Condor.

One man - 60-year-old Uruguayan former naval intelligence officer  
Nestor Jorge Fernandez Troccoli - has already been arrested in  
Salerno, south Italy.

Under Operation Condor, six governments worked together from the  
1970s to hunt down and kill left-wing opponents.

Italian authorities have been looking into the plot since the late  
1990s.

The investigation followed complaints by relatives of South American  
citizens of Italian origin who had disappeared.

A judge issued the arrest warrants on Monday, following a request  
from state prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo.

        
SUSPECTS BY NATIONALITY (INCLUDING DECEASED)
Argentina: 61
Uruguay: 32
Chile: 22
Brazil: 13
Bolivia: 7
Paraguay: 7
Peru: 4
Source: Efe news agency

In total, 146 arrest warrants were issued, reported Spanish news  
agency Efe, but the list contains the names of six people who are now  
dead - including Chile's former leader Augusto Pinochet.

Citizens of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and  
Peru are on the list.

Mr Troccoli, who was arrested at the home in Salerno in which he has  
lived for several years, will be transferred to a jail in Rome to  
face questioning on 26 or 27 December, Efe reported.

Exiles hunted

Among the other names on the list are the former Argentine military  
leader Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine former naval chief admiral  
Emilio Eduardo Massera, and ex-Uruguayan junta leader Jorge Maria  
Bordaberry.

Those named face charges ranging from lesser crimes to kidnappings  
and multiple murders.

Under Operation Condor - thought to have been launched in 1975 and  
running into the 1980s - the six military governments agreed to co- 
operate in sending teams into other countries to track, monitor and  
kill their political opponents.

As a result, many left-wing opponents of military regimes in the  
region who had fled to neighbouring countries found themselves hunted  
down in exile.

The still unresolved plot continues to cast a shadow over present-day  
governments in South America, say correspondents.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7159666.stm

Published: 2007/12/24 21:36:23 GMT

© BBC MMVII

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