Law on Obligation to Obedience

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Law on Obediencia Debida (Spanish: Ley de Obediencia Debida ) was a law enacted after the end of the "Process of National Reorganization" (the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 ), by which former members of the military government up to the rank of Brigadier General of the Prosecution of crimes committed in office were largely excluded.

background

Under the euphemistic name "Process of National Reorganization" (Spanish: Proceso de Reorganización Nacional ), the military junta waged a " dirty war " against guerrilla groups and people they classified as "subversives". Massive violence, torture , kidnappings and liquidations by opponents of the government were systematically carried out without trial. When the military began to take power, General Luciano Benjamin Menéndez announced: "We will have to kill 50,000 people. 25,000 subversives, 20,000 sympathizers and we will make 5,000 mistakes." In its approach, the government also cooperated with numerous criminal death squads , such as the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina .

legislation

In 1983 the military dictatorship ended with the election of Raúl Alfonsín as president, and the crimes against "subversives" committed during this period began to be investigated. Alfonsín intended to clearly limit the prosecution to the highest circles of the military leadership. Against his will, the trials that took place in civil courts because the Supreme Military Court had refused to reach a verdict were extended to hundreds of lower-ranking officers. The military completely refused to investigate. The government responded to the tension with legal restrictions on prosecution. The “ final line law ” (Ley de Punto Final) set a deadline of 60 days for the opening of new proceedings, 450 proceedings were opened during this time.

On May 13, 1987, Alfonsín also presented the “Law on Obligation to Obedience” to the legislature , which passed it on July 4, 1987. The law provided a far-reaching interpretation of the imperative of orders . All ranks that had not headed at least one regional sub-zone could therefore invoke a priori to dutifully fulfilling orders and were excluded from prosecution. Some crimes such as child abduction, rape and crimes for personal gain were excluded. Irrespective of the stage of the process, ongoing proceedings were discontinued on this basis; there were only further hearings in around 100 cases, at the end of which only 18 proceedings were finally approved. Many victim organizations then tried to bring trials to the courts of other countries.

Although Carlos Menem had voted in the opposition under Alfonsin for persecution of the perpetrators, he pardoned over 277 people as President 1989/1990 as part of the “National Reconciliation”, mostly members of the armed forces, but also some former guerrilla fighters. The pardons sparked violent protests in Argentina.

It was only under President Néstor Kirchner that the processing of the crimes began again. The Conclusion Act and the Law on Obligation to Obedience were annulled by the Argentine Congress in 2003 and finally declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in June 2005. Menem's pardons were also lifted and new investigations and proceedings were initiated against a total of 580 people.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul H. Lewis: Guerrillas and generals: the "Dirty War" in Argentina . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, p. 147
  2. ↑ a b Melanie Schwarzlose: Remembering after the dictatorship: The example of Argentina . GRIN, 2010, pp. 33-35
  3. ↑ a b Veith Straßner: The open wounds of Latin America: Past policy in the post-authoritarian Argentina, Uruguay and Chile . VS Verlag, 2007, pp. 93-94
  4. ^ Veith Straßner: The open wounds of Latin America: politics of the past in post-authoritarian Argentina, Uruguay and Chile . VS Verlag, 2007, pp. 103-104