SPAIN: Argentine judge investigating human rights abuses orders the arrest of former President Isabel Peron on human rights abuses during her administration

An Argentine judge on Thursday (January 11) ordered an international arrest warrant for former President Isabel Peron as part of a probe into the killing of dissidents before Argentina's military dictatorship. Federal Judge Raul Acosta wants to question Peron in a case involving the 1976 disappearance of a man who rights group allege was last seen being taken into custody by state security agents, judicial officials said. The warrant comes as investigators have revived probes of the Argentine Anti-communist Alliance, a right-wing death squad known as the "Triple A" which rights groups say murdered or abducted up to 2,000 people in the run up to the 1976-83 military dictatorship. Prosecutors claim Peron -- the third wife of former Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron -- signed three decrees that cleared the way for acts of state terrorism during her 1974-76 government. She was ousted in a March 1976 coup. Peron now lives in Spain, residing some 60 kilometres outside of Madrid. Peron assumed office after the death of her husband. But she struggled to hold on to power as political violence between leftist guerillas and death squads swept Argentina. Rights groups say many members of the "Triple A" squad were later recruited by the military to help carry out its systematic crackdown on dissent after it came to power. More than 11,000 people were killed during military rule, although human rights groups put the death toll at 30,000. Two suspected members of the "Triple A" squad have been arrested over the last week in connection with other cases, including a former top aide to Peron.

ITN Source | January 13, 2007

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