Jorge Rafael Videla

Name	Jorge Videla
Caption	Videla in 1979
Order	43rd President of ArgentinaDe facto
Term start	29 March 1976
Term end	28 March 1981
Predecessor	Isabel Perón
Successor	Roberto Viola
Birth date	August 02, 1925
Birth place	Mercedes, Buenos Aires
Nationality	Argentine
Otherparty
Spouse	Alicia Raquel Hartridge
Alma mater	Colegio Militar de la Nación
Profession	Military
Allegiance	Argentina
Branch	Argentine Army
Serviceyears	1944–1985
Rank	General Commander of the Army

Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo (; born 2 August 1925) 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. After the return of a representative democratic government, he was prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that took place under his rule, including kidnappings or forced disappearance, widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of activists, political opponents (either real, suspected or alleged) as well as their families, at secret concentration camps. The accusations also included the theft of many babies born during the captivity of their mothers at the illegal detention centres. He was under house arrest until 2008, when he was sent to a military prison. On 2010, Videla took full responsibility for his army's actions during his rule. "I accept the responsibility as the highest military authority during the internal war. My subordinates followed my orders," he told an Argentine court. On 2010, Videla was sentenced to life in a civilian prison for the deaths of 31 prisoners following his coup d'état.

Early life and family

Jorge Rafael Videla was born August 2, 1925, in the city of Mercedes, the third of five sons of Colonel Rafael Eugenio Videla (1888–1952) and María Olga Redondo Ojea (1897–1987). He was christened in honor of two older twin brothers who had died of measles in 1923. Videla's family was an old and prominent one in San Luis Province, and many of his ancestors had held high public offices. His grandfather Jacinto had been governor of San Luis between 1891 and 1893, and his great-great-grandfather Blas Videla had fought in the South American wars of independence and had later been a leader of the Unitarian Party in San Luis.

In 1948 Jorge Videla married Alicia Raquel Hartridge, daughter of Samuel Alejandro Hartridge, an Anglo-Argentine professor of physics and ambassador to Turkey. They had seven children: María Cristina (1949), Jorge Horacio (1950), Alejandro Eugenio (1951–1971), María Isabel (1958), Pedro Ignacio (1966), Fernando Gabriel (1961) and Rafael Patricio (1953). Two of these, Rafael Patricio and Fernando Gabriel, joined the Argentine Army. In , the President, Isabel Perón, appointed Videla to the Army's senior position, the General Commander of the Army.

{|class="wikitable" |- |Rank || Date of promotion |- |Second Lieutenant||22 December 1944 |- |Lieutenant||15 June 1947 |- |First Lieutenant||3 November 1949 |- |Captain||1 March 1952 |- |Major||18 July 1958 |- |Lieutenant Colonel||28 December 1961 |- |Colonel||17 January 1966 |- |Brigadier General||23 November 1971 |- |Lieutenant General||20 October 1975 |}

Coup d'état

's exhibition in 1976]]

Isabel Perón, former Vice President to her husband Juan Perón, had come to the presidency following his death. Her authoritarian administration was unpopular and ineffectual. Videla headed a military coup which deposed her on 1976. A military junta was formed, made up of himself, representing the Army, Admiral Emilio Massera representing the Navy, and Brigadier General Orlando Ramón Agosti representing the Air Force. Two days after the coup, Videla formally assumed the post of President of Argentina.

Human rights violations

The military junta took power during a period of extreme instability, with terrorist attacks from the Marxist groups ERP, the Montoneros, FAL, FAR and FAP, who had gone underground after Juan Perón's death in , from one side and violent right-wing kidnappings, tortures and assassinations from the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, led by José López Rega, Perón's Minister of Social Welfare, and other death squads on the other side. The members of the junta took advantage of this to justify the coup, by naming the administration "National Reorganization Process". In all, 293 servicemen and policemen were killed in left wing terrorist incidents in 1975 and 1976. Videla himself narrowly escaped three Montoneros and ERP assassination attempts between February 1976 and April 1977.

According to estimates, at least 9,000 and perhaps up to 30,000 Argentinians were subjected to forced disappearance (desaparecidos) and most likely killed; many were illegally detained and tortured, and others went into exile. The Asamblea por los Derechos Humanos (APDH or Assembly for Human Rights) believes that 12,261 people were killed or disappeared during the "National Reorganization Process". Politically, all legislative power was concentrated in the hands of Videla's nine-man junta, and every single important position in the national government was filled with loyal military officers.

Conflict with Chile

During Videla's regime, Argentina rejected the binding Report and decision of the Court of Arbitration over the Beagle conflict at the southern tip of South America and started Operation Soberanía in order to invade the islands. In 1978, however, Pope John Paul II opened a mediation process. His representative, Antonio Samoré, successfully prevented full-scale war.

The conflict was not completely resolved until after Videla's time as president. Once the democratic rule was restored in 1983, the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina (Tratado de Paz y Amistad), which acknowledged Chilean sovereignty over the islands, was signed and ratified by popular referendum.

Economic policy

Videla largely left economic policies in the hands of Minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, who adopted a free trade and deregulatory economic policy. During his tenure, the foreign debt increased fourfold, and disparities between the upper and lower classes became much more pronounced, ending in a tenfold devaluation and one of the worst financial crisis in Argentine history.

Public relations

One of Videla's greatest challenges was his image abroad. He attributed criticism over human rights to an anti-Argentine campaign.

On 19 May 1976, Videla attended a luncheon with a group of Argentine intellectuals, including Ernesto Sábato, Jorge Luis Borges, Horacio Esteban Ratti (president of the Argentine Writers Society) and Father Leonardo Castellani. The latter expressed to Videla his concern regarding the disappearance of another writer, Haroldo Conti. Borges and Sábato would both praise the military regime after this meeting.

On 30 April 1977, Azucena Villaflor, along with 13 other women, started demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, demanding to be told the whereabouts of their disappeared children; they would become known as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Madres de Plaza de Mayo).

During a human rights investigation in , the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denounced Videla's government, citing many disappearances and instances of abuse. In response, the junta hired the Burson-Marsteller ad agency to formulate a pithy comeback: "Los argentinos somos derechos y humanos" (Literally, "We Argentines are right and human") The slogan was printed on 250,000 bumper stickers and distributed to motorists throughout Buenos Aires to create the appearance of a spontaneous upwelling of pro-junta sentiment, at a cost of approximately $16,117. The slogan remains a part of Argentine popular culture.

Videla invested the 1978 World Cup with political significance, citing the enthusiasm of the Argentine fans for their victorious football team as an indication of his personal popularity.

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, leader of the Peace and Justice Service (Servicio Paz y Justicia, SERPAJ) organization, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for exposing many of Argentina's human rights violations to the world at large.

Later years

Videla relinquished power to Roberto Viola on 1981. Democracy was restored in 1983, and Videla was put on trial and found guilty. The tribunal found Videla guilty of numerous homicides, kidnapping, torture, and many other crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and was discharged from the military in 1985.

Videla was imprisoned for only five years. In 1990, President Carlos Menem pardoned Videla together with many other former members of the military regime. Menem cited the need to get over past conflicts as his main reason. He briefly returned to prison in 1998 when a judge found him guilty of the kidnapping of babies during the Dirty War, including the child of the desaparecida Silvia Quintela and the disappearances of the commanders of the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), Mario Roberto Santucho and Benito Urteaga. Videla spent 38 days in the old part of the Caseros Prison, and was later transferred to house arrest due to health issues.

Following the election of President Néstor Kirchner in 2003, there was a widespread effort in Argentina to show the illegality of Videla's rule. The government no longer recognized Videla as having been a legal president of the country, and his portrait was removed from the military school. There were also many legal prosecutions of officials associated with the crimes of the regime.

On 6 September 2006, Judge Norberto Oyarbide ruled that the pardon granted by Menem was unconstitutional, opening up the possibility of a trial. On 2007, a federal court struck down his presidential pardon and restored his human rights abuse convictions. He was put on trial on 2010 for human rights violations relating to the deaths of 31 prisoners who died under his rule. He was ordered to be transferred to a civilian prison immediately after the trial. During the trial, Videla had said that "yesterday's enemies are in power and from there, they are trying to establish a Marxist regime" in Argentina.

See also

Roberto Viola

José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz

Albano Harguindeguy

Dirty War

National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons

1978 FIFA World Cup

References

External links

Ex-Argentine Dictator Sentenced to Life in Prison – video report by Democracy Now!

Former Dictator of Argentina Found Guilty Of Crimes Against Humanity

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Category:Presidents of Argentina Category:Cold War leaders Category:Argentine anti-communists Category:Argentine generals Category:Operation Condor Category:Leaders who took power by coup Category:Propaganda Due Category:People from Buenos Aires Province Category:1925 births Category:Living people Category:Argentine people convicted of crimes against humanity Category:Argentine prisoners and detainees Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Argentina