Word: juntas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...lieutenant colonel with a sharklike grin named Mengistu Haile Mariam. An avowed Marxist, he was one of a coterie of officers who finally deposed Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie in September 1974. Today, at 39, he has emerged as the top man in Ethiopia's 60-member junta, largely by pressing a campaign of arrests and killings that rivals even Ugandan Field Marshal Idi Amin's considerable efforts in this area. Mostly, Mengistu's efforts have been aimed at half a dozen rebel organizations, including a full-fledged guerrilla force fighting for independence in Eritrea...
Last week Mengistu achieved realignment in a single stroke. Declaring that U.S. aid had only helped Selassie to "suppress the liberation struggle of the oppressed masses," the junta expelled all American military advisers, communications experts and information officials. By midweek some 300 Americans had departed within the four-day deadline set by the government. At the same time, the government expelled resident correspondents from the Washington Post, Reuters and Agence France-Presse for "distorting" their reports. All that was left of a U.S. presence that once had numbered some 4,000 advisers, diplomats, technicians and family members were 76 staffers...
Members of the junta admit that torture takes place, although they deny it is systematic. They argue that harsh tactics are justified "in direct proportion to the nature of the attack." Says Videla: "What is Argentina to do? Does it defend itself or does it let its way of life be changed? I reply: Argentina must defend itself against this aggression." President Carter's decision in February to cut U.S. arms aid was received with angry dismay. "Carter does not understand us," said one officer. "He is playing into the hands of the terrorists, not helping the forces...
...rail-thin Videla, known as el Hueso (the Bone), is regarded as a moderate within the junta. Videla, who has resisted demands from hard-liners like Navy Admiral Emilio Massera for sterner repression of intellectuals and students, is committed to restoring civilian rule "once the situation permits." The military, he says, "does not have a totalitarian calling." Nonetheless, some Argentines fear there are high-ranking officers who would like to establish a neofascist regime...
Cult of Perón. No one expects the junta to step down soon. Eleven years of Perón's rule plus another two decades of his baleful influence shattered and paralyzed moderate political forces. Even as Isabelita awaits trial for misuse of public funds, el Lider's cult retains its mystique. "People have no confidence in parties," concedes one anti-Peronist politician. "We are not ready for elections until Peronism is dismantled and forgotten...