Word: videla
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Chile unless civil liberties were restored, the Pinochet government sought to rally Brazil and Argentina into a hard-line entente in Latin America's southern cone. Both countries spurned Pinochet's overtures. At a meeting in Chile two weeks ago, General Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentina's tough military ruler, told Pinochet that police-state terror had tarnished Chile's image abroad. After that rebuff, Pinochet's government reluctantly granted the amnesty as a first limited step toward regaining international respectability. Nonetheless, Amnesty International estimates there are still more than 1,000 political suspects in prison...
...Buenos Aires, was more prophetic than he realized. Just a few minutes after he finished talking, the guerrillas brought off the latest of their resounding feats: a time bomb planted in the reviewing stand blew out a yard-wide hole at the exact spot where Argentine President Jorge Rafael Videla had been standing. Because the ceremonies had ended three minutes early, Videla was by then a scant but safe 60 yds. away...
Isolated Actions. Both groups staged damaging raids-as did right-wing terrorists-against the inept regime of Perón's widow and successor, Isabel, 45. When Videla led an army coup that deposed Mrs. Perón (she remains under luxurious house arrest in the lake district), he promised that the government would exercise a "monopoly of force." In July the army cornered and killed ERP Leader Mario Santucho and two of his top aides. Last month government forces trapped the national political secretariat of the Montoneros; five of them were shot to death, and four others captured...
Increasingly, Argentines are wondering about the extent to which Videla may have authorized the violence. The general, shy and courteous in presidential appearances, enjoyed a reputation for honesty and moderation before becoming army chief, but he may simply be unable to control the multiple layers of agents working on the guerrilla campaign...
...counteract such criticisms, the Videla junta has hired a pair of public relations agencies to spread the good news in the U.S. and elsewhere that Argentina's economy is stabilizing and social unrest...