Judge Orders 45 Held in Abuses

BUENOS AIRES â€”  A federal judge ordered the detention Thursday of 45 former officers accused by a Spanish prosecutor of human rights abuses during Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship.

Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral said the detentions are an initial move toward extradition. Local reports said he acted on a request by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who once indicted former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet and has filed similar charges against dozens of former members of the Argentine military.

Garzon has acted under a Spanish law that says genocide can be prosecuted in Spain even if it is alleged to have been committed in another country.

Judge Canicoba Corral’s order was likely to face legal challenges, and there was no indication that any of the former officers had been taken into custody after the order.

During the Argentine dictatorship, at least 9,000 people were detained and never seen again.

Some human rights groups put the number at 30,000, and reports indicated that dozens of Spaniards -- Argentines of Spanish descent -- were among the junta’s victims.

Two of the 45 former officers on the list, onetime junta leaders Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla and Adm. Emilio Massera, are under house arrest in connection with separate inquiries into alleged military-era abuses.

A decree signed in 2001 by then-President Fernando de la Rua invoking the principle that Argentines should be tried at home for any crimes committed in the country has discouraged most attempts to send people abroad for trial.

Argentine courts have been closing in on officials shielded by extradition and amnesty laws, and new President Nestor Kirchner has indicated that he would break with past policies to allow officials to be tried abroad.

Victims’ representatives have said they believe signs of a change of position by Kirchner’s government led Garzon to reissue his arrest warrants. Garzon initially issued the warrants a few years ago, but they were blocked in Argentina.

In recent months, lower courts have declared laws that shield officers from prosecution to be unconstitutional -- and the Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue.

Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, a former Argentine naval lieutenant, was extradited from Mexico last month to be charged in a Spanish court with acts of terrorism and genocide during the military government.