Posted on 05/17/2013 4:28:04 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
The former Argentinian dictator Jorge Rafaél Videla was a prominent member of the group of uniformed tyrants who in the 1970s seized power in Latin America and turned "disappear" into a transitive verb. If he never achieved the worldwide notoriety of his contemporary Augusto Pinochet, in Chile, it was not for want of trying. He has died aged 87 while in prison.
"As many people as is necessary will die in Argentina," Videla told the region's army commanders, gathered in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1975, "to protect the hemisphere from the international communist conspiracy." He was true to his word. Months later, on 24 March 1976, the armed forces overthrew the inept and chaotic government of María Estela Martínez ("Isabelita"), the widow of Juan Domingo Perón.
They installed a ferocious military regime. During the next six years, it murdered up to 30,000 people in the name of "national reorganisation" and western, Christian civilisation.
For Videla, who as army commander was chosen to head the junta, the decision to "disappear" the victims was purely pragmatic. "Argentinian society would not have tolerated firing squads," he told a journalist many years later. "Yesterday two in Buenos Aires, today six in Córdoba, tomorrow four in Rosario … There was no other way. We all agreed on that."
Videla was a methodical, introverted man from a provincial military family. Born in Mercedes, to the west of the capital, he was brought up beside the Buenos Aires barracks where his father, a colonel, was serving. The family were strict Catholics. When sentenced to house arrest in later life, his greatest regret, he said, was that he could not attend mass. Other than that, his social life was almost nonexistent.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Pinochet was a great man, Videla was scum.
30,000? Big deal. Friend and mentor to Obama, Bill Ayers, is on record as wanting to murder 25,000,000 Americans.
Pay attention, democrats...
The Guardian comments section is an orgiastic display of leftist hate (including against Thatcher). Were it not for their Marxist tyranny, such regimes would need not exist.
An abysmal failure. I hope he sought forgiveness for the things he did before he died.
Funny, since without Thatcher, the butchering would have continued in Argentina.
Then again, British leftists are especially dumb, and even uglier than Alan Colmes after he fell on his lips.
that means you eric, barry, harry, nancy and hillary. you too chuckie boy.
Videla got disappeared by natural causes, huh?
He should have been disappeared by hanging or at least lethal injection.
It seems it’s not been a good week for tyrants, foreign or domestic.
For a second I thought this said Abe Vigoda. I said, “Nah...”.
92 and going strong. Of course some day he really will die and no one will believe him.
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