Operation Charly
Encyclopedia
Operation Charly according to journalist María Seoane, was the alleged code-name of a right-wing covert operation
to extend the illegal methods of repression used in the so-called "Dirty War
" in Argentina
to Central America
. The operation was either headed by the Argentine military with the agreement of the Pentagon
, or was led by the US administration and used the Argentinians as a proxy. It lasted from 1977 to 1984. According to French journalist Marie-Monique Robin, these methods themselves had been taught to the Argentine military first by the French military, drawing on the experience of the 1957 Battle of Algiers
, and then by their US counterparts.
Clarín newspaper
journalist María Seoane states she has read released classified documents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and interviewed Duane Clarridge, former CIA operative purportedly responsible for those operations. María Seoane states that with the election
of President Jimmy Carter
in 1977, the CIA was blocked from engaging in the special warfare it had previously delivered against opponents. In conformity with the National Security Doctrine, the Argentine militaries then did the work the most conservative North American elements wanted to achieve, while they pressured the United States to be more active in counter-revolutionary activities. María Seoane states that finally they submitted themselves to Washington's control following the access of Ronald Reagan
to the presidency in 1981
. María Seoane says that activities were taken up by the Pentagon following the defeat of the Argentine Armed Forces during the Falklands War
(March–June 1982).
, the Argentine Armed Forces exported counter-insurgency
tactics, including the systemic use of torture
, death squad
s and "disappearances" — a US embassy cable spoke of the "tactics of disappearance". Special force
units, such as Batallón de Inteligencia 601
, headed in 1979 by Colonel Jorge Alberto Muzzio, trained the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s, in particular in Lepaterique
base. According to journalist María Seoane, the plans were designed by General Carlos Alberto Martínez, head of the SIDE
and Videla
's man in the intelligence services, along with General Viola and General Valín.
Starting in 1979, the military junta
actively participated to the "dirty war" carried out in Central America, Nicaragua
, Honduras
, El Salvador
and Guatemala
. The Argentine military carried out covert operations that the CIA could not manage under the Carter (democratic) administration which had succeeded Gerald Ford
, a Republican
. According to journalist María Seoane, along with the more conservative sectors of US society, they began to proclaim that the United States had abandoned the continent to confront the "Communist threat" alone and that they had to take up the lead.
Operation Charly was executed by a group of military figures who had already taken part in Operation Condor
, which had started as soon as 1973 and concerned international cooperation between intelligence agencies to permit greater repression of the left-wing opposition. US journalist Martha Honey documented the exportation of "social control techniques" which the Argentine army had "brutally perfected" in Argentina to Central American countries. The Argentine intelligence services created a secret network inside the intelligence agencies (the same method was used in Operation Gladio
) to transfer the $19 million provided by the CIA.
According to journalist María Seoane, in 1979, the Sandinista Front overthrew the Somoza
dictatorship. In November 1979, before the 13th Conference of American Armies in Bogotá
, General Roberto Viola
, president of the Argentine junta, exposed the Latin American plan of state terrorism
. However, it was most of all General Leopoldo Galtieri
who, in resonance with the 1980 election
of Ronald Reagan
, committed the Argentine military to the continental "Dirty War", within the strategic framework decided by the White House
.
New York Times journalist Leslie Gelb
explained that "with this pact, Argentina would be responsible, with funds from North American intelligence, of attacking the flux of equipment which was transiting Nicaragua to El Salvador and Guatemala ". The US were to provide money and equipment, while Argentina sent military instructors, and Honduras provided the use of its territory for training of the Contras
and attack bases against the Sandinistas.
According to Noam Chomsky
, starting in 1979, the Argentine military established covert military centers in Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Among others examples, Noam Chomsky says the death squad
s which began to act in Honduras in 1980 were attributed to the importation of the "Argentine method".
According to journalist María Seoane, a memorandum of the United States National Security Council
of 15 February 1980, given by Robert Pastor
to Zbigniew Brzezinski
, David Aaron and Henry Owen
stated that: "The moment has come to insure that this government [US government] moves itself in an efficient manner to resolve the problems of El Salvador and Honduras." She says that the document proposed to divide the left-wing, neutralize the right-wing coup d'état
and arm a more moderate civilian and military government.
In July 1980, the Grupo de Tareas Exterior (GTE, External Operations Group) headed by Guillermo Suárez Mason
, of the 601 Intelligence Battalion, took part in the Cocaine Coup
of Luis García Meza in Bolivia
, with the assistance of the Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie
and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie
. The Argentine secret services hired 70 foreign agents to assist in the coup. The cocaine trade
helped fund the covert operations. According to journalist María Seoane, contacts were made between US intelligence and Argentine intelligence on 16 June 1980, and the main theme of discussions concerned Bolivia, as well as the kidnapping of Montoneros
in Lima
(Peru).
End of October 1980, Jimmy Carter authorized the creation of a CIA covert program of assistance to the Sandinistas' opposition, sending a million dollars to fund them. According to journalist María Seoane, the CIA also collaborated with the 601 Intelligence Battalion, which had organized a base in Florida. According to journalist María Seoane, in the middle of the 1980s, former CIA deputy director Vernon Walters and the Contra leader Francisco Aguirre
met with Viola, Davico and Valín to coordinate actions in Central America.
Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan
assumed power in January 1981, with Alexander Haig
as Secretary of State
and Harry Shlaudeman as ambassador in Buenos Aires. John Negroponte
was nominated ambassador in Honduras. The same month, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
(FMLN) initiated a large-scale military offensive supported by the Sandinistas. A 26 February 1981 document sent by Vernon Walters, former CIA director, to Al Haig described with precisions the US knowledge of the covert operations. Argentine military officer transferred to the Contras approximatively 50 000 dollars gathered by the drug trade in Bolivia.
In the beginning of 1982, the United States and the Argentine junta planned the creation of a large Latin American military force, which would be directed by an Argentine officer, with the initial aim of landing in El Salvador and push the revolutionaries to Honduras to exterminate them, and then to invade Nicaragua and topple the Sandinista regime. The operation would have been protected by a remodelling of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
(TIAR).
According to journalist María Seoane, a few months later, assuming support of the United States and in an attempt to revive internal support, Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands
, starting the Falklands War
on April 2, 1982 against the United Kingdom, headed by Margaret Thatcher
, who was very close to Reagan. Washington, however, did nothing to prevent London from vigorously reacting to the Argentine military's belligerous inclinations.
During the Falkland War, the Argentine agent Francés García (alias of Estanislao Valdéz), who had been the repressor of the Campito detention center in Argentina, was kidnapped by Sandinistas groups in Costa Rica, where he was based. He then appeared on a TV video, explaining with loads of details the Argentine and US covert operations in Costa Rica. US journalist Martha Honey report that García was qualified by the North Americans, with a certain admiration, of having a "completely criminal gorrilla mentality.".
Although the invasion of the Falkland Islands and the subsequent return to civilian rule in 1983 put an end to Argentine operations in Central America, the "dirty war" continued well into the 1990s, with hundreds of thousands being "disappeared
." The Reagan administration took over the covert operations.
Furthermore, according to the NGO Equipo Nizkor
, if the Argentine mission in Honduras, for instance (where 150 officers were present end of 1981, training members of the Battalion 316, in various bases, including Lepaterique
), was downgraded after the Falklands War, Argentine officers remained active in Honduras until 1984, some of them until 1986, well after the 1983 election of Raúl Alfonsín
.
According to journalist María Seoane, in June 1983, the NGO Americas Watch visited Honduras and stated in its report that "The General Gustavo Alvarez Martínez, head of the Hondurian military staff, has publicly defended the use of the Argentine method to confront the subversive threat in Latin America. She says Alvarez is responsible of having brought to Honduras the first Argentine military instructors, when he was commandant of the Fuerza de Seguridad Pública (Fusep [Public Security Force])."
Ariel Armony, president of the Goldfarb Center in the Colby College
, stated in journalist María Seoane's article that "it would be more appropriate to speak of a dirty war at a continental level than isolated conflicts at a national scale", and that "in this war the distinction between combatants and civilian population were erased, while national frontiers were subordinated to "ideological frontiers" of the East-West conflict
." In particular, the Argentine military was not satisfied with "annihilating" the opposition in the country, but repealed any distinction between internal and external policy.
Covert operation
A covert operation is a military, intelligence or law enforcement operation that is carried clandestinely and, often, outside of official channels. Covert operations aim to fulfill their mission objectives without any parties knowing who sponsored or carried out the operation...
to extend the illegal methods of repression used in the so-called "Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
" in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
to Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. The operation was either headed by the Argentine military with the agreement of the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
, or was led by the US administration and used the Argentinians as a proxy. It lasted from 1977 to 1984. According to French journalist Marie-Monique Robin, these methods themselves had been taught to the Argentine military first by the French military, drawing on the experience of the 1957 Battle of Algiers
Battle of Algiers (1957)
The Battle of Algiers was a campaign of guerrilla warfare carried out by the National Liberation Front against the French Algerian authorities from late 1956 to late 1957. The conflict began as a series of hit-and-run attacks by the FLN against the French Police in Algiers. Violence escalated...
, and then by their US counterparts.
Clarín newspaper
Clarín (newspaper)
Clarín is the largest newspaper in Argentina, published by the Grupo Clarín media group. It was founded by Roberto Noble on 28 August 1945. It is politically centrist but popularly understood to oppose the Kirchner government...
journalist María Seoane states she has read released classified documents of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) and interviewed Duane Clarridge, former CIA operative purportedly responsible for those operations. María Seoane states that with the election
United States presidential election, 1976
The United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic...
of President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
in 1977, the CIA was blocked from engaging in the special warfare it had previously delivered against opponents. In conformity with the National Security Doctrine, the Argentine militaries then did the work the most conservative North American elements wanted to achieve, while they pressured the United States to be more active in counter-revolutionary activities. María Seoane states that finally they submitted themselves to Washington's control following the access of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
to the presidency in 1981
United States presidential election, 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
. María Seoane says that activities were taken up by the Pentagon following the defeat of the Argentine Armed Forces during the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
(March–June 1982).
The exportation of the "Argentine" method to Central America
According to journalist María Seoane, from 1977 to 1984, after the Falklands WarFalklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, the Argentine Armed Forces exported counter-insurgency
Counter-insurgency
A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency involves actions taken by the recognized government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it...
tactics, including the systemic use of torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s and "disappearances" — a US embassy cable spoke of the "tactics of disappearance". Special force
Special Force
Special Force is a first-person shooter military video game, published by Hezbollah, created using the Genesis 3D engine. The game is set in a 3D environment, in which the player takes the role of a Hezbollah combatant fighting the IDF...
units, such as Batallón de Inteligencia 601
Batallón de Inteligencia 601
The Batallón de Inteligencia 601 was a special military intelligence service of the Argentine Army whose structure was set up in the late 1970s, active in the Dirty War and Operation Condor, and disbanded in 2000...
, headed in 1979 by Colonel Jorge Alberto Muzzio, trained the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s, in particular in Lepaterique
Lepaterique
Lepaterique is a municipality in the Honduran department of Francisco Morazán.A military base located in Lepaterique was used during the 1980s by the Contras and by the Argentine 601 Intelligence Battalion, which was involved in Operation Condor....
base. According to journalist María Seoane, the plans were designed by General Carlos Alberto Martínez, head of the SIDE
Side
Side was an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, in the region of Pamphylia, in what is now Antalya province, on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey...
and Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla
Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo 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...
's man in the intelligence services, along with General Viola and General Valín.
Starting in 1979, the military junta
National Reorganization Process
The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...
actively participated to the "dirty war" carried out in Central America, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. The Argentine military carried out covert operations that the CIA could not manage under the Carter (democratic) administration which had succeeded Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. According to journalist María Seoane, along with the more conservative sectors of US society, they began to proclaim that the United States had abandoned the continent to confront the "Communist threat" alone and that they had to take up the lead.
Operation Charly was executed by a group of military figures who had already taken part in Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...
, which had started as soon as 1973 and concerned international cooperation between intelligence agencies to permit greater repression of the left-wing opposition. US journalist Martha Honey documented the exportation of "social control techniques" which the Argentine army had "brutally perfected" in Argentina to Central American countries. The Argentine intelligence services created a secret network inside the intelligence agencies (the same method was used in Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
) to transfer the $19 million provided by the CIA.
According to journalist María Seoane, in 1979, the Sandinista Front overthrew the Somoza
Somoza
The Somoza family was an influential political dynasty who ruled Nicaragua as an hereditary dictatorship. Their influence exceeded their combined 43 years in the de facto presidency, as they were the power behind the other presidents of the time through their control of the National Guard...
dictatorship. In November 1979, before the 13th Conference of American Armies in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, General Roberto Viola
Roberto Eduardo Viola
Roberto Eduardo Viola Redondo was an Argentine military officer who briefly served as president of Argentina from March 29 to December 11, 1981 during a period of military rule.-President of Argentina:...
, president of the Argentine junta, exposed the Latin American plan of state terrorism
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
. However, it was most of all General Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship . The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him...
who, in resonance with the 1980 election
United States presidential election, 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, committed the Argentine military to the continental "Dirty War", within the strategic framework decided by the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
New York Times journalist Leslie Gelb
Leslie Gelb
Leslie Howard Gelb is a former correspondent for The New York Times and is currently President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is author of published by HarperCollins in March 2009.-Background:...
explained that "with this pact, Argentina would be responsible, with funds from North American intelligence, of attacking the flux of equipment which was transiting Nicaragua to El Salvador and Guatemala ". The US were to provide money and equipment, while Argentina sent military instructors, and Honduras provided the use of its territory for training of the Contras
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
and attack bases against the Sandinistas.
According to Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, starting in 1979, the Argentine military established covert military centers in Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Among others examples, Noam Chomsky says the death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s which began to act in Honduras in 1980 were attributed to the importation of the "Argentine method".
According to journalist María Seoane, a memorandum of the United States National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
of 15 February 1980, given by Robert Pastor
Robert Pastor
Robert Alan Pastor is a former US national security advisor and writer on foreign affairs.-Education:...
to Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
, David Aaron and Henry Owen
Henry Owen
The Reverend Dr. Henry Owen was a Welsh theologian and Biblical scholar. Perhaps his most significant contribution to biblical scholarship is his discussion of the date of publication and the form and manner of the composition of the four canonical gospel accounts...
stated that: "The moment has come to insure that this government [US government] moves itself in an efficient manner to resolve the problems of El Salvador and Honduras." She says that the document proposed to divide the left-wing, neutralize the right-wing coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
and arm a more moderate civilian and military government.
In July 1980, the Grupo de Tareas Exterior (GTE, External Operations Group) headed by Guillermo Suárez Mason
Guillermo Suárez Mason
Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason was an Argentine military officer convicted for Dirty War crimes during the 1976 — 83 military dictatorship. He was in charge of the Batallón de Inteligencia 601.-Biography:...
, of the 601 Intelligence Battalion, took part in the Cocaine Coup
Cocaine Coup
Cocaine Coup is a term that has been applied to* the July 1980 coup in Bolivia of Luis García Meza Tejada* the August 1978 coup in Honduras of Policarpo Paz García...
of Luis García Meza in Bolivia
History of Bolivia
This is the history of Bolivia. See also the history of Latin America and the history of the Americas.Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America...
, with the assistance of the Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie is a neofascist Italian activist . He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspect to be involved in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge...
and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was an SS-Hauptsturmführer , Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.- Early life :...
. The Argentine secret services hired 70 foreign agents to assist in the coup. The cocaine trade
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
helped fund the covert operations. According to journalist María Seoane, contacts were made between US intelligence and Argentine intelligence on 16 June 1980, and the main theme of discussions concerned Bolivia, as well as the kidnapping of Montoneros
Montoneros
Montoneros was an Argentine Peronist urban guerrilla group, active during the 1960s and 1970s. The name is an allusion to 19th century Argentinian history. After Juan Perón's return from 18 years of exile and the 1973 Ezeiza massacre, which marked the definitive split between left and right-wing...
in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
(Peru).
End of October 1980, Jimmy Carter authorized the creation of a CIA covert program of assistance to the Sandinistas' opposition, sending a million dollars to fund them. According to journalist María Seoane, the CIA also collaborated with the 601 Intelligence Battalion, which had organized a base in Florida. According to journalist María Seoane, in the middle of the 1980s, former CIA deputy director Vernon Walters and the Contra leader Francisco Aguirre
Francisco Aguirre
Francisco Aguirre is an Argentine footballer, who currently plays for FC Locarno in the Swiss Challenge League.-Career:...
met with Viola, Davico and Valín to coordinate actions in Central America.
Leopoldo Galtieri's take-over and complete alignment with Washington
The "Dirty War" in Central America and US support internally strengthened General Galtieri's position. In December 1981, Galtieri in a palace revolution, replaced General Viola, who was, as Videla, suspected because of the good relationship maintained until now by the military junta with the Soviet Union. A few days before assuming power, Galtieri exposed in a speech in Miami the Argentine government's decision to constitute itself as an unconditional ally of the US in the "world struggle against Communism": "Argentina and the United States will march together in the ideological war which is starting in the world" .Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
assumed power in January 1981, with Alexander Haig
Alexander Haig
Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. was a United States Army general who served as the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...
as Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
and Harry Shlaudeman as ambassador in Buenos Aires. John Negroponte
John Negroponte
John Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. He is currently a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs...
was nominated ambassador in Honduras. The same month, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front is, since 1992, a left-wing political party in El Salvador and formerly a coalition of five revolutionary guerrilla organizations...
(FMLN) initiated a large-scale military offensive supported by the Sandinistas. A 26 February 1981 document sent by Vernon Walters, former CIA director, to Al Haig described with precisions the US knowledge of the covert operations. Argentine military officer transferred to the Contras approximatively 50 000 dollars gathered by the drug trade in Bolivia.
In the beginning of 1982, the United States and the Argentine junta planned the creation of a large Latin American military force, which would be directed by an Argentine officer, with the initial aim of landing in El Salvador and push the revolutionaries to Honduras to exterminate them, and then to invade Nicaragua and topple the Sandinista regime. The operation would have been protected by a remodelling of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was an agreement signed on 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many countries of the Americas...
(TIAR).
According to journalist María Seoane, a few months later, assuming support of the United States and in an attempt to revive internal support, Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
, starting the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
on April 2, 1982 against the United Kingdom, headed by Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, who was very close to Reagan. Washington, however, did nothing to prevent London from vigorously reacting to the Argentine military's belligerous inclinations.
During the Falkland War, the Argentine agent Francés García (alias of Estanislao Valdéz), who had been the repressor of the Campito detention center in Argentina, was kidnapped by Sandinistas groups in Costa Rica, where he was based. He then appeared on a TV video, explaining with loads of details the Argentine and US covert operations in Costa Rica. US journalist Martha Honey report that García was qualified by the North Americans, with a certain admiration, of having a "completely criminal gorrilla mentality.".
Although the invasion of the Falkland Islands and the subsequent return to civilian rule in 1983 put an end to Argentine operations in Central America, the "dirty war" continued well into the 1990s, with hundreds of thousands being "disappeared
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
." The Reagan administration took over the covert operations.
Furthermore, according to the NGO Equipo Nizkor
Equipo Nizkor
----Equipo Nizkor is a human rights NGO concerned mostly about events in Latin America, but also Europe. It is affiliated with Derechos Human Rights, Serpaj Europe and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign...
, if the Argentine mission in Honduras, for instance (where 150 officers were present end of 1981, training members of the Battalion 316, in various bases, including Lepaterique
Lepaterique
Lepaterique is a municipality in the Honduran department of Francisco Morazán.A military base located in Lepaterique was used during the 1980s by the Contras and by the Argentine 601 Intelligence Battalion, which was involved in Operation Condor....
), was downgraded after the Falklands War, Argentine officers remained active in Honduras until 1984, some of them until 1986, well after the 1983 election of Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
.
According to journalist María Seoane, in June 1983, the NGO Americas Watch visited Honduras and stated in its report that "The General Gustavo Alvarez Martínez, head of the Hondurian military staff, has publicly defended the use of the Argentine method to confront the subversive threat in Latin America. She says Alvarez is responsible of having brought to Honduras the first Argentine military instructors, when he was commandant of the Fuerza de Seguridad Pública (Fusep [Public Security Force])."
Ariel Armony, president of the Goldfarb Center in the Colby College
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
, stated in journalist María Seoane's article that "it would be more appropriate to speak of a dirty war at a continental level than isolated conflicts at a national scale", and that "in this war the distinction between combatants and civilian population were erased, while national frontiers were subordinated to "ideological frontiers" of the East-West conflict
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
." In particular, the Argentine military was not satisfied with "annihilating" the opposition in the country, but repealed any distinction between internal and external policy.