The Juntas That Held Sway

Stories like today's ATC piece on the stolen children of Argentina's disappeared drive me nuts. I remember reading about Argentina's torture state during my college years in the early 80s. I remember the rage I felt at how closely the US was working with the thugs running Argentina, and in fact was responsible for the existence and support of many of the murder/torture states that were running Central and South America for decades.

Tonight Julie McCarthy reports on the conviction of a couple who took one of the babies of the disappeared. Her report covers the horrid crimes of the military dictatorship that ran Argentina without once mentioning the role of the US in giving the green light to the "Dirty War" of 1976-1983, in coordinating Operation Condor, the continent-wide torture/assassination program involving Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Seabrook begins the piece with "Now to Argentina and a crime that dates back to that country's brutal military dictatorship of the 1970s." Toward the end of the piece McCarthy notes that "among the juntas that held sway over South America in the 1970s and 80s, Argentina's was considered among the most brutal, kidnapping and killing an estimated 30,000 people." She just forgets to mention that the junta that held sway over the juntas was the one in Washington, DC.