CONFIDENTIAL
ARGENTINA
Report by HM Embassy, Buenos Aires.
General Observations
Without prejudice to absolute standards, relative factors should not be ignored. For example: under the previous régime the bulk of counter-terrorist activities were conducted in a clandestine manner by groups of police and others operating unofficially and outside the law. Persons kidnapped by these groups were virtually certain to be tortured and killed. Today, while torture does continue, persons picked up by the security forces are far more likely to be booked formally and hence to survive. This is a distinct qualitative improvement, though in terms of quantity far more persons are being arrested and, usually, mistreated.
Right No.
(i)
(ii)
Rating Suggested
by Post
Between 2 and 4,000 persons suspected of terrorist acts are detained "at the dis- posal of the Executive"
an emergency power approximately equivalent to internment in Northern Ireland. There is a virtual state of civil war in Argentina, with members of the security forces being murdered almost daily and the emergency powers appear to be justifiable under Article 4 of the Inter- national Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. No official list of such detainees has been made public, but there are approxi- mately 560 females in Villa Devoto prison and double that number of males at Olmos prison, the two principal centres of deten- tion in Argentina, in Buenos Aires and La Plata respectively. See also (v) below.
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Torture has been extensively employed against terrorist suspects for at least the last three years, but is gradually being brought under control as the government re-established its authority over all branches of the security forces. Nonetheless it is an integral and accepted part of the continuing counter- terrorist campaign.
(iii) Slavery does not exist.
(iv)
There are strong restrictions on reporting anything other than the official version of internal security operations, but no other legal limitations. The press exercises a great deal of self-censorship out of fear of official or unofficial reprisals.
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CONFIDENTIAL