Move Against ‘Plot’ Delights Alfonsin’s Foes : Argentine State of Siege Results in Minuet of Jailings and Freeings of Rightists

Last Tuesday, retired army Col. Alejandro Arias Duval was jailed by presidential decree on charges that he and 11 others conspired in a wave of right-wing terrorism aimed at destabilizing the government. On Thursday, Duval was freed on a writ of habeas corpus.

Friday, he went to work as usual. He was arrested again that night after President Raul Alfonsin decreed a state of siege, giving him emergency powers. On Sunday, Duval was freed by a second judge who found that the government had no grounds for holding him, even under a state of siege.

But on Monday, an appeals court ruled that the government did indeed have the right of summary detention. Duval and four other army officers went back to jail, pending the outcome of their appeals to the Argentine Supreme Court.

Two years after his election restored civilian rule to Argentina, Alfonsin’s move against right-wing terrorism apparently originating within the army has confused the country and embarrassed his government.

On the eve of key congressional elections, the president’s supporters are alarmed and his enemies delighted at the government’s discomfiture. Alfonsin met with military leaders at his residence Monday night, furthering the confusion.

Although the limited state of siege imposes no restrictions on fundamental liberties--except against the 12 accused conspirators at whom it was directed--its very imposition is a domestic and international black eye for a government that prides itself on support for civil liberties.

Cabinet ministers have denounced the suspects for plotting against democracy but have not produced any evidence of it as seven of the 12 Ping-Pong between home and jail cell. Three of the remaining five are hiding. Of the two others, one is out of the country on business.

Extradition Sought

The 12th, cashiered former Gen. Guillermo Suarez Mason, described by the government as the mastermind of the plot, is a fugitive from justice. On Monday, the government formally asked the United States for his extradition.

Asserting that democracy must be strong enough to defend itself, Alfonsin ordered the arrest of the six army officers and six right-wing civilians last week after a series of about a dozen explosions and hundreds of bomb threats. The Argentine president imposed the state of siege when a lower court judge ruled that he could not order summary arrests without one.

Alfonsin’s opponents say there is no convincing evidence of a plot. If there were, they argue, the government could have brought accusations to court in the normal fashion without assuming emergency powers.

“The president is seeking to destroy an old stereotype,” one of his close advisers said. “Argentines believe there is a dichotomy between governments: Civilian governments give freedom but military governments assure security. We, too, are assuring security.”’

Traditionally, military governments in Argentina have invoked states of siege against opposition from the center and left. Alfonsin’s election two years ago this week came at the end of a state of siege that lasted nine years. This is the first time that a centrist government has used emergency powers against unrest from the right.

Right to Defend Itself

Most leaders of democratic parties here, chary of summary arrest, have not opposed the state of siege, arguing that the government has the right to defend itself from extremist violence.

Some have called for a special session of the Argentine Congress to review the action, however, and others are critical of what they consider the government’s bungling of its case. In the original arrest order last week, two of 12 accused were misidentified--the government seeking the brother of the man it named in the arrest order.

Amid the legal wrangling, it is hard for Argentines to understand why the seemingly small-time violence became so important or why the government should have moved so dramatically against it. There is no widespread unrest in Argentina today. There is total freedom of expression. Street demonstrations and election rallies are everyday occurrences.

There is some informed speculation that the official reaction was based on information obtained by Argentine or friendly intelligence services through telephone taps. Such evidence is not admissible in courts here.

Publicly but without detail, the government insists that the violence, which continued Monday with a pre-dawn explosion at a boutique, is a calculated attempt by the right to destroy public confidence in the ability of a democratic government to guarantee order and stability.

Legislative Elections Due

In elections next Sunday to fill half of the 254-seat lower house of Congress, Alfonsin’s ruling party will seek to maintain its majority. Opinion polls predict it will make a strong showing.

The wave of bombings began in the closing days of a landmark human rights trial ordered by Alfonsin in which nine former junta members, including three former military presidents, were accused of the kidnaping, torture and murder of about 9,000 people. Verdicts are expected by year’s end.

The conservative Argentine armed forces, which won a so-called “dirty war” against Marxist guerrillas in the 1970s, bitterly opposed the trial, arguing that Alfonsin had no right to try the former officers.

Within the armed forces, there is discontent over the possibility that lower-ranking officers still on active duty may also be put on trial. About 1,200 present and former members of the armed forces and security services are accused of abuses by human rights groups.

Jostled by pressure from the left and violence from the right, Alfonsin has not made clear whether his government will undertake further trials, or whether the current trial may have triggered the alleged right-wing destabilization plot.