Rebel Troops Take Over 2nd Argentine Base

Rebellious army officers took over a second Argentine military garrison today to press demands for an end to human rights trials, and President Raul Alfonsin approved the use of force to quell the uprisings.

Gen. Hector Rios Erenu, the army chief of staff, said the bases in Cordoba and Buenos Aires will be retaken “with all the means at our disposal.”

“Unfortunately, there will be wounds,” he told reporters after meeting nearly two hours with Alfonsin and top aides at the Casa Rosada, the pink-colored presidential palace.

Rios Erenu warned that the disobedient officers are “endangering the country’s institutions,” and said most officers and enlisted men are loyal to Alfonsin and “at the service of the law and the constitution.”

The decision to use force if necessary to retake the bases indicated that the president’s efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to the three-day-old crisis had failed.

Seek Amnesty Only

Leaders of the revolt had stressed that they did not want to overthrow the civilian government and were interested only in winning an amnesty for officers accused of human rights abuses during a period of military rule in the 1970s.

The revolt began Wednesday at an army base in the city of Cordoba, and spread today to Buenos Aires, where Lt. Col. Aldo Rico and about 100 other officers seized the infantry school at the Campo de Mayo army base.

Rico said in a radio interview this morning that he has ousted the school’s commanding officer. He said no more officers will turn themselves in to authorities conducting investigations of rights abuses, and added that he is in contact with political and military officials to explain his position.