Argentine Troops Surround Rebel Unit : Renegades Seek Amnesty for Officers Accused of Rights Abuses

Government troops and tanks surrounded a provincial infantry regiment Sunday after rebellious officers took control of the unit and defied the authority of the army chief of staff.

The mutiny, led by a renegade lieutenant colonel, erupted earlier in the day in scattered provincial units of the Argentine army, and loyal government forces mobilized in efforts to contain the crisis.

The army said it successfully suppressed apparent attempts to spread the rebellion to two other regiments, but rebels reportedly took over an artillery unit and sparked unrest in at least two other provincial barracks Sunday evening.

The developing military crisis plunged this nation of 30 million people into a state of tension and suspense, but it did not appear to pose an immediate threat to Argentina’s four-year-old democracy.

Aldo Rico, a hard-headed lieutenant colonel who faces trial for a similar uprising last April, led Sunday’s mutiny in the 4th Infantry Regiment at Monte Caseros, about 325 miles north of Buenos Aires.

Rico told reporters Sunday night that he was demanding the appointment of a new army chief of staff and an amnesty for all officers accused of human rights abuses in the past.

“I am ready for combat,” he said.

With black battle paint on their faces, troops manned battle stations inside the regiment.

Meanwhile, government forces moved into positions several miles away, but there was no word of any immediate move to attack the rebels. Troops and tanks from several other units converged on the area throughout the day.

Under heavy rain, groups of civilians gathered near the regiment, jeering at the mutinous troops inside.

‘Recovered by Force’

Other mutinous officers failed Sunday to gain control of Las Lajas Infantry Regiment, in the southwestern province of Neuquen, the army said. It said that the regiment was “recovered by force” but without casualties and that 13 rebels were arrested after troops from another unit surrounded the regiment.

Farther south, in the province of Santa Cruz, the army successfully repressed “acts of indiscipline,” in a motorized infantry regiment, an official communique said. Officials reported “absolute tranquillity” at all other military units in the country, but the official news agency Telam reported that rebel officers had seized the 161st Artillery Group 500 miles northwest of Buenos Aires in San Luis province, and Telam said loyal government troops were moving toward San Luis.

In San Miguel de Tucuman, 800 miles north of Buenos Aires, the commander of the 5th Infantry Brigade said he was mobilizing troops to suppress rebellious activity in the 19th Infantry Regiment there. And there were sketchy reports of unrest in the 5th Infantry Regiment at Paso de los Libres, north of Monte Caseros in Corriente province.

Although a military coup appeared unlikely, the crisis underscored President Raul Alfonsin’s difficulties in maintaining control over the armed forces. Alfonsin spent Sunday meeting with government officials at his residence in the Buenos Aires suburb of Olivos.

Alfonsin ordered all three branches of the armed forces to help stop the mutiny. Early today, air force trainer planes began making low passes over the Monte Caseros regiment.

The commander of the 2nd Army Corps in northeastern Argentina said that his orders were to “retake the unit that is in the power of the troops that had rebelled against the authority of the army” at Monte Caseros.

Rico, 43, had been under house arrest in a borrowed house near Buenos Aires when he slipped away before dawn Friday and went into hiding. Saturday afternoon, he landed in a private plane at Monte Caseros and declared that he was establishing a “command post” there.

Lt. Col. Hector Alvarez, the regiment commander, joined the mutiny. Army officials said that because of annual vacations, only about 100 troops and officers were on duty in the regiment.

A statement issued early Sunday by Rico said that he was resuming “Operation Dignity,” the name he gave to a three-day uprising last April.

The first objective of the operation, he said Sunday, was to seek “a political solution” to a dispute over prosecution of military officers charged with past human rights abuses.

At least 9,000 Argentines disappeared during harsh repression under military rule from 1976 to 1983, according to human rights investigations. After April’s Easter Week mutiny at a military school near Buenos Aires, President Alfonsin persuaded the Congress to pass a law that granted amnesty to more than 300 officers who were charged with the disappearances and other abuses.

Charges were maintained against about 30 high-level officers. Rico and many other officers have made it clear that they want a full amnesty that would clear those officers as well as five former members of military juntas who have been convicted of human rights violations. The five include two former presidents, Gens. Jorge Videla and Roberto Viola.

In his statement early Sunday, Rico also called for an end to a “campaign against the prestige of the armed forces” and “the recuperation of the dignity and unity of the Argentine army.”

He accused Gen. Jose Caridi, the army chief of staff, of acting with “military dishonor, moral coercion, prevarication and illegitimacy of command.” He said Caridi was leading the army “toward an internal confrontation, endangering the stability of the system, interior peace and national defense.”

Earlier, Rico emphasized that the mutiny was not a move against the civilian government.

According to Rico, Caridi failed to carry out an agreement between the government and officers who participated in the April mutiny. No agreement was ever announced, but a retired officer who was a mediator in those negotiations confirmed details of a pact in a statement published Saturday.

The retired officer, Lt. Col. Julio Vila, said that the government agreed to end military trials, stop a publicity campaign “against the prestige of the armed forces,” and cancel sanctions against participants in the April mutiny.

Rico gave up peacefully in April and was charged with insubordination. On Dec. 30, he was removed from confinement in a military unit and put under house arrest, but Friday he was scheduled to return to military detention.

Before dawn Friday, shooting broke out at the house where Rico was living. His wife said someone tried to kill him, that he was slightly wounded, and that he fled for security reasons.

But Buenos Aires newspapers quoted military sources as saying that the shooting apparently was part of a scheme aimed at justifying Rico’s escape.