Record Torture Damages Won

The largest federal civil judgment ever entered for human rights abuse was disclosed today in a $21.1-million award to a former victim of torture ordered by former Argentine Gen. Carlos Suarez Mason, 64, who is currently facing extradition from the United States to face 43 murder charges in his homeland.

The order by U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti also represents the first American civil damage award to any former victim of torture or illegal imprisonment during the period of political repression under Argentine’s military junta of the 1970s. Martinez Baca, 46, of Oakland said that, although he has little hope of finding any of Suarez Mason’s assets, he plans to give half of whatever amount may be recovered to a human rights association in Argentina to assist victims of the repression and torture of the 1970s.