Gen. Ramon J. Camps; Aided Slaughter of Argentines

Gen. Ramon J. Camps, 67, one of the most notorious figures in Argentina’s “dirty war” against leftists. During the country’s military dictatorship from 1975 to 1983, Camps was chief of the Buenos Aires provincial police. He helped the right-wing junta lead a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and summary executions in which at least 9,000 people died. Rabidly anti-Communist, Camps once claimed personal responsibility for the “disappearance” of about 5,000 suspected leftists. When the country returned to elected rule in 1986, Camps was tried on human rights charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was pardoned in 1990. On Monday in Buenos Aires of prostate cancer.