Argentine Minister Resigns Amid Arms Scandal

Argentine Defense Minister Oscar Camilion resigned Tuesday amid a scandal over the secret sale of weapons to Ecuador and Croatia last year, becoming the second minister to quit in a week.

The resignation came 1 1/2 years after the scandal first broke and a few hours after a federal judge asked for the minister’s parliamentary immunity to be lifted to clear the way for him to be questioned.

Camilion’s resignation follows the departure of Justice Minister Rodolfo Barra last week after a magazine revealed he belonged to a neo-Nazi student group as a teenager.

President Carlos Menem will decide Camilion’s fate after he returns this weekend from a trip to the United States, where he will attend opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Cabinet chief Jorge Rodriguez said.

Menem’s government says it knew nothing about 8,000 outdated Argentine rifles and tons of ammunition that a state arms firm sold to Ecuador during its border clash with Peru early last year.

As guarantor of a treaty between the two countries, Argentina had an obligation to remain neutral in the conflict.

The sale was even more embarrassing because Peru has been one of Argentina’s closest allies in Latin America. Peru was the only state to offer Argentina military support during its 1982 conflict with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

The government insists the guns shipment was meant for Venezuela and was diverted to Ecuador illegally, just like the Argentine weapons sent to Panama that turned up in Croatia in violation of a U.N. embargo and where Argentine troops were taking part in U.N. peacekeeping activities.