Come Clean on the Dirty War

Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem, a man already encircled by political challenges, now faces another. A Spanish judge has opened an investigation into the torture, disappearance and killings of 320 Spanish citizens during Argentina’s so-called Dirty War of 1976-83. The Spanish court wants the alleged malefactors brought to justice.

Just last week Menem came under political pressure when 100 tombs were desecrated in a Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In 1994, the capital’s Jewish cultural center was destroyed by a bomb that killed 86 people. Two years earlier, a car bomb exploded at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29.

None of these cases have been resolved and, so far, the Argentine authorities would have us believe that no official knows who is responsible. Menem simply cannot keep sweeping this dirt under the rug. The relatives of the victims deserve answers and action.

In the latest case, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon has charged 97 Argentine military and police officers with crimes. Assuming that the prospects of interviewing them in Madrid or Buenos Aires are slim because of a lack of support from the Argentine presidency, the judge plans to issue international warrants for the accused, which could at least make it difficult for them to leave their country. He’s not likely to succeed, but he is taking a proper legal and humanistic action.

President Menem, in a show of political courage, could make the court’s goal a reality, and he should.