Spanish Judge Orders Arrest of Argentina’s Junta Leaders

The Spanish judge behind the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet issued international arrest warrants Tuesday for Argentina’s former military rulers, charging them with “dirty war” atrocities.

Judge Baltasar Garzon accused 98 military and police officers, including nearly a dozen junta members, of genocide, torture and terrorism during Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship.

Garzon, who requested Pinochet’s arrest in London last year and wants to bring him to trial in Madrid for alleged human rights abuses, plans to seek the Argentines’ extradition to Spain, a court source said.

But Argentine government officials in Buenos Aires said the junta leaders were shielded by amnesty laws. Despite that, the former leaders could still be detained by Interpol if they set foot outside Argentina.

Among those named in the 282-page indictment were 1976 coup leader Jorge Rafael Videla, former navy chief Emilio Massera and Leopoldo Galtieri, the general who led a failed invasion of Britain’s Falkland Islands in 1982.