U.S. arrests 3 suspected of Latin American war crimes
The United States on Tuesday announced the arrests of three former South American military officers suspected of war crimes, including the accused chief interrogator for Argentina’s former military government.
He and two former Peruvian army officers accused in the 1985 killing of 69 villagers in Peru, known as the Accomarca massacre, were arrested in the last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
They have been charged with violating U.S. immigration laws and face deportation, the agency disclosed.
Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro is a retired Argentine army major who the agency said is accused by authorities in Argentina in the torture and deaths of several people during the country’s “dirty war,” from 1976 to 1983.
Immigration officials said Barreiro, who was arrested on suspicion of visa fraud in Arlington, Va., served as chief interrogator at La Perla, a clandestine detention facility in Argentina.
As for the former Peruvian officers, Telmo Ricardo Hurtado-Hurtado was arrested in Miami and charged with visa fraud and Juan Manuel Rivera-Rondon was arrested in Baltimore on unspecified immigration charges.
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