[In the 1970s Astiz would have been a lieutenant in the Argentine
marines = “captain” in most land services. The junta’s standard method
for “disappearances” was to drug the captives and throw them out of
military transport aircraft over the Atlantic.]

Bragging about past lands Argentine in hot water

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 Reuters

BUENOS AIRES (January 16, 1998 07:08 a.m. EST) – The Argentine Navy on
Thursday detained one of the most notorious members of the military
death squads of the 1970s for 60 days for threatening journalists and
politicians in a magazine interview.

The state news agency Telam said retired Navy Capt. Alfredo Astiz was
taken to serve out his time in military barracks in the town of Azul in
Buenos Aires province.

The punishment was ordered by President Carlos Menem after Astiz said in
an interview with Tres Puntos magazine that he was tired of being
hounded by the media for his part in the 1976-1983 “dirty war” against
suspected leftists.

“I’m telling you, don’t keep on pushing us into a corner, because I
don’t know how we’re going to respond. You’re playing with fire,” Astiz
said, breaking years of silence.

“Because, do you know what? I’m technically the best trained man in this
country to kill a politician or a journalist,” said Astiz, who is still
subject to military discipline despite his retirement.

In an unusual display of unity, the government, opposition and human
rights groups all expressed outrage.

Interior Minister Carlos Corach described Astiz’s comments as
“frightful” and said the government would determine if they violated any
criminal laws.

Buenos Aires City Council declared Astiz persona non grata, and
congressmen called for his naval pension to be canceled.

Astiz, now in his mid-40s, was forced to retire from the Navy in 1996
after years of diplomatic pressure from France. A French court sentenced
him in absentia to life imprisonment for the murder of nuns Leonie
Duquet and Alice Domon in 1977.

Sweden also wants to try him for the 1977 disappearance of Swedish teen
Dagmar Hagelin. Like the French nuns, she is believed to have been
killed at the infamous Navy School of Mechanics torture center.

In the interview, Astiz defended the dirty war as the only way to combat
subversion. He described killing guerrillas in shootouts, but denied
kidnapping Hagelin or taking part in torture.

“I never tortured anyone. Would I have tortured if they had ordered me
to? Yes, of course I would,” he said. “I might have made some small
mistakes, but in the big things I don’t repent of anything.”

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