Argentina, Latin America: Week in Review
Argentine Investigators Discover Suspected Death Squad Cars
March 28, 2012 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Argentine investigators located 43 rusty Ford Falcons at a naval base outside Bahía Blanca, Argentina that are thought to have been used by death squads during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The Ford Falcon became synonymous with kidnapping and disappearance during Argentina’s period of state terrorism, during which an estimated 30,000 people were killed and many more were tortured and exiled. Court documents on Tuesday stated that the cars were over 30 years old and found at a warehouse at the Puerto Belgrano naval base. Investigators will search the cars for evidence linking them to any crimes committed during the dictatorship period as part of a federal court investigation into crimes against humanity. Investigators are also searching airplanes housed at a nearby naval base and aviation museum for clues about the fate of dissidents who were murdered on “death flights” over the Rio de la Plata.
Read more from Reuters.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Officials in ten U.S. states are asking the Supreme Court to overturn Arizona’s controversial immigration law when it hears arguments on the law next month.
- A Texas man swam to an oil rig after he and his friend spent 36 hours treading water in the Gulf of Mexico when their fishing boat sprung a leak. The friend did not survive.
Caribbean
- The United Nations said Tuesday that Haiti desperately needs about $50 million in aid money as rainy season approaches and nearly half a million people still live in camps.
- About 60 people protested outside Jamaica’s security ministry to call for an end to police violence and shootings.
- A Cuban man who shouted anti-government slogans was detained before Pope Benedict XVI’s mass Monday in Santiago del Cuba, but his whereabouts and identity are not immediately known.
- Puerto Rico ordered a vote recount in its primary elections after two political parties accused each other of fraud.
Central America
- Thousands of indigenous farmers in Guatemalan concluded an 8-day protest march to Guatemala City to protest land seizures by large owners and the government for large agricultural projects.
- Honduran Army Gen. Rene Osorio accused landless farmworkers of injuring four soldiers in a clash over land in the Aguan valley, but that charge was denied by farmer activists.
- Costa Rica’s anti-smoking law went into effect on Monday, preventing smoking in public places like restaurants and at bus stops.
- El Salvador defeated the U.S. soccer team to reach the semifinals and is a game away from its first Olympic soccer berth since 1968.
Andes
- One protester died and 17 were injured in coastal Sechura, Peru when police opened fire on protesters demonstrating against a natural gas pipeline. Six of those injured were police.
- About 4,700 have fled their homes in Ecuador due to floods, and 10 were reportedly killed by flooding and heavy rains since January.
- Bolivia’s interior minister said that weapons and more than 2,300 rounds of ammunition had been seized from a U.S. embassy vehicle.
- Jaime Alberto Marin-Zamora, a former leader of Colombia’s Valle Norte cartel, received a more than 16-year sentence in U.S. prison for drug trafficking.
Southern Cone
- Chilean Energy Minister Rodrigo Alvarez, the fourth energy minister since Chilean President Sebastián Piñera took office in 2010, has resigned over protests in the Aysen region of Chile.
- Brazil’s Tourism Ministry announced Tuesday that it is asking 2,169 websites to take down ads promoting sex tourism in Brazil.
Image: clonazpm @ Flickr.
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