Heavy sentences in Argentina ‘stolen babies’ case

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA – Jorge Rafael Videla, former Argentine president, has been sentenced to 50 years for executing a systematic plan to steal babies from prisoners who were kidnapped, tortured and killed during the military junta’s war on leftist dissenters three decades ago.

The baby thefts set Argentina’s 1976-1983 military junta apart from all the others that ruled in Latin America at the time. Videla and the rest of the junta were determined to remove any trace of the armed leftist guerrilla movement that they felt threatened the country’s future.

The “dirty war” eventually claimed 13,000 victims according to official records. Many of them were pregnant women who gave birth in clandestine maternity wards.

At least 400 babies are thought to have been taken from their parents while they were held in detention centres.

Argentina’s last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, also was convicted and received a 15-year sentence.

Nine others, mostly former military and police officials, also were accused in the trial, which focused on 34 of the baby thefts. Seven were convicted and two were found not guilty.