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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — In a story May 27 about an Argentina court ruling on human rights crimes related to the Operation Condor conspiracy in South America, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Ronni Moffitt was an aide to former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier. She was the aide's wife.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Argentine court sentences ex-dictator for Operation Condor
Argentina's last dictator and 14 other former military officials have been sentenced to prison for the forced disappearance of more than 100 people during the Operation Condor conspiracy to hunt down dissidents across South America
By DEBORA REY and LUIS ANDRES HENAO
Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's last dictator and 14 other former military officials were sentenced Friday to prison for human rights crimes committed during the Operation Condor conspiracy to hunt down dissidents across South America and beyond.
Operation Condor was launched in the 1970s by six South American dictators who used their secret police networks in a coordinated effort to track down their opponents across borders and eliminate them. Some leftist dissidents had sought refuge in neighboring countries only to be detained as part of the state-sponsored terror campaign.
An Argentine court on Friday sentenced former junta leader Reynaldo Bignone, 88, to 20 years in prison for being part of an illicit association, kidnapping and abusing his powers in the forced disappearance of more than 100 people. The former general who ruled Argentina in 1982-1983 is already serving life sentences for multiple human rights violations during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
In the landmark trial, 14 other former military officials received prison sentences of eight to 25 years for criminal association, kidnapping and torture. They include Uruguayan army colonel, Manuel Cordero Piacentini, who allegedly tortured prisoners inside Automotores Orletti, the Buenos Aires repair shop where many captured leftists were interrogated under orders from their home countries. Two of the accused were absolved.
The sentences are seen as a milestone because they mark the first time a court has proved that the criminal conspiracy called Operation Condor was carried out by the U.S.-backed regimes in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
"Operation Condor affected my life, my family," Chilean Laura Elgueta told The Associated Press outside the court room. Her brother, Luis Elgueta, had taken refuge in Buenos Aires from Gen. Augusto Pinochet's forces, only to be forcibly disappeared in Buenos Aires in 1976 as part of Operation Condor.
"This trial is very meaningful because it's the first time that a court is ruling against this sinister Condor plan," she said.
Since in many cases the bodies of the victims have never been found, Argentine prosecutors argued that the crime of covering up their deaths continues today, and that statutory time limits don't apply.
The victims also include Maria Claudia Irureta Goyena, the daughter-in-law of Argentine poet Juan Gelman, who was pregnant when she was kidnapped and held for months inside Automotores Orletti before an Argentine air force plane took her to Uruguay. She gave birth there, and then was disappeared. Decades passed before her daughter, Macarena Gelman, discovered her own true identity.
A key piece of evidence in the case was a declassified FBI agent's cable, sent in 1976, that described in detail the conspiracy to share intelligence and eliminate leftists across South America.
Operation Condor was launched in November 1975 by Chile's Pinochet who enlisted other dictators in South America. But the covert program went much further: the U.S. government later determined that Chilean agents involved in Condor were behind a car bombing that killed the country's former ambassador Orlando Letelier and U.S. citizen Ronni Moffitt in Washington, D.C., in September 1976. Operation Condor's agents also tracked other exiles across Europe in efforts to eliminate them.
"This is a great ruling, with stiff sentences," Luz Zaldua, a lawyer representing families of the victims said as she left the court house. "It has established that Condor was a supranational criminal association, and that's important — not just for our country but for all countries that have been part of this operation."
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Associated Press video journalist Paul Byrne and AP photographer Natacha Pisarenko contributed to this report.
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