Luciano Benjamín Menéndez

Infobox_Governor
name= Luciano B. Menéndez


caption=
order=
office= Provisional Federal Interventor of Córdoba
term_start= 1975
term_end=1975
predecessor= Raúl Lacabanne
successor= Raúl Bercovich Rodriguez
birth_date= birth date and age|1927|6|19
birth_place=
profession= Soldier
party= none
footnotes=

Luciano Benjamín Menéndez (born June 19, 1927) was an Argentine general. He served as the Provisional Federal Interventor of Córdoba, Argentina, and the Commander of the Third Army Corps from September 1975 until September 1979, three and a half years into the dictatorial rule of the National Reorganization Process. [ [http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/tort/ejercito/menendez/ Galería de Represores Argentinos] ] es Interview with General Luciano Benjamín Menendez about the Beagle conflict in [http://www.emol.com/especiales/tratado_chileargentina/entrev_menendez.htm El Mercurio] de Santiago de Chile, (from the Argentine magazine "Somos").]

The jurisdiction of the Third Army Corps comprised the provinces of Córdoba, Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, Córdoba, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán. Menéndez oversaw all the illegal detention centers in that large area (essentially the whole of central-western and northwestern Argentina), notably including "La Perla", 15 km from Córdoba City, where more than 2,200 people stayed at some point during the dictatorship. Menéndez personally oversaw and directed torture sessions and executions.

He was a warmonger during the Beagle conflict and known because of his aggressive discourse against Chileans: "«Si nos dejan atacar a los chilotes, los corremos hasta la isla de Pascua, el brindis de fin de año lo hacemos en el Palacio La Moneda y después iremos a mear el champagne en el Pacífico»" [See [http://www.diarioelcentro.cl/articulos_sc.php?fecha=15-12-2003&semana=49-2003 Diario El Centro] , Chile, also in [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-25897-2003-09-24.html Diario Página12] ] (Translation: «If [our government] let us attack the Chileans, we will chase her away up to Easter Island, we will celebrate the New Year's Eve in La Moneda and afterwards we will go for a Champagne-slash to the pacific beach»).

Menéndez's nephew, Mario Benjamín Menéndez, was the Commander of the Argentine troops in the Falklands during the Falklands War (1982).

After the dictatorship ended in 1983, Menéndez (as a top officer) fell outside the purview of the "Ley de Obediencia Debida" ("Law of Due Obedience") and was accused of nearly 800 crimes. In 1988 he was indicted with 47 homicides, 76 instances of torture (4 of them followed by death) and 4 kidnappings of minors, but the Supreme Court voided most of the indictments as a result of the "Ley de Punto Final" ("Full Stop Law"). In 1990, days before his trial was to begin for the remaining accusations, President Carlos Menem pardoned him. In 1998 he assembled a fascist party called "Nuevo Orden Republicano" (Republican New Order).

Menéndez was involved in the forced disappearance of several Italian citizens, and was indicted in Spain, from where judge Baltasar Garzón asked the Argentine authorities for his arrest.

In 1998 a case involving 30 summary executions and murders of political prisoners was reopened against Menéndez, who was detained for a few days and refused to give a statement; he was later set free again.

The laws that had stopped the prosecution of crimes committed during the dictatorship (passed during the first years of democracy) were repealed by Congress in 2006, and Carlos Menem's pardons followed soon afterward. Menéndez was again brought before justice, this time accused of the kidnapping, torture and murder of four members of the Workers' Revolutionary Party. In the trial that ended on 24 July 2008, he was found guilty and sentenced to a life sentence, to be served in a regular prison (rather than in military facilities or at home, a benefit granted to several notorious criminals of the dictatorship due to being over 70). [Crítica Digital, 24 July 2008. [http://www.criticadigital.com/index.php?secc=nota&nid=7953 Perpetua y cárcel común para el represor Luciano Benjamín Menéndez] .]

In August 2008, Menéndez, along with fellow general Antonio Bussi, was found guilty of the forced disappearance of politician Guillermo Vargas Aignasse and sentenced to a further life sentence. [es [http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/08/29/um/m-01748210.htm Condenan a perpetua a Bussi y a Menéndez por una desaparición] , "Clarín", 28 August 2008.]

References