Death of a “Dirty War” criminal: Jorge Rafael Videla

JORGE RAFAEL VIDELA, an Argentine former military dictator who ordered the torture, murder and disappearance of thousands of civilians during the country’s seven-year military rule, died on May 17th in his prison cell on the edge of Buenos Aires, where he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
Dubbed the "Pink Panther" for his lanky frame and stealthy gait, Videla seized power in 1976 when left-wing militants, runaway inflation and corruption had begun to rattle Isabel Perón’s civilian government. He said that military rule was necessary to protect national security and human rights.

Repairing the psychological damage inflicted by the “Dirty War” has been even more difficult than obtaining credible estimates of its toll. Mr Alfonsín set up a tribunal that, in 1985, sentenced Videla and several of his henchmen to life sentences. Videla’s sentence was annulled five years later by Carlos Menem, who believed that pardoning the junta and the leftist guerrilla commanders accused of terrorism would “begin to rebuild the country in peace, in liberty and in justice”.  In 2006 a judge ruled the pardon unconstitutional. Following a 2010 trial Videla, by then 84 years old, was again sentenced to life in prison.
For many Argentines, Videla’s conviction and death have not brought closure. Although during his 2010 trial he assumed “full military responsibility for the actions of the army in the war against terrorism”, he was unrepentant about his crimes and died without revealing much about his shadowy rule. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers and grandmothers with disappeared children, said of Videla’s passing: “We feel the weight of the fact that he didn’t speak about or divulge the locations of the 30,000 people and 400 grandchildren that we look for even today.”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/05/jorge-rafael-videla