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- WORLD, Page 32World NotesARGENTINANo Peace in The Dirty War
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- President Carlos Saul Menem wanted to "close a black
- chapter" in Argentina's history. But his decision last week to
- pardon ex-President Jorge Videla and half a dozen other leaders
- who had been jailed in 1986 for their role in Argentina's
- "dirty war" in the late 1970s only rekindled popular outrage.
- Nearly 50,000 citizens took to the streets of Buenos Aires to
- protest, and Bishop Jorge Novak called the measure a
- "humiliating defeat for the democratic system."
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- Menem intended the pardons to cool the simmering resentment
- within the armed forces that has led to four military uprisings
- since democracy was restored in 1983. The demonstrations
- signaled, however, that Argentine civilians are far from ready
- to forgive the military for having killed 9,000 of their
- countrymen and tortured thousands more in a campaign against
- leftists. But Videla remained unrepentant, calling for the
- "full vindication" of the army.
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