A former military dictator of Argentina is on trial again. Gen. Jorge Videla, who helped lead the country’s “Dirty War” of state terror in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is one of more than 20 defendants being tried for the 1976 murders of 31 jailed dissidents.

Argentina’s “Dirty War” saw an estimated 30,000 people murdered under the military junta that ruled the country for more than half a decade. –JCL

Los Angeles Times:

The aging former military dictator of Argentina is facing criminal charges for the killings of 31 jailed dissidents during the country’s “Dirty War.” The trial of Jorge Videla, now 84 and with prostate cancer, opened last week in a court in Cordoba.

The shooting deaths occurred in the central city shortly after the 1976 coup that brought the military junta to power in Argentina. The military said at the time that the jailed dissidents were trying to escape.

Videla is being tried alongside more than 20 other defendants, including former general Luciano Menendez, reports in Argentina said. Videla also faces a trial set for September for charges that he stole 33 infants from political opponents.

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