JURIST - Paper Chase: Second Argentina judge issues arrest warrant for ex-president Peron

[JURIST] Argentine Federal Judge Norberto Oyarbide issued a second international arrest warrant on Tuesday for former Argentine President Isabel Peron [Wikipedia profile], currently living in exile in Spain. The warrant demands that Peron be returned to Argentina [JURIST news archive] for questioning about the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance [MIPT backgrounder] (Triple A), a government-supported death squad. Prosecutors in Argentina believe the Triple A was the brainchild of Jose Lopez Rega, Peron's minister of social welfare. The investigation was dropped after Rega's death in 1989 but has been revived after amnesty laws were overturned [JURIST report] in 2005 and the government began its subsequent campaign to prosecute the human rights violations of the country's infamous "Dirty War" [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. These investigations have been expanded to include the tenure of Peron [JURIST report].

Isabel Peron, formally Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, assumed the presidency of Argentina in 1974 after the death of her husband, President Juan Domingo Peron. She was ousted by a military junta in 1976. Late last week, Peron was arrested [JURIST report] in Spain [JURIST news archive] under an arrest warrant issued by from another Argentine judge, Raul Acosta, who believes Peron signed three decrees in support of state terror including the disappearance of political opponent Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego. She was later given a provisional release because the Spanish authorities do not believe the 75 year-old Peron will be able to flee due to her poor health. Reuters has more.

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