Operation Charly - The Exportation of The "Argentine" Method To Central America

The Exportation of The "Argentine" Method To Central America

According to journalist María Seoane, from 1977 to 1984, after the Falklands War, the Argentine Armed Forces exported counter-insurgency tactics, including the systemic use of torture, death squads and forced disappearances — a US embassy cable spoke of the "tactics of disappearance". Special force units, such as Batallón de Inteligencia 601, headed in 1979 by Colonel Jorge Alberto Muzzio, trained the Nicaraguan Contras in the 1980s, in particular in Lepaterique base. According to journalist María Seoane, the plans were designed by General Carlos Alberto Martínez, head of the SIDE and Videla's man in the intelligence services, along with General Viola and General Valín.

Starting in 1979, the National Reorganization Process actively participated to the dirty war carried out in Central America, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The Argentine military carried out covert operations that the CIA could not manage under the Carter administration which had succeeded Gerald Ford, a Republican. According to journalist María Seoane, along with the more conservative sectors of US society, they began to proclaim that the United States had abandoned the continent to confront the "Communist threat" alone and that they had to take up the lead.

Operation Charly was executed by a group of military figures who had already taken part in Operation Condor, which had started as soon as 1973 and concerned international cooperation between intelligence agencies to permit greater repression of the left-wing opposition. US journalist Martha Honey documented the exportation of "social control techniques" which the Argentine army had "brutally perfected" in Argentina to Central American countries. The Argentine intelligence services created a secret network inside the intelligence agencies (the same method was used in Operation Gladio) to transfer the $19 million provided by the CIA.

In 1979, the Sandinista Front overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. In November 1979, before the 13th Conference of American Armies in Bogotá, General Roberto Viola, president of the Argentine junta, exposed the Latin American plan of state terrorism. However, it was most of all General Leopoldo Galtieri who, in resonance with the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, committed the Argentine military to the continental Dirty War, within the strategic framework decided by the White House.

New York Times journalist Leslie Gelb explained that "with this pact, Argentina would be responsible, with funds from North American intelligence, of attacking the flux of equipment which was transiting Nicaragua to El Salvador and Guatemala ". The US were to provide money and equipment, while Argentina sent military instructors, and Honduras provided the use of its territory for training of the Contras and attack bases against the Sandinistas.

According to Noam Chomsky, starting in 1979, the Argentine military established covert military centers in Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Among others examples, Noam Chomsky says the death squads which began to act in Honduras in 1980 were attributed to the importation of the "Argentine method".

According to journalist María Seoane, a memorandum of the United States National Security Council of 15 February 1980, given by Robert Pastor to Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Aaron and Henry Owen stated that: "The moment has come to insure that this government moves itself in an efficient manner to resolve the problems of El Salvador and Honduras." She says that the document proposed to divide the left-wing, neutralize the right-wing coup d'état and arm a more moderate civilian and military government.

In July 1980, the Grupo de Tareas Exterior (GTE, External Operations Group) headed by Guillermo Suárez Mason, of the 601 Intelligence Battalion, took part in the Cocaine Coup of Luis García Meza in Bolivia, with the assistance of the Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie and Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie. The Argentine secret services hired 70 foreign agents to assist in the coup. The cocaine trade helped fund the covert operations. According to journalist María Seoane, contacts were made between US intelligence and Argentine intelligence on 16 June 1980, and the main theme of discussions concerned Bolivia, as well as the kidnapping of Montoneros in Lima (Peru).

End of October 1980, Jimmy Carter authorized the creation of a CIA covert program of assistance to the Sandinistas' opposition, sending a million dollars to fund them. According to journalist María Seoane, the CIA also collaborated with the 601 Intelligence Battalion, which had organized a base in Florida. According to journalist María Seoane, in the middle of the 1980s, former CIA deputy director Vernon Walters and the Contra leader Francisco Aguirre met with Viola, Davico and Valín to coordinate actions in Central America.