A number of former Argentine military leaders from the seven-year dictatorship ending in 1983 have been sentenced for the killing and torture of activists during their regime. The defendants included Argentina’s last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, who was sentenced to 15 years after being sentenced to 25 years in a separate case last year. The former head of the air force, Hipolito Mariani, was sentenced to eight months house arrest, prompting an outcry from activists and relatives of the victims. A member of the group, Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, criticized the sentences as too lenient.

Nora Cortiñas: “We can’t tolerate these sentences. They are laughable for the crimes they committed. What more proof do they need? Do they want the victims who were tortured and killed to come up from the bottom of the ocean, to rise from the earth and testify against the crimes that were committed? What more proof has to be given?”