Good news about a sad chapter in Argentine history

imagine... it's 1981... your neighbor, your co-worker, your best friend, your uncle, your father, or your son - suddenly gone...! no one knows where, no one knows anything... there is only a cursory investigation... nothing is discovered... you wait... still nothing... rumors abound and you have some idea of what might have happened but nothing specific... you're relieved when the military and security officers who did the dirty work of "disappearing" thousands of people under the ruthless dictatorship are arrested for their actions... but in 1986 and 1987, a law was passed shielding those people from prosecution out of fear that prosecution would lead to another military coup... now it's 2005... you still know nothing for sure... those same military and security people still live and work among you every day... finally, you think, maybe the day has come...

The Supreme Court [of Argentina] yesterday ruled that two laws shielding military and security officers from prosecution for atrocities committed during the 1976-1983 dictatorship are unconstitutional and hundreds of them could now face courts. By a 7-1 vote with one abstention, the Court struck down the Due Obedience and Full Stop Laws passed in 1986 and 1987 under the government of Radical president Raúl Alfonsín amid fears of a new barrage of the military coups which plagued Argentine history.

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