Videla, Jorge Rafael

(1925– )

   Nicknamed “the Bone,” because of his lean and hard-muscled physique. General, commander of the army, and leader of the first junta (1976–1981) during the “dirty war” period in Argentina. (The other members of the first junta were Emilio Massera and Orlando Ramón Agosti.) Videla was born on 2 August 1925 in Mercedes, a city in Buenos Aires Province. His father, Rafael Videla, was an army colonel who commanded the Sixth Infantry Regiment. His mother, María Redondo, came from a Mercedes family of long standing. He graduated from the Colegio Militar (Military Academy) in 1944 as an infantry lieutenant and from the Senior War College in 1954. He devoted a large portion of his career to the Colegio Militar, training future officers in his roles as instructor, professor, and (from 1971 to 1973) commandant. In 1973 he was promoted to chief of the General Staff (second in the army chain of command) and, in August 1975, commander in chief. The promotion of Lieutenant General Videla to the top position came when the army rejected an effort by President Isabel Perón to bring the service under the control of Peronists. He had a reputation for being a political moderate—neither a Peronist nor an avowed anti-Peronist. He also knew and had the respect of officers in the field, having taught many of them. And like most other officers, he was a strong anticommunist, his distaste for Marxism reinforced by a traditional Roman Catholicism. Under his leadership, the army waged “war”—its first war of the century—against left-wing guerrillas, who had been conducting a campaign of kidnappings, assassinations, and bombings. Following the military coup of 24 March 1976, he emerged as the leader of a three-man junta and was named president. He presided over a “dirty war” against subversives. His definition of “subversive” included anyone promoting ideas alien to “Western, Christian values.” He retired in 1981, replaced as president by General Roberto Viola, the new army commander in chief and leader of the second junta. On 22 April 1985, after the return to civility, Videla was put on trial with the eight other service commanders who had made up the three juntas of the “dirty war” period. The defendants were charged with murder, kidnapping, illegal detention, torture, and robbery. The six-member Federal Court of Appeals delivered its verdict on 9 December 1985. Videla, as the leader of the army during the worst years of government repression, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In late December 1990 he was pardoned and released, along with Massera and Viola, under a controversial amnesty. In June 1998 Videla was placed under house arrest for ordering the traffic of babies born to detained mothers. (The abduction and illegal adoption of children are crimes not covered in the earlier amnesty.) He remains under house arrest.