General Galtieri is arrested on torture and murder charges

The former Argentine junta leader, General Leopoldo Galtieri, was arrested yesterday for the alleged kidnap, torture and murder of 20 Montanero urban guerrillas during the government's so-called Dirty War against leftists two decades ago.

He is being held at General San Martin military stockade on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. An investigative federal judge, Claudio Bonadio, also ordered the arrest of 41 other senior retired police and military officers who will be charged with the disappearance of these high-profile left-wing militants.

The missing bodies have not been recovered, and some former officers told a government truth commission last year that suspected "enemies of the state" were frequently drugged and tossed from helicopters into the sea after their confessions had been extracted through torture.

Other prominent arrests included General Cristino Nicolaides, who used to command the entire Argentine Army, and General Carlos Guillermo Surez Masun, the former commander of the Buenos Aires region. Senior members of Battalion 601, a notoriously ruthless army intelligence unit, were also hauled in.

General Galtieri, once Margaret Thatcher's arch-nemesis, had been courtmartialled and sentenced to a dozen years in prison for military incompetence after his invasion of the Falklands Islands in 1982 resulted in a humiliating defeat in just three months. But the former President Carlos Menem, in an attempt to heal political rifts, had pardoned the general and extended a sweeping amnesty for military officers who had followed orders that resulted in systematic repression.

Last year, Judge Bonadio ruled that absolving crimes against humanity in this manner had violated Argentina's constitution. This set the stage for yesterday's arrests.

Estela de Carlotto, president of the pressure group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, described this as a "belated but welcome step toward justice". She said she hoped more human rights violators may be detained soon.