The Spanish Supreme Court (La Corte Suprema de España) has decided that Ricardo Cavallo, a one-time Argentinian Junta Officer, will face a trial in Madrid for crimes against humanity.

Cavallo stands accused of the torture and murder of left wing objectors to the Argentinian Military Junta, headed by Jorge Rafael Videla, during the Dirty War (la Guerra Sucia) between 1976 and 1983. It is estimated that around 30,000 people disappeared or were murdered through what the Junta named the National Reorganisation Process (el Proceso de Reorganización Nacional).

Cavallo himself was at one time a naval officer who served at the Navy School of Mechanics (ls Escuela de Suboficiales de Mecánica de la Armada) in Buenos Aires, which was an illegal detention centre where many hundreds of opposers to the Junta were tortured and/or murdered: it is estimated that over 600 people were detained in the Navy School of Mechanics throughout the National Reorganisation Process, some of whom were Spanish citizens.

Officers who Served in the Junta were given immunity from prosecution in Argentina after the country returned to a democratic state after the Falklands War in 1982 when the Junta stepped down due to growing public opposition. But in 2005 this immunity from prosecution was repealed by Argentina’s Supreme Court making, criminal prosecution for crimes against humanity a possibility once again.

Cavallo left Argentina to live in Mexico after the collapse of the Junta, but was sent to Spain by the Mexican government under an extradition order in 2003. As Cavallo is not facing prosecution for these crimes in Argentina, Spanish law permits that he be tried in Spain for the murder of Spanish citizens; crimes for which Spanish prosecutors are calling for multiple life sentences as a punishment.