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July 10, 2003 Argentine
Military Officer Extradited to Spain on Genocide Charges
Even before Cavallo was exposed, the Spanish Judge Baltazar Garzon had been gathering evidence against him as part of a wider investigation into the crimes of Argentina's military during the Dirty War. (Garzon has also pursued investigations relating to torture and crimes against humanity in Chile, leading to his indictment of the former Chilean dictator Agosto Pinochet.) However, no one had made the link between the Cavallo suspected of war crimes and the man who was living in Mexico under a variation of the same name. The catalyst for Cavallo's arrest was an article in the Mexican daily, Reforma, which unveiled the true identity of Mexico's powerful businessman Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, head of the private National Registry of Motor Vehicles. Reforma revealed that he was in fact Miguel Angel Cavallo, former Argentine naval officer, accused of torturing, killing, and "disappearing" dozens of left-wing opponents during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in Argentina, and alleged interrogator at a clandestine torture center based at the School of Naval Mechanics, known as ESMA. Aware of the implications of Cavallo's case under international law, Jose Vales, the reporter who broke the story, made certain that the rich businessman in Mexico was indeed the Miguel Angel Cavallo on human rights registers of those responsible for Argentina's "Dirty War." Vales interviewed six former prisoners who had been detained in ESMA and showed them a photograph of Cavallo; five of them identified him as their torturer. Reforma's investigation also led to the discovery that an identity card number that Ricardo Miguel Cavallo submitted to the Mexican authorities in a residency application was the same one found by Judge Garzon in his case against Cavallo. Once the story was published, Cavallo tried to flee to Argentina where he would be protected by amnesty laws, but was arrested by Interpol at a stopover in Cancun. Following his arrest, Cavallo was originally placed in pre-trial detention for forging documents and falsifying his identity. On September 1, 2000, Judge Garzon issued an indictment against Cavallo and then on September 12, 2002, Garzon sent an extradition request to the Spanish authorities. Cavallo was held in custody in Mexico until June 28, 2003, when, in an unprecedented act of international judicial cooperation, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that Cavallo could be extradited to Spain for crimes committed in Argentina. Cavallo's extradition marks the first time that one country has extradited a person to another country to stand trial for abuses that happened in a third. Cavallo is also the first serving or former Latin American military officer to be prosecuted by a judge from a third country after being arrested in a country where he had no legal problems. It is a "historic moment in the effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst atrocities," according to Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch. Once in Spain, Cavallo was handed a 200-page indictment by Judge Baltazar Garzon. "It should not be forgotten that [Cavallo] is accused of the international crimes of genocide and terrorism, which assault the very essence of humanity, and whose victims are not only those directly affected but also the international community," wrote Judge Garzon in the ruling ordering that Mr. Cavallo be sent immediately to Soto del Real Prison outside Madrid. The arrest, extradition, and indictment of Cavallo were founded on the principle of universal jurisdiction. In international law, the concept of universal jurisdiction declares that every state has an interest in bringing perpetrators of the most serious crimes against humanity to justice, regardless of where the crime was committed and the nationalities of the perpetrators or victims. A state may hand the suspect over to another state or international tribunal for trial, as Mexico did in extraditing Cavallo to Spain. The Cavallo case is significant "because it has demonstrated that with a little cooperation between nations, the principle of universal jurisdiction can be applied without time limits or pretexts like expiration of the statute of limitations," Alfonso Garcia, spokesman in Mexico for Amnesty International, told the Inter Press Service on July 1, 2003. Cavallo's indictment gives hope to those pursuing other cases under universal jurisdiction, such as those against the former Guatemalan military dictators Efrian Rios Montt and Lucas Garcia. Informed journalism, international cooperation, and attention to international humanitarian law can work together to ensure there is no safe haven for war criminals. Related Chapters from Crimes of War: What the Pubic Should Know: Jurisdiction,
Universal Related Links: 'Otro
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case sets precedent
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