Death flight pilot during Argentina's Dirty War granted house arrest, underscoring recent trend [View all]

[sandensea]

Mario Arrú, a former pilot sentenced to life in prison last year for manning the infamous death flights during Argentina's last dictatorship, was granted house arrest yesterday.

Arrú, 74, was among two Navy pilots and 46 others sentenced for their roles in the death flights, which from 1976 to 1978 transported at least 4,400 detainees.

These included French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, as well as the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo - one of whom, Esther Ballestrino, was a friend and former colleague of the future Pope Francis.

Arrú piloted their December 14, 1977, death flight.

The detainees, mostly from the ESMA detainment center in Buenos Aires, were dropped at night to their deaths over the Río de la Plata estuary. The practice was ended on the eve of the 1978 World Cup, for fear tourists and journalists might see some of the corpses that had been washing up around the city and in neighboring Uruguay.

He later became an Aerolíneas Argentinas pilot, and was not identified until turning himself in in 2011. He was later detained for probable cause until his sentencing last November.

A disturbing trend

Arrú's transfer from prison to house arrest reflects a disturbing trend under the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration.

When Macri took office in December 2015, 603 human rights abuse convicts were in prison compared to 439 under house arrest.

The number in prison has since fallen steadily to 272, while those under house arrest has risen to 641 - a relative decline of those in jail from 58% to 30%.

Human rights groups note that numerous Dirty War convicts enjoying house arrest have been found repeatedly violating their confinement, in some cases hundreds of miles from their homes. Thirty-six remain at large, including several who took advantage of house arrest to flee altogether.

They've also condemned what they consider a policy of coddling Dirty War perpetrators on Macri's part.

Macri had referred to human rights as a "scam" during his 2015 campaign, labeled the trials "a culture of vindictiveness," and as president had a number of judges who have advanced human rights cases removed.

Macri's Justice Minister, Germán Garavano, held a meeting on April 25, 2016, with the country's most prominent Dirty War apologist, Cecilia Pando. The meeting was intended to be secret.

More recently, Garavano sponsored an October 6 meeting in Boulder, CO, between relatives and lawyers of Dirty War convicts and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

ESMA/Death flight convicts Jorge "Tigre" Acosta, Alfredo Astiz, and Mario Arrú during their sentencing last November.

All remain unrepentant for their role in 5,000 deaths at the ESMA detention camp, and all see the Macri administration as an opportunity to seek amnesty in some form.

Over 200 Dirty War convicts have thus far been granted house arrest under Macri, a benefit denied to over 20 political opponents currently in pre-trial detention on largely unbstantiated charges.