RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: General Reveals Undeclared Swiss Bank Account

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 19 1998 (IPS) - General Antonio Bussi, officer of the Argentine military dictatorship and current governor of Tucuman province, admitted having an undeclared Swiss bank account Thursday.

However, he claimed this account postdated the military regime (1976-83), contrary to the claims of the Spanish courts investigating the property of around 100 agents of the repression who may have profited by stealing from their victims.

After four days of confused answers, Bussi confessed he had owned a Swiss bank account between 1986 and 1996, the year he was elected governor of Tucuman province.

However, he did not include this in his 1993 tax invoice, the year he was elected deputy for his province, where he only listed an apartment in Buenos Aires, 100,000 dollars in a savings account and the ususal military insurance.

The general said he had only operated this way in response to the Argentine economic crisis, the closure of banks and the lack of saver confidence, although his decision to keep the money abroad continued five years after monetary stability returned to the country.

Bussi, who commanded the Third Battalion during the dictatorship, was responsible for the disappearance of 600 people, but the amnesty laws freed him from prosecution.

His popularity in Tucuman helped him be elected governor in 1996, but he never publically repented his crimes. On the contrary, he said he was “proud” of what he had done.

When rumours of his resignation abounded Thursday, he confessed “like millions of other Argentines” he had chosen to invest part of his liquid assets in a safer place. “It was the money I thought of passing on to my children,” he said. The account is believed to hold around 100,000 dollars.

The investigation into Bussi’s property began when Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, investigating the disappearance of Spaniards in Argentina, asked the Swiss attorney general to tell him whether 100 suspected repressors had accounts or safety deposit boxes where information on the victims could be kept.

And at least six of the officers on the list were found to have had, or still have, accounts in this country.

One of these, naval captain, Alfredo Astiz, was forced to resign this year following his vindication of the illegal repression. His legal representative admitted the army had opened him an account there in the seventies to fund his intelligence operations amongst exile groups in Europe.

And information released earlier this week added Bussi to teh list.

The current governor of Tucuman initially avoided making any comment. Later, sobbing, he declared he would willingly go before an “Argentine” court (although he has not been summonsed), accused his opponents of an alleged slur campaign and made no mention of the bank account.

The next day, he stated he had never had a Swiss bank account.

When the legislators in his province threatened to search government headquarters for the declaration of assets he gave when he took up office, Congress opened his 1993 declaration.

In this declaration, the then deputy did not include the money deposited in his Swiss bank account. For 1996, when he was elected governor, he did not declare this either, stating days before taking office that he had closed the account bringing his savings back to Argentina.

Now, the opposition legislators in his province are trying to move ahead in the investigation to suspend or disqualify the governor for tax evasion, fraud and possible theft, if it is provent Bussi’s money is part of the 70 million dollars of cash and property the military stole from their victims.