Jorge Rafael Videla (2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer who was de facto President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981, the first and longest under the National Reorganization Process. His tenure, which was during the time of Operation Condor, was among the most infamous in Latin America during the Cold War due to its high level of human rights abuses and severe economic mismanagement.
Coming to power following the coup d'état that deposed Isabel Perón, his tenure was characterized by the Junta's challenges regarding the image of Argentina abroad. He would blame criticism over human rights to an "anti-Argentine campaign", and eventually used the 1978 FIFA World Cup for political purposes, citing the enthusiasm of the Argentine fans for their victorious football team as evidence of his and the junta's popularity. After a human rights investigation in 1979 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denounced Videla's government, citing many disappearances and instances of abuse, the Junta in response engineered AstroTurfing: They hired an ad agency to formulate the pithy comeback Los argentinos somos derechos y humanos (literally "We the Argentines are righteous and humane"), and the slogan was printed on 250,000 bumper stickers and distributed to motorists throughout Buenos Aires to create the appearance of a spontaneous support for the junta.
In 1985, two years after the return of a representative democratic government, he was prosecuted in what became known as the Trial of the Juntas for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that took place under his rule, including kidnappings or forced disappearance, widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of activists and political opponents as well as their families at secret concentration camps. An estimated 8,000 to 30,000 political dissidents "disappeared" during this period. Videla was also convicted of the theft of many babies born during the captivity of their mothers at the illegal detention centres and passing them on for illegal adoption by associates of the regime. While he and various other members of the regime would be pardoned by Carlos Menem in 1990, during the presidency of Néstor Kirchner in the mid-2000s that pardon was found uncostitutional and revoked, and was put on trial again in 2010, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2013.
Works featuring Videla:
Films — Live-Action- While Esperando La Carroza doesn't feature Videla, Antonio (Luis Brandoni) bearing an uncanny resemblance to him seems to be intentional, especially as the film all but states that he worked for the dictatorship's secret police, and the film's famous "tres empanadas" scene has him doing a gesture
◊ similar to a famous photo of Videla.
- He is the first in a string of presidents mentioned in Bersuit Vergarabat's "La argentinidad al palo", in the line "También Videla en el Mundial '78" ("Also Videla at the '78 World [Cup]").
