Argentina: Judicial Law Ends Insider Trials, Decriminalizes Homosexuality in Military

A new law in Argentina not only decriminalizes homosexuality in the military, it also ends the death penalty (not implemented in Argentinean courts since 1934), and military trials, putting members of the army, navy and air force under the national judicial system. The bill was signed last August, and is now law, after a six-month waiting period.

Gaston Chillier, of the Center for Legal and Social Studies, which represents families of victims of the “dirty war,” told the AP “We are still in a period of transition after the return to democracy, trying to advance in terms of our democratic institutions,” and that the new law will curtail the military’s ability to delay trials to protect dirty war criminals.

This system in the vanguard, not only in Latin America,” says the cabinet of minister Nilda Garré, regarding the fact that people of military status will be tried with the same guarantees and obligations that the national constitution indicates for all citizens.