A former police officer who is alleged to have been a leader of a far-right death squad in Argentina during the 1970s has been arrested in Spain.

Rodolfo Almiron was detained near Valencia on a warrant to face murder charges in Argentina.

He is a suspected member of Triple A, the anti-communist alliance that operated under the governments of Juan Peron and then his widow Isabel.

The group is blamed for the killings of 1,500 perceived government opponents.

The BBC's Daniel Schweimler says any mention of the Triple A still strikes terror into the hearts of many Argentinians today.

'Escaping his past'

The group is held responsible for killing at least 1,500 perceived left-wing opponents of the government of Juan Peron and when he died in 1974, that of his widow Isabel who was toppled by Jorge Videla in a 1976 coup.

Rodolfo Almiron, said to be one of the leaders of Triple A, is alleged to have carried out many of the killings personally.

He fled to Spain in 1975 in the midst of chaos in Argentina, with left-wing factions battling against the right, the police and the armed forces.

The military took power shortly afterwards, ostensibly to restore order but imposing their own form of terror, killing at least 30,000 people over the next seven years.

Rodolfo Almiron, 71, thought he had escaped his past, living the last 30 years in comfort in Spain, our correspondent says.

However, last week a judge in Argentina ruled that the crimes which he has been accused of do not fall under any statute of limitations and therefore he could be tried.

Mr Almiron is expected to be transferred to Madrid's National Court in the next few days to start extradition proceedings, police said.

The arrest came as Argentina asked Spain to extradite a key figure in the military government.

Gen Ricardo Miguel Cavallo has been held in Madrid on charges of crimes against humanity for the past three years, but the high court decided last week it had no jurisdiction over him.

Peronist force said to have killed 600 in 1970s. Ex-police commissioner was Fraga's bodyguard.

Dale Fuchs in Madrid

A former police officer accused of being in a death squad responsible for more than 600 deaths in Argentina in the 1970s was arrested in Spain on Thursday night.

Rodolfo Eduardo Almirón Sena, a 70-year-old former police commissioner, was arrested on a warrant to face charges of murder and belonging to a criminal organisation in Argentina.

He is alleged to have been a leader of the Argentinian Anticommunist Alliance, known as the Triple A, which Argentinian prosecutors hold responsible for more than 600 deaths, according to the newspaper El País. The group, organised under the government of General Juan Perón, is believed to have committed 1,500 crimes during the mid- to late 70s.

An Argentinian judge issued an international warrant for Mr Almirón last week after he was identified in a Spanish newspaper report. Police arrested him at a healthcare centre near his home in the southeastern town of Torrent, where he lived for decades and even once worked for a Spanish politician.

He has been wanted in Argentina since 1984. In the arrest warrant, Judge Norberto Oyarbide described his activities under the Triple A as "crimes against humanity", and therefore not subject to prosecution time limits. He is expected to be brought within days to the Spanish high court for extradition proceedings.

Argentina also asked Spain to extradite a former Argentinian naval officer, Ricardo Cavallo, this week. Mr Cavallo is accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering hundreds of people during the country's Dirty War of state-sponsored violence against dissidents from 1976 to 1983.

Mr Cavallo, in Spanish prison since 2003, was to stand trial in Madrid under Spain's "universal jurisdiction" laws, which allow it to prosecute human rights violations committed in a third country. But the Spanish supreme court recently ruled that he should be tried in Argentina, now that it has overturned amnesty laws that shielded military officers.

Mr Almirón has reportedly lived quietly in southern Spain at least since 1983, when he became chief bodyguard to Manuel Fraga, a prominent conservative politician and minister under the Franco dictatorship, according to the newspaper El Mundo. His presence in Spain was kept secret to protect the image of a fledgling conservative party, the Popular Alliance, forerunner of the centreright Partido Popular, the paper said. His location came to the attention of Argentinian authorities after El Mundo published an interview with him on December 17.

Mr Almirón came to Spain in 1975 with the help of a Triple A organiser, José López Rega, nicknamed the Warlock, who served as minister of social welfare for the Perón government, El Mundo said. General Perón's widow and former president, Isabel Perón, also reportedly lives in Spain. Reports yesterday said the Argentine judge might order her to appear as a witness in trials of former Triple A members.

La detención en España del ex subcomisario Rodolfo Almirón, que supo comandar los escuadrones de la muerte de la Acción Anticomunista Argentina, debe ser vista como una noticia positiva. La captura se produjo luego que el juez Norberto Oyarbide declarara crímenes de lesa Humanidad los crímenes cometidos por esa organización en el preludio del golpe de Estado. Almirón tenía pedido de captura en esa causa, pero la niebla de la impunidad lo había velado en los últimos veinte años.

Se estima que Oyarbide pedirá la extradición del detenido, quien de movida tendría que enfrentar acusaciones por los asesinatos del ex diputado Rodolfo Ortega Peña, el ex vicegobernador de Córdoba Atilio López, el ex laboralista Alfredo Curutchet y otras víctimas. La Triple A mató a unas mil quinientas personas que se oponían al curso fascistizante de Isabel Perón y su mano derecha José López Rega. Como se recordará, esa administración firmó los decretos secretos que convocaron a las Fuerzas Armadas a reprimir en el conflicto interno con la teoría y práctica de "aniquilar la subversión".

A Kirchner le viene bien el reflotamiento de la causa AAA. Es que el debate jurídico y político en torno a la misma va a escrachar a dirigentes del peronismo tradicional. Se sabe que Antonio Cafiero y Carlos Ruckauf, entre otros, fueron ministros de esos tiempos en que la organización regenteada por López Rega mataba a militantes populares y sobre todo a los cercanos a la Juventud Peronista.

Como el patagónico va a encarar en 2007 la campaña presidencial, en principio con la candidatura de su esposa Cristina, y en simultáneo quiere formar un movimiento político que "regenere" al justicialismo, todos los trapos sucios que se ventilen del período 1973-1976 le pueden servir para esa reconversión del partido fundado por Juan D. Perón.

Paradojalmente, revivir el expediente de la Triple A puede significar también una buena oportunidad para los defensores de los militares detenidos por violar Derechos Humanos. Ellos quieren escudarse en que la violencia estatal venía de antes del 24 de marzo de 1976 y volverán a decir que al "aniquilar la subversión" después de esa fecha sólo cumplieron los decretos legales del Gobierno constitucional anterior.

EFE. Santiago de Compostela.

La Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG) pedirá al juez Baltasar Garzón que impute por el delito de asesinato de varios ciudadanos gallegos al ex policía argentino Rodolfo Almirón detenido la pasada semana en Torrent.

Almirón, considerado como mano derecha de José López Rega, el ministro del gobierno de María Estela Martínez de Perón (1974-1976), formó parte presuntamente de la organización terrorista Triple A a la que se atribuyen mil quinientos asesinatos políticos entre 1973 y 1975. Fue detenido la semana pasada en Torrent.

La CIG anuncia también la intención de reclamar al juez Garzón, que cite a declarar al ex presidente de la Xunta de Galicia Manuel Fraga, ya que Almirón ejerció de jefe de seguridad de este en la época en la que lideraba la formación Alianza Popular, convertido posteriormente en el Partido Popular (PP), indicó a EFE un portavoz del sindicato, Lois Pérez Leira.

La citada central sindical anuncia además que pedirá al juez Garzón, de la Audiencia Nacional, que cite también a declarar a la ex presidenta de Argentina Isabel Perón y al actual alcalde de Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, quien ejerció de abogado de Almirón.

El sindicato nacionalista gallego asegura en el comunicado que Almirón fue "ejecutor" de la banda terrorista Triple A, una organización que asesinó a varios gallegos e hijos de gallegos, entre los que cita particularmente el caso de Elsa Martínez Mesejo, de Gondomar (Pontevedra). La demanda está basada en información de un documento elaborado por la CIG en colaboración con el Movimiento de Argentinos en el Exterior, organismo adherido a la Central de los Trabajadores Argentinos.

Los datos contenidos en el documento sobre Almirón, entre ellos su dirección actual, fueron publicados hace varias semanas por el diario El Mundo, tras los cual las autoridades españolas procedieron a su detención en Torrent.

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