Due Obedience

On April 15, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Barreiro ignores a summons from the Federal Chamber of Cordoba to give testimony in response to charges of torture and treasonous homicide. Lieutenant Colonel Aldo Rico occupies the School of Infantry in the largest military garrison in Argentina. His commandos, known as the carapintadas because their faces are painted, demand that the trials of their comrades be brought to a halt. "The shifting terrain of the law and judicial chicanery is not the soldier's natural habitat. The soldier is trained to show his teeth and bite; combat is his proper environment and his power resides in holding a monopoly on violence," he explains in a document. The president orders the uprising to be reptessed, but the military columns take several days to travel a few hundred kilometers. In front of the Legislative Assembly, Alfonsin declares that no civilian or member of the military can use force to negotiate his judicial situation and reaffirms the equality of all before the law. He announces to a crowd that has gathered in the Plaza de Mayo to condemn the uprising that he will go personally to the garrisons to demand the surrender of the carapintadas. Upon his return, he calls them "the heroes of the Malvinas war" and asks the demonstrators to disperse, stating that " the house is in order." He bids them good-bye with a disconcerting, "Happy Easter."
In July, he persuades Congress to approve the law of Due Obedience, which exempts from guilt those who tortured or murdered in fulfillment of orders. Only the former military leaders and a select group of generals and former leaders of army corps and security zones remain in prison. Among those set free are Astiz and Pernias.

Horacio Verbitsky's Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior