VZCZCXRO9020
PP RUEHLA
DE RUEHMD #0015 0041552
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041552Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1546
INFO RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0304
RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA 2329

UNCLAS MADRID 000015 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SP AR
SUBJECT: SPANISH GOVERNMENT ARRESTS ARGENTINE ACCUSED DEATH 
SQUAD LEADER AFTER 22 YEARS 
 
 
¶1. (U) Spanish police arrested Rodolfo Eduardo Almiron Sena 
on December 28 after an Argentine judge issued an 
international warrant accusing Almiron of murder and crimes 
against humanity that have no statute of limitations. 
Almiron has been wanted since 1984, accused by Argentine 
courts of murders committed in the 1970s when Almiron was a 
police commissioner who led the Argentine Triple A right-wing 
death squads under the direction of President Isabel Peron's 
Interior Minister Jose Lopez Rega. Press reports say that 
Almiron has lived in Spain since 1975 and worked in the early 
1980s as a bodyguard to Manuel Fraga, a conservative 
politician who was a minister under the Franco regime and a 
leader during Spain's transition to democracy.  The Spanish 
National Court will process Almiron for extradition to 
Argentina. 
 
¶2. (U) According to Spanish independent daily El Mundo, an 
earlier warrant was delivered to Spain in 1984 during the 
government of Felipe Gonzalez, but the Spanish government 
never arrested him because a typographical error substituted 
the name Luis for Rodolfo.  El Mundo, whose "re-discovery" of 
Almiron in December 2006 enabled the Argentine judge to order 
his arrest, alleges that the Spanish government protected 
Almiron because he had worked with not only Fraga but also 
the governing Socialist Party's security forces. 
LLORENS