An Argentine court has handed out a life sentence to two ex-army chiefs and a former police commissioner for crimes against humanity committed during the country’s last military dictatorship.

The ruling, delivered by the Federal Oral Court No. 1 in San Martín, concludes part of the Megacausa Campo de Mayo, a judicial process investigating atrocities committed at one of the last dictatorship’s most notorious military sites.

Retired army officer Pacífico Luis Britos was convicted of kidnapping, torture and murder. Prosecutors said the crimes were committed between 1976 and 1983, when Argentina was under military rule, and formed part of a systematic campaign of repression coordinated by the army and navy. 

Two other defendants — retired officer Horacio Rafael Sánchez and former Buenos Aires provincial police commissioner Carlos Daniel Caimi — were also convicted. Sánchez, facing trial for the first time, received a seven-year sentence, while Caimi was given five years. 

Both were accused of involvement in the abduction, torture and abuse of detainees held in Area 400, with Campo de Mayo serving as the operational headquarters.

The trial began in October 2024, and examined the cases of 15 victims. Witness testimony described abductions, clandestine detention, torture and, in some cases, sexual violence.

The Provincial Undersecretariat of Human Rights, a plaintiff in the case, expressed dissatisfaction with the shorter sentences for Sánchez and Caimi.

“The Undersecretariat had requested 20 years for both men,” said Verónica Bogliano, Director of Complaints and Crimes Against Humanity. “Caimi was acquitted of rape, despite being commissioner of the clandestine detention center where one of the victims was raped. As for Sánchez, the penalty is also far below what was requested. We will study the reasoning behind the judgment and appeal.”

Bogliano also criticized the court’s classification of the crimes. “We always ask that these acts be recognized as forced disappearances,” she said. “The victims were not simply deprived of liberty and tortured — they were forcibly disappeared, which is a far more serious offense.” During the years it was active, the military dictatorship disappeared more than 30,000 people.

Britos and Caimi were already serving sentences for their role in the last dictatorship’s campaign of political persecution. Britos was convicted in July 2022 and sentenced to life imprisonment for earlier cases. Caimi has been under house arrest since 2012 while serving a 12-year term.

During the dictatorship, security forces abducted thousands of people — many never seen again — in what human rights groups describe as a campaign of state terrorism. Campo de Mayo, a large army garrison north of Buenos Aires, was one of the central areas of repression.

The court will release its full reasoning for the verdict on September 30.