Мартин Бальза

Генерал -лейтенант Мартин Антонио Бальза (родился 13 июня 1934 года) - аргентинца бывший начальник штаба аргентинской армии . С 2003 по 2011 год он был послом аргентинца в Республике Колумбия .

Мартин Бальза
Правление в 2003 году
Рожденный	Мартин Антонио Бальза ( 1934-06-13 ) 13 июня 1934 г. Сальто, Буэнос -Айрес , Аргентина
Occupation(s)	Lieutenant general, ambassador
Awards	Legion of Honour Argentine Army Military Merit Medal United Nations Medal
Signature

Человек сильных демократических убеждений, он встал за законное правительство в каждом попытке переворота в течение своей старшей карьеры. Он также дал первую институциональную самокритику в отношении участия вооруженных сил в перевороте 1976 года и последовавшем правлении террора .

Карьера

Бальза - артиллерийский офицер, специализирующийся на горной войне .

В 1982 году, когда он участвовал в « Войне Фолклендской войны» в качестве командира 3 -й артиллерийской группы. Он был награжден Аргентинской армией за военную медаль за его поведение во время этой кампании.

In 1991 he became Chief of Staff of the Argentine Army during the presidencies of Carlos Menem and Fernando De la Rua. During this period Human Rights Watch mentions the following incident:

The military coup of 1976, he said, was a tragic miscalculation: "the armed forces, and among them the army, for which I have the responsibility of speaking, thought erroneously that society did not possess the necessary antibodies to confront the scourge [of violent left-wing subversion] and with the backing of many, took power." The armed forces, he said, were ill-prepared to combat urban terrorism and resorted to methods, such as torture and extrajudicial execution ("obtaining information by illegitimate methods even to the point of extinguishing life") that can never be justifiable. It was a crime, Balza said, to give immoral orders: "no one is obliged to follow such orders, and the person who does incurs the moral and legal consequences of their actions."

Argentina by Human Rights Watch

In 2003 he caused a stir as he declared his conviction that in 1978 Chile would have won the war during the Beagle conflict.

In 2009, his superior in the Falklands War, Mario Menéndez claimed that oft-quoted figure of 30,000 disappeared people during the 1976-1983 Argentine military dictatorship was "invented number" and lambasted him for supporting the 30,000 figure. Menendez also criticized Balza for not owning up to his role in the Dirty War and for portraying Argentine officers in his book Malvinas: Gesta e Incompetencia (Editorial Atlántida, 2003) as "idiots or pusillanimous."

On 5 April 2011 he came under severe criticism from Fundación Víctimas Visibles and Colombian army general Julio Eduardo Echarry Solano for denying the Marxist ERP and Peronist Montoneros guerrilla groups still remained a menace in the months previous to the coup in Argentina and for stating that Argentine victims of left-wing guerrilla groups in Argentina had no recourse to justice for their time to do so with the Statute of Limitations had expired.

Decorations and badges

• Legion of Honour
• Argentine Army to the Military Merit Medal
• United Nations Medal

	Order of Military Merit (Grand Officer, 1994; Grand Cross, 1995; Brazil)
	Legion of Merit (Commander; USA; 1994)

References

• Balza, Martin (2001). Dejo Constancia, Editorial Planeta. ISBN 950-49-0813-6 (in Spanish)