Armando Lambruschini

Life and career

He enrolled at the Argentine Naval School in 1942, and graduated as a midshipman in 1946. He was later named Captain of the Navy, and served in that capacity aboard the cruiser ARA General Belgrano.

Lambruschini was promoted to Head of the Navy Chiefs of Staff in 1975, and such obtained a rank second only to Admiral Emilio Massera in that branch; both men had graduated from the Naval School the same year. His prominent role in the National Reorganization Process that took power in the March 1976 coup allowed him to oversee an ambitious modernization plan for the Navy.

Ongoing friction between the President Jorge Videla and Admiral Massera prompted the latter's September 15, 1978, replacement for Lambruschini, and he served in that capacity until September 11, 1981.

His role in the Dirty War perpetrated during the dictatorship led to charges of numerous crimes, including murder, illegal arrests, torture, theft, and forgery. Indicted during the historic Trial of the Juntas of 1985, Lambruschini was found guilty and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment on December 9.

He was, however, among those pardoned in 1990 by President Carlos Menem, and he was freed from prison and had his rank of Admiral reinstated. He later faced civil lawsuits, and in November 1994 was ordered to pay (with Massera), $1 million to a victim whose family had been abducted and murdered in 1976.

Italian courts tried him for crimes in absentia in 1997, and he was accused of further cases of human rights violations in 2003. His advanced age (close to 80 years old) afforded him the benefit of house arrest, however. Armando Lambruschini died on August 15, 2004.

His 15-year-old daughter Paula was murdered in August 1978, when a bomb was planted under Lambruschini's bed by Lucila Adela Revora, member of the Montoneros guerrillas. Two neighbors also died as a result of the explosion.