Ricardo Cavallo, who denies the charges, was extradited from Mexico on Saturday in what activists hailed as a landmark for human rights.  High profile Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, known for his attempt to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to trial, had requested Cavalloâs extradition from Mexico in August 2000. Garzon has charged Cavallo with crimes during Argentinaâs 1976-83 military rule.  Up to 30,000 people were killed or âdisappearedâ in the Argentine militaryâs war against leftist guerrillas and their supporters. Many were tortured, drugged and thrown from aircraft into the Atlantic Ocean.  Cavallo allegedly worked in the notorious School of Naval Mechanics in Buenos Aires, which served as a secret torture centre under military rule.  At least 5,000 people were detained or disappeared there.Â  As he boarded the plane in Mexico, Cavallo was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Victims of Argentinaâs junta screamed âkillerâ and âcriminalâ as he passed by in a bullet-proof vehicle.Â  âThis is the first time ever that one country has extradited a person to another country to stand trial for human rights crimes that happened in a third,â said Reed Brody, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch (HRW) in New York late on Saturday.  Earlier this month, Mexicoâs highest court ordered Cavalloâs extradition on charges of âterrorismâ and genocide although it dismissed the charge of torture.  Cavallo ran a government concession for a national car registry programme in Mexico until a Mexican newspaper accused him of being a former âdirty warâ intelligence agent.  He was arrested in the Caribbean resort of Cancun in August 2000 bound for Argentina, where he would probably not face trial because of an amnesty for âdirty warâ participants.
A former Argentine Naval officer arrived in Spain on Sunday from Mexico to face charges of genocide and âterrorismâ allegedly committed under Argentinaâs 1970s and 1980s âdirty warâ.