The Government of Argentina promulgated a law today, for the first time, providing severe prison penalties for any person convicted of instigating racial or religious “aggressions.”
The law, aimed mainly at Communists but providing also for government actions against neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and other extremists, is aimed, according to the official terminology, against anyone who “publicly, and with endangerment to the general peace, instigates toward violations of the rights and guarantees expressly enumerated in the National Constitution which derive from the principles of the people’s sovereignty and Republican form of government and for racial and religious equality.”
Ordinary violations, under the new law, would be punishable by imprisonment for terms between six months and three years. Violations involving “armed” aggressions call for prison terms ranging from two years to seven years.
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