Warrant for ex-Argentine leader

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An Argentine judge has ordered the arrest of former President Isabel Peron over the disappearance of a leftist activist in the 1970s.

She is also wanted for questioning over three decrees signed allegedly linking her to right-wing death squads.

Human rights campaigners say death squads killed some 1,500 government opponents between 1973 and 1976.

Ms Peron took over the presidency from her husband, three-time President Juan Domingo Peron, when he died in 1974.

Federal judge Raul Acosta issued the warrant via the international police organisation Interpol in an attempt to secure Ms Peron's arrest in Spain, where she now lives.

'Subversives'

Ms Peron is accused of involvement in the disappearance of Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego, who vanished in February 1976.

Mr Acosta alleges that the disappearance was effectively authorised by Ms Peron's signature of three decrees allowing Argentina's armed forces to take action against "subversives".

Argentina was wracked by violence and killings in the period after Ms Peron came to power.

Earlier this week a former Argentine police chief accused of leading a death squad during the 1970s was arrested.

The Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, or Triple A, was set up during Mr Peron's tenure in office, but continued to operate while his widow was in office.

She left Argentina in 1981, and now lives outside Madrid.