Human rights investigations reopen

Human rights are back on the agenda in the Southern Cone with two high profile investigations reopened in the last two days.

The first is here in Argentina on the two French nuns - Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet - murdered during the last military dictatorship and the disappearance of Azucena Villaflor, the then leader of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights group. The man accused of those crimes is Alfredo Astiz, known as the "Angel of Death," who infiltrated the Mothers' group by pretending to sympathize with their cause. Astiz is also held responsible for the kidnapping of a Swedish girl, Dagmar Hagelin, who later disappeared.

The second case is in Chile were a judge has reopened the investigation into the murder of legendary folk singer Victor Jara. He was killed in 1973 in Santiago's football stadium in the early days of the Pinochet dictatorship. Before he was shot, soldiers broke his hands so that he couldn't play guitar, witnesses claim. His murder has become a symbol in the struggle to bring Chile's human rights violators to justice.