Argentine former intelligence officer Gonzalo ‘Chispa’ Sánchez has been convicted for his role in the abduction of renowned writer and investigative journalist Rodolfo Walsh, along with 177 other victims of Argentina’s last military junta, nearly five decades after these crimes against humanity were committed.

While walking in Buenos Aires on 25 March 1977, Walsh was seized without a warrant by members of the Argentine Navy’s Task Force. He was reportedly shot during the ambush and taken to the Navy Mechanics School, an infamous detention centre. He was never seen again, nor have his remains been located. Walsh’s ‘disappearance’ occurred the day after he circulated his landmark ‘Open Letter from a Writer to the Military Junta’, in which he denounced censorship, the persecution of intellectuals, enforced disappearances, torture, killings and the regime’s devastating economic policies, accusing the military government of exploiting the people, dividing the nation and ‘introducing Argentine society to the most profound terror it has ever known’. His book Operación Masacre, first published in 1957, had already exposed the clandestine and illegal execution of civilians under an earlier military junta.

On 26 August 2026, Federal Oral Criminal Court No 5 of Buenos Aires unanimously sentenced Gonzalo Sánchez to sixteen years and eight months in prison. They also imposed absolute disqualification from public office. The court recognised him as a co-perpetrator of 178 counts of aggravated unlawful deprivation of liberty, Walsh’s abduction among them, and found the acts examined during the trial to be crimes against humanity. Sánchez remained a fugitive for fifteen years. He was arrested in Brazil and extradited to Argentina in 2020, where he remained in pretrial detention while prosecutors and human rights organisations prepared the case.

‘When the truth is recognised and those responsible are held to account, even decades later, it sends a vital message to writers and journalists facing persecution today: justice may be delayed, but it cannot be denied forever’, said Burhan Sönmez, President of PEN International.

PEN’s advocacy for Walsh began in 1976 when Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, then president of PEN International, sent a letter to Argentinian president Jorge Rafael Videla, exhorting him to stop the persecution of writers and protect the lives of Argentina’s citizens. On 2 October 1980, the French PEN Club, working with Amnesty International France, publicly identified Walsh and fellow Argentine writer Haroldo Conti as being among the writers forcibly disappeared under the junta’s rule.

Although not as extreme as under the military junta, the silencing of journalists in Argentina continues. In recent months, PEN has been alarmed by the surge in cases of legal harassment against writers and journalists, as well as attacks against media outlets under Javier Milei’s administration. In April 2026, the National Executive Branch barred a group of journalists from entering the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s executive mansion and presidential offices. They claimed the journalists’ media outlets had participated in an alleged ‘Russian disinformation campaign’ aimed at discrediting the Argentine government, an allegation that has not been publicly substantiated.

Shortly afterwards, the Casa Rosada press room was closed between 23 April and 4 May 2026. Although access was subsequently restored, various restrictions continue to hinder the work of accredited journalists. According to La Nación newspaper, over the Easter weekend, President Milei used the social media platform X to harass columnists, reporters and media organisations, accusing them of forming a ‘criminal association’ against him. He also launched personal attacks against certain journalists, criticised several national media outlets and shared an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting the ‘death of journalism’. Following the presentation of the government’s management report before Congress on 30 April 2026, the president publicly referred to the journalists as ‘filthy scum’.

Almost fifty years after Walsh denounced censorship and the persecution of intellectuals, state hostility towards journalists endures. PEN believes these repeated attacks from the highest levels of government undermine freedom of expression and foster a climate of intimidation and self-censorship. The international writers’ organisation has urged the government to refrain from rhetoric or actions that fuel hostility, intimidation or violence against journalists, noting that the exclusion of media professionals from public institutions, the restriction of access to official information and the systematic stigmatisation of the press are in conflict with Argentina’s obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights.  

Update: On 2 September 2026, Valletta’s Criminal Court found Yorgen Fenech, a powerful businessman and property developer, not guilty of complicity and criminal association in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia (LR, Jun 2018). To date, five people have been sentenced to long prison terms in relation to Caruana Galizia’s murder, but the Maltese authorities have yet to convict the mastermind. In July 2021, a public inquiry found that her assassination was both predictable and preventable, and emphasised the responsibility of the Maltese state for her death, a collapse in the rule of law and the failure of the authorities to take measures to protect her. PEN continues to urge them to fully implement the inquiry’s recommendations.