Guillermo Vargas Aignasse

Guillermo Vargas Aignasse (born in 1943, disappeared 1976) was an Argentine Peronist politician, serving as a provincial Senator in Tucumán Province from 1973 until his disappearance in 1976. In 2008, two former generals were jailed for life for his disappearance.

Background Vargas Aignasse was born and raised in Andalgalá, Catamarca Province, and was a physicist by profession, teaching in the discipline until his election to the Provincial Senate of Tucumán in 1973. He was elected on the Frejuli ticket that brought Peronists back to power, and was associated with the left-wing faction of Peronism, having belonged to the center-left FANE (National Student Associations Front). Amid the worst climate of violence in the country, Tucumán Province was placed under martial law in January 1975, after which Operativo Independencia, a counterinsurgency offensive, was launched by presidential order. The installation of General Antonio Domingo Bussi as its commander in December coincided with Vargas Aignasse's investigation of provincial Police Chief Colonel Antonio Arrechea on reports of drug trafficking. During the trial that formally began in July 2008, former trade union leader Juan Antonio Palavecino testified that he had seen Vargas Aignasse in Tucumán police headquarters showing signs of torture on April 6, 1976, one day after his supposed kidnapping, and contrary to the official story. Bussi and former General Luciano Benjamín Menéndez were found guilty of Vargas Aignasse's forced disappearance and sentenced to life imprisonment on August 28.

Rodolfo Vargas Aignasse was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in 1987, and the disappeared lawmaker's son, Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse, is currently a member of the Chamber.