BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Every weekday a rusty white bus pulls up to the red brick federal courthouse in San Martin, a suburb of Buenos Aires, and out file 16 men and four women, dressed in sweaters and jeans.
They range in age from 18 to 61. Their professions: accountant, priest, journalist, bricklayer, cobbler, students and clerks.
One of the women, Dora Ester Molina, 31, is six months pregnant.
Officials consider the motley crew highly dangerous, and the group is guarded by blue-uniformed troops wearing bulletproof vests and carrying automatic rifles, submachineguns, and holstered bayonets.
The 20 are on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government of Argentina.
What is undeniable is that at least 13 of the defendants were part of a strongly committed armed band of raiders that seized an infantry base near Buenos Aires at the city of La Tablada on Jan. 23, 1989, and held out for 30 hours until tank and artillery fire forced them to surrender.
Thirty-nine people died in the assault, the bloodiest terrorist outbreak of the 5 -year government of President Raul Alfonsin, whose term ended July 8. It was the only significant military-style guerrilla attack by the left-wing in Argentina during the 1980s.
The attack brought Argentines back with a wrench to memories of the 1970s. During that decade terrorist attacks by left-wing Montonero guerrillas and other armed bands provoked a drastic reaction by the army. There was a coup d'etat in 1976, and a counterinsurgency campaign in which 9,000 suspected terrorists, dissidents, and anti-government sympathizers disappeared.
The trial of the 20 began July 20 and is expected to last several weeks with testimony from an estimated 400 witnesses. Yet weeks into it, little is known about the group or their aims.
The guerrillas belong to an organization called 'Todo por la Patria' ('Everything for the Fatherland'), which before the assault on La Tablada was virtually unknown.
Their lawyers argue that the raiders attacked the fort because they believed that far rightist dissident army officers, who had already launched three abortive rebellions, were about to attempt a coup d'etat.
They describe the assault as a pre-emptive strike.
The prosecution is trying to prove that the assault was part of an elaborate plot to seize Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.
According to this argument, some of the terrorists were dressed in military uniforms so the rest of the population would think the raid was conducted by rebel rightists officers. This perception, the theory goes, would have provoked a popular uprising against the rightists that would have enabled the terrorists to take over the Casa Rosada in the confusion.
Chief prosecutor Raul Plee said in an interview that while the plot to take over the palace was far fetched, 'you have to remember that we are dealing with people who lost contact with reality.'
He said 'Todo por la Patria' began as a non-violent movement in 1986 but was taken over by a radical faction in late 1987 that wanted members to follow without question the directives of an 'elite' or 'vanguard' group.
Defense lawyer Eduardo L. Barcesat called the prosecution claim 'preposterous.'
'A group of 50 persons can never take over a government,' he said.
He said the prosecution was exaggerating the reasons behind the La Tablada takeover to stage a show trial to prove that a democratic government can curb revolutionary activity better than what he called 'state terrorism.'
