The death of former military dictator General Leopoldo Galtieri generates a blend of condemnation, cynicism and wry comment in the pages of Argentina's leading dailies.

There is overwhelming agreement that the general and the military regime he headed represented the nadir of Argentina's post-World War ll history.

He ordered the occupation of the Malvinas [Falklands], against all military and political logic Clarin

"The end of a dictator", proclaims a headline in the top circulation Clarin. "Galtieri, the general who took the country to war, dies".

Clarin describes the war in the Falklands - which Argentina calls the Malvinas - as "a tragedy" which had long-term implications. It says the conflict resulted "against his will, and over the corpses of hundreds of young men, in the eventual return to democracy".

Act of desperation

"In the brief and tragic semester of his leadership, he ordered the occupation of the Malvinas, against all military and political logic. It was a desperate and irresponsible act designed to save a power undermined by economic crises."

Galtieri was swept from power "a victim of his own, pathetically wrong, calculations", Clarin continues. Among these was the belief that he was "Washington's blue-eyed boy".

In his latter years, Galtieri had attended military ceremonies which had led to protests and snubs on a number of occasions.

"Never given a eulogy or homage, much less a march, to which he insisted he was owed by Argentine society," Clarin says.

A man with severe intellectual limitations although overflowing with arrogance and ambition Eduardo van der Kooy in Clarin

The paper adds Galtieri would visit clandestine detention centres during the military dictatorship and personally guarantee some of the tortured and "disappeared" their right to life, with the words: "I decide because I'm Galtieri."

Symbol of decadence

Writing in Clarin, commentator Eduardo van der Kooy describes Galtieri as "a man with severe intellectual limitations although overflowing with arrogance and ambition".

He says Galtieri "was a symbol of the decadence of the military dictatorship, the true expression of a generation of military men lacking political and professional ability... a state of ruin".

He saw himself as "a new military caudillo" dreaming about leading the masses to new triumphs.

Another Clarin commentator, Jorge Gottling, describes Galtieri as "a sad caricature of another caricature".

Sadly famous for having declared war on Great Britain La Nacion

"He exhibited all the gestures and mannerisms of those elite generals. Upright, a certain disdainful look, tight mouth, shoulders raised above the jaw-line and an air of general bewilderment."

Mr Gottling says he had also been described as "a military man without talent, a strategist of operetta, a hedonist with lunches of six martinis and afternoons of 20 whiskies. Megalomania and arrogance, to boot".

End of 'tragic chapter'

La Nacion describes Galtieri as "sadly famous for having declared war on Great Britain".

La Nacion's correspondent in London says the news was received there "as the end of a tragic chapter in the relations between the two countries".

The report says most media gave greater prominence to another death, that of Bee Gee Maurice Gibb.

And the daily was told by the office of "Galtieri's arch-enemy, Lady Margaret Thatcher, that the Iron Lady 'has decided for the moment not to comment'".

Another daily, La Prensa, describes the Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands in April 1982 as Galtieri's "moment of glory".

"On that day, a crowd thronged the streets to show their approval."

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