Colonel Mohamed Seineldin, who led two attempted military coups against the government in Argentina, has died at the age of 75, local media reported Thursday, according to dpa. Seineldin was behind two failed military uprisings, one in 1988 and another two years later, at the head of a right-wing group of soldiers known as the "carapintadas," or painted faces. According to media reports in the capital, Buenos Aires, he died of a heart attack on Wednesday. Seineldin was a senior figure in the country's nationalist and Catholic circles, and behind uprisings against president Raul Alfonsin and, later, president Carlos Menem. The carapintadas wanted amnesties for military officers accused of kidnappings and torture during the military regime in Argentina from 1976-83. The first uprising was on December 4, 1988 at the Villa Martelli barracks, in which two civilians and a policeman were killed, and a further 40 people injured. Seineldin was arrested and imprisoned, but released by Menem in 1989. The following year he was behind another attempted coup, leading rebels up to the presidential palace, in an attack which saw 13 people killed and 30 injured. This time the colonel was sentenced to life in prison. After his release under a clemency deal in 2003, he lived inconspicuously.
