Rebel Officer, Band Seize Garrison, Argentina Says

BUENOS AIRES — Rebel leader Lt. Col. Aldo Rico, who escaped from house arrest on Friday, and a group of sympathizers that include the chief of an army garrison, have taken over an infantry unit in Monte Caseros, the Army said early today.

Gen. Jose Caridi, the army chief of staff, said in a communique that Rico, the head of a three-day revolt in a military school last April, and “some followers” began occupying Infantry Regiment 4 in Monte Caseros, 450 miles north of this capital, Saturday afternoon.

The Army has mobilized troops from the 2nd Army Corps “to initiate the march to recuperate the military installations and capture the rebels,” the communique said.

The communique stressed that the rest of the Army was following Caridi “with absolute normality.”

Lt. Col. Hector Alvarez Igarzabal, head of Infantry Regiment 4 near the Uruguay-Argentina border on the Uruguay River, issued a radiogram minutes earlier, saying he had sided with Rico and would not adhere to Caridi’s orders.

Rico, 43, escaped Friday morning from house arrest in a country club near Buenos Aires just before Army officers arrived with an order to return him to military confinement.