BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Three former Ford Motor Co. executives have been charged with crimes against humanity in Argentina for allegedly targeting union workers for kidnapping and torture after the country's 1976 military coup.

All three men are in their 80s now, and their case is part of a new wave of prosecutions focusing on corporate support for the dictators who ran Argentina from 1976-1983.

Factory director Pedro Muller, human resources chief Guillermo Galarraga, and security manager Hector Francisco Jesus Sibilla are accused of giving names, ID numbers, pictures, and home addresses to security forces who hauled two-dozen union workers off the factory floor to be tortured and interrogated and then sent to military prisons.

Judge Alicia Vence said Tuesday that eliminating union resistance inside Ford's Argentina subsidiary was their goal.