Argentina’s Dirty War
Argentina
 42 million people
 Andes in the west,
pampas between
mountains and Buenos
Aires, Arctic region to the
south
 Second largest country in
South America in terms
of area
 Large number of
immigrants, late 19th to
20th Cent
Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism (1845)
 Domingo Faustino
Sarmiento, writer and
president
 Book presents the
conflict of the nationstate as one between the
barbarism of the rural
areas and the civilization
of the city, the latter
influenced by Europe
Argentina in the late 1960s and early 1970s
 Period of political upheaval and economic decline
 Armed opposition groups openly challenging the
government, including open battle between the army
and guerrilla fighters.
 Paramilitary groups with ties to the government
killing people, including up to 2000 between 73-76
 Robberies, kidnappings, assassinations
 Government of Juan Perón and his wife, Isabel,
unable to stop the violence.
Military Government
1976
TO
1983
 Coup d’etat
 Return of elected
 Establishes military
government
 New president
establishes commission
to investigate human
rights violations
junta
 Promises to end
violence
 Initiates war using
“different” methods.
“Systematic State Terrorism”
 Government turns on its own people – to terrify the
population
 Uses not only incarceration and torture but also
disappearances
 Attacks not only people involved in violent
revolutionary movements but anyone connected to
communism or Marxism or “ideas incompatible with
Western Christian civilization.”
 Military government pursues people involved with
trade unions and universities as well as those who
help the poor.
The Disappeared
 People abducted and
taken into state custody
and never seen again by
relatives
 The word “disappeared”
changes from a voluntary
choice to an act of the
state, an intransitive
verb: to disappear
someone
Jacobo Timerman
“My life was spared
because this extremist
sector was also the heart of
Nazi operations in
Argentina. From the very
first interrogation, they
figured they had found
what they’d been looking
for for so long: one of the
sages of Zion, a central axis
of the Jewish antiArgentine conspiracy.”
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
 Risked their lives in a
grass-roots political act
 Inspired other groups
 Gained international
attention for the plight of
the disappeared
throughout Latin
America
 White scarves as a sign of
peace and mothers’ love.
How to confront the past?
Space for Memory
And Human Rights
The Official Story (1985)
 Set in Buenos Aires in
1983
 "Our subject is Argentine
History."
"No people can
survive without
memory."
"History is the
memory of the people.”
The Story Continues
 Daughter of ‘Dirty War,’ Raised by Man Who
Killed Her Parents
New York Times, Oct. 8 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/america
s/argentinas-daughter-of-dirty-war-raised-by-manwho-killed-her-parents.html?pagewanted=all