1. Argentina:

2.  The term “Dirty War” refers to the repression practices of the Military Junta between 1976 and 1973.  According to Prosecutor Julio Strassera, the term was a “euphemism” created by the junta to disguise its actions as legitimate military practice.

3.  The repressive practices that characterize the Dirty War (disappearances, torture) began as early as the sixties and were instrumental in the government of Isabel Peron.  Peron, under the influence of Jose Lopez Rega created the Anti-Communist Alliance (Triple A) a paramilitary death squad responsible for approximately 900 murders of leftists between 1973 and 1975.

4.  During the period, the country was ruled by four successive military juntas composed of the heads of the three branches of the armed forces (Army, Navy and Air-Force). In each junta the highest ranking General of the Army was named “President”  Jorge Videla (1976-1978)  Roberto Viola (1978-1981)  Leopoldo Gatieri (1981-2)  Alfredo Oscar Saint-Jean (1982-3)

5.  The “National Reorganization Process” described its objectives as “restor[ing] the essential values that function as the foundation of the leadership of the State, with emphasis on a sense of morality, propriety and efficiency, essential for rebuilding the national image and substance, eradicating subversion and promoting the economic development of the nation.”  The military defined “subversion” very broadly, referring to not merely members of the Montoneros and other guerrilla movements but also any persons, institutions or cultural expressions with any leftist association whatsoever.

6.  “The Enemies of The Fatherland are not only those who make up the anti-patriotic guerrilla in Tucuman. They are also those who change or deface the verb “to love” in school books; those ideologues who are in our universities poison the minds of our young people” (Lt. Colonel Juan Carlos Moreno 1976)  “A terrorist is not just someone with a gun or a bomb, but also someone who spreads ideas that are contrary to Western and Christian civilization” Jorge Videla (qtd in Nunca mas)

7.  Disappearance was systematic and organized. Employed on a national scale with a complex bureaucracy.  The military created “war councils” to pass death sentences on suspected “subversives” usually after these had already been tortured.  The military created a clandestine, extrajudicial system of detention and disappearance including 340 Clandestine Detention Centres and the division of the country into zones and subzones in which repression occurred along a chain of command.

8.  The procedure for “operations” was fairly stable, involving a coordinated system of cogs which split up tasks and diluted responsibilities.  The first step involved coordinating different repressive groups and getting a “Green light” from local police to proceed.  Once an area and target were selected the person was abducted from their home or in public (“swallowed”), blindfolded (“walled up”) and taken to a CDC where they were tortured for information and then either imprisoned indefinitely (“liberated”), disappeared (“transferred”) or became a member of the repressive personnel (“recuperated”)

9.  The “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” formed as early as 1977 from women seeking the whereabouts of their disappeared loved ones.  The group began holding weekly protests in front of the Casa Rosada, holding pictures and names of their loved ones and wearing white kerchiefs  In 1978 the group attracted international press attention due to the World Cup which was held in Argentina that year.  The group was joined by the “Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo”, formed by women inquiring into the whereabouts of children born in prison from women prisoners who were either pregnant when abducted or who became pregnant from rape. These children were eventually adopted into the families of high- ranking military personnel.

10.  According to Eduardo Torres, the dictatorship viewed culture and education as potential locus for “subversive ideas”.  The regime prepared and carried out a detailed “culture strategy” entitled “special report 10” recommending centralization of all print media and communication except newspapers.  The Ministry of the Interior created a specific department to monitor communications and print media (General Office and Communications) which collected daily reports on media content and on content creators from other ministries and police.

11.  The ministry’s job was to find elements deemed “Marxist” or “subversive”. The latter particularly broadly defined as anything that “Presumably questioned the Western and Christian way of life” (Torres 5)  Once identified as Marxist/Subversive the procedure varied from censorship to repression/disappearance of content creator.

12.  Ironically, the Junta’s view of popular culture coincides with that of the Frankfurt School.  Art which received the most scrutiny tended to fall under the definition of “high culture” (Visual art, literature and theatre). Authors such as Nestor Perlhoniger and Juan Gelman and painters such as Carlos Alonso worked either in clandestinity or exile.  Popular culture was able to fly under the radar a lot more.  Comics, inc. newspaper strips and magazines (historietas) were able to publish criticisms of regime through the veil of science fiction/adventure.  Similarly, popular music’s association with North American rock aesthetics (Soda Stereo, Seru Giran) over folklore (Mercedes Sosa, Quinteto Tiempo and Atahualpa Yupanqui) allowed it to have a media presence in Argentina even under the junta.

13.  By 1982 the regime was collapsing. The Latin American debt crisis and economic stagnation lead to increasing civil unrest resulting in a general strike in March.  Media footage of violent repressions of demonstrations increased international pressure.  In April, Argentina declared war with England over the Falkland Islands, a territory which had been in dispute by the two for over a century. The war lasted for 74 days and was a public and economic disaster

14.  In 1983 the fourth junta held national elections. Prior to this they put in place an amnesty law ( to prevent future prosecutions of human rights abuses.  Raul Alfonsin (Radical Party) was elected president in 1983. Two days after his election he repealed the amnesty law and started a judicial process to prosecute the junta leaders (Trial of the Juntas)  Alfonsin put together the National Committee on the Disappearance of Persons to try to assess the human rights damage of the regime. CONADEP began collecting testimonies from victims and survivors. They published the Nunca mas report in 1984.

15.  The Trial of the Juntas began on April 22 1985. Accused included Videla, Massera, Viola, Galtieri and five other high ranking military personnel.  This was the first war crimes trial held civil court in the west since Nuremberg.  Prosecutors heard 280 of the 709 cases brought forward and interviewed 833 witnesses.

16.  Videla and Massera were sentenced to life imprisonment. Viola received a sentence of 17 years.  As more cases against lower level military personnel poured in, and in response to military threats of a second coup, Alfonsin declared a “Ley de Punto Final” in 1986 giving a sixty day limit for cases to be brought forward.  The “Ley de obediencia debida” was declared in 1987, preventing lower level military personnel from being brought to trial.

17.  After a troubled presidency plagued by economic woes, Alfonsin was defeated by Carlos Menem in 1989.  Menem signed in an Amnesty Law in 1990 which pardoned not only lower level personnel but also the architects of the junta who were facing prison sentences.

18.  Nestor Kirschner revoked the amnesty laws in 2003 and opened the way for more trials.  As of the present 259 convictions were held for crimes against humanity.