ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento
2008-03-27
Argentina
A country with more than 30,001 disappeared
Daniel E. Benadava
From March 24, 1976 through the present day, more than 30,001 men and women have disappeared in Argentina for political, ideological, and social reasons.
30,000 disappeared during the dictatorship
In the 1970s, Argentina found itself plunged into a situation of alarming inflation, social violence, labor union crisis and a growing sense of ungovernability.
Confronting this situation, on March 24, 1976, the Argentine Armed Forces (FFAA) overthrew the president at the time, Isabel Martinez de Peron. They installed a military government composed of a junta of General Commanders, with the stated purpose of "restoring essential values that serve as the basis to the running of the whole State, emphasizing the sense of morality, suitability, and efficiency imperative to the reconstruction of the substance and image of the Nation, eradicating subversion and promoting national economic development based on equilibrium and responsible participation of distinct sectors with the end goal of eventually installing a representative republican federal democracy, in line with the reality and the demand of the Argentine people for solutions and progress."
Among other means of achieving these objectives, the military government repressed "with pain of imprisonment anyone who diffuses, through any means... communications or images originating from or attributed to... persons or groups who are known to be dedicated to subversive activities or terrorism; and, with imprisonment for up to ten years, anyone who diffuses, through any means... news with the purpose of slandering the activities of the FFAA or the national security or police forces." In addition, the military government dissolved all political parties as well as the National Congress; they put the labor unions under supervision; and they defended, in the words of the murdered Argentine journalist Rodolfo Walsh, "the ideas and interests of defeated minorities that hinder[ed] the development of the forces of production, exploit[ed] the people, and divide[d] the nation."
On December 10, 1983, Argentina democratically elected a president. The FFAA abandoned power, and left behind a legacy of 30,000 "disappeared" Argentines who fought and gave their lives so that their country could return to democracy.
A Disappearance of Democracy
In mid September 2006, during the democratic government of Nestor Kirchner, Julio Lopez disappeared after having testified in the trial that condemned the former director of police investigations of Buenos Aires, Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, to indefinite imprisonment. Osvaldo had been found responsible for numerous crimes against humanity (defined as crimes against the life, liberty, and security of each individual) during the time of the Argentine dictatorship, among them, the torture of Julio Lopez.
Many believe that those who caused the disappearance of Julio Lopez were looking to frighten and intimidate all those who had survived the torture that they received at the hands of the military dictatorship, individuals who are now key witnesses against the members of the FFAA who were involved, directly or indirectly, in crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Argentine people during that time.
Now, the disappearance of Julio Lopez constitutes an "open wound" for Argentine democracy, especially since no significant advances have been made in the investigation attempting to bring to light the horrific events of the dictatorship.
The "social disappeared" of our time
Upon initiating congressional sessions on the first of March of this year, the Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, stated: "Since 1900, every three years this country goes through a recession. What we have achieved at this point is the greatest [economic] growth in Argentina in the last 100 years."
However, many hold that the president "omitted" to mention that in the course of the last few decades, the gap between those who hold concentrated wealth in the country and those who have little to nothing has grown alarmingly.
The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, referred to this situation in his last sermon on Lent, affirming that in Argentina, "there are many people all around us who are forced to live as though during Lent all year, without the possibility of a glimpse of Easter. It is now part of the everyday scenery to see children and adults going through the garbage in search of something to alleviate their hunger or the cold. Selfishness, dishonesty, and indifference condemn many to a life of involuntary fasting and obligatory penance throughout the whole year."
In effect, thousands of men and women in Argentina find themselves detached from the social fabric of their country, disconnected from the entirety of the social fabric and national institutions of health, education, recreation and labor. They do not seem to have a concrete possibility of reinserting themselves into society and moving their lives forward with dignity.
These people were recently described by the Latin American Episcopate as the "new faces of the poor... the new excluded [class]: displaced... disappeared... victims of exclusion... large groups of unemployed people... the people that live in the streets of the large metropolises... campesinos [poor farmers] without land." They can be defined as the "social disappeared" of our times.
This is to say that they are human beings who seem to "disappear" to the people who walk right by them and, for lack of interest and/or prejudice, rarely get close enough to lend a hand. They also disappear from governmental policies - both national and provincial - which, in general, only address this group of people in order to repress them or to grant them insignificant handouts. These handouts never constitute a real solution to their poverty, but rather - according to some analysts - are tools used by the State to pacify potential social conflict.
Argentina: hollow respect for human rights
Despite Cristina Kirchner's statement that "the subject of Human Rights is one of the central policies of our government," many consider that while former members of the FFAA who committed crimes against humanity during the 1970s remain free, it will be difficult for the Argentine people to live tranquilly, or for Julio Lopez's disappearance to be resolved.
In effect, as Nilda Eloy, a member of the Association of the Ex-Detained and -Disappeared of the Republic of Argentina, expressed it, "Less than 5% of the perpetrators are in jail. As long as the other 95% are free, we are in danger. I'm not talking about 'we', the witnesses; I'm talking about 'we' as a society."
For their part, many political analysts are not very optimistic that the Argentine president will be able to find a lasting solution for those that have nothing. They cite the fact that Cristina Kirchner still hasn't been capable of implementing policies that promote an equitable distribution of wealth in the country or favor a real insertion into society of those Argentines that constitute the "social disappeared" of our times.
Moreover, there are many Argentine Christians who, together with Cardinal Bergoglio, are convinced that their country, like so many other countries, is not carrying out God's Project, since "Christ's Father does not wish for pain, He does not want suffering or the death of so many people due to hunger or helplessness. God's dream is that we all live together in communion and solidarity. God's project is for us all to share the fruits of the earth, for nobody to go hungry, for nobody to die because they can't get to a doctor, for nobody to bear subhuman conditions. Unfortunately, however, personal and structural sin will not permit God's dream to become reality today." (Translated by Rachel Horowitz).
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Daniel E. Benadava is a psychologist.
http://www.alainet.org/active/23098
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