The Dirty War () was the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina () for the period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and security forces and death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A)Right-wing violence was also on the rise, and an array of death squads was formed from armed sections of the large labor unions, parapolice organizations within the federal and provincial police; and the AAA (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina), founded by Perón's secretary of social welfare, López Rega, with the participation of the federal police. Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, p. 22, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002 hunted down any political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, communism, left-wing Peronism, or the Montoneros movement.Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina, Antonius C. G. M. Robben, p. 145, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, p. 22, Rowman & Littlefield, 1994"Argentina's Guerrillas Still Intent On Socialism", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 7 March 1976
It is estimated that between 13,000Una duda histórica: no se sabe cuántos son los desaparecidosIn Argentina, Obama addresses US ‘dirty war’ role and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared, many of whom were impossible to formally document. A secret report from Chilean secret police DINA estimated that 22,000 people had been murdered or disappeared by 1978. During this period, at least 12,000 "detenidos-desaparecidos" (detained-disappeared) were held by the National Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo Nacional or PEN) and kept in clandestine detention camps throughout Argentina, before eventually being freed under diplomatic pressure.Memorias de ex presas y presos políticos (1974-1983)The primary targets were communist guerrillas and sympathisers but also included students, militants, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists and any citizens suspected of being left-wing activists who were thought to be a political or ideological threat to the junta. According to human rights organisations in Argentina, the victims included between 1,900 and 3,000 Jews, amounting to some 5–12% of those targeted despite Argentinian Jews comprising only 1% of the population. The killings were committed by the Junta in an attempt to fully silence social and political opposition.
By the 1980s, economic collapse, public discontent, and the disastrous handling of the Falklands War resulted in the end of the junta and the restoration of democracy in Argentina, effectively ending the Dirty War. Numerous members of the junta were prosecuted and imprisoned for crimes against humanity and genocide as a result of their actions during the period.
Overview
In the decades before the 1976 coup, the Argentine military, along with the supporting Argentine establishment, opposed Juan Perón's populist government. A coup was attempted in 1951, but was unsuccessful. In 1955 the Argentinian military successfully took control in the Revolución Libertadora. After seizing power, the armed forces proscribed his political ideology, Peronism, leading to resistance from workplaces and trade unions, as the working classes sought to protect the economic and social improvements obtained under Perón's rule. Over time, democratic rule was partially restored, but promises of legalising freedom of expression and expanding political liberties for Peronists did not occur. These grievances spurred the rise of numerous leftist guerrilla groups in the 1960s, namely UturuncosSalas, Ernesto, Uturuncos. El origen de la guerrilla peronista, Biblos, Buenos Aires, 2003, and the EGP (People's Guerrilla Army).
Perón returned from exile in 1973. The Ezeiza massacre marked the end of the alliance between left- and right-wing factions of Peronism. Shortly before his death in 1974, Perón withdrew his support for Montoneros. By the time his widow Isabel was president, the Minister of Social Welfare José López Rega had already organised the far-right death squad known as Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A). In 1975, during Operativo Independencia, Isabel Perón and later her replacement Ítalo Luder signed decrees empowering the military and the police to "annihilate" left-wing "subversive elements".
The junta, calling itself the National Reorganization Process, organised and carried out strong repression of perceived political dissidents through the government's military and security forces. They were responsible for the arrest, torture, killings and/or forced disappearances of an estimated 13,000 to 30,000 people. The junta was supported by Washington, and received $50 million in military aid. Prior to the 1976 coup, another far right group, Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, provoked many deaths and used methods that were then adopted by government forces.
The primary targets for both the junta and Triple A were young professionals, high school and college students, and trade union members, due to their involvement in left-wing political organisations. Favoured methods of assassination were via mass shootings and death flights, which threw victims into the South Atlantic Ocean. An estimated 12,000 prisoners were detained in a network of 340 secret concentration camps, located throughout Argentina. Victims are referred to as desaparecidos due to the clandestine imprisonments, which occurred without due process, governmental acknowledgement of the detentions and deaths. The vast majority of those who were killed disappeared without a trace and there remains no firm record of their fate.
The junta referred to their policy of suppressing opponents as the National Reorganization Process (Proceso de Reorganización Nacional). Argentine military and security forces also created paramilitary death squads, operating behind "fronts" as supposedly independent units. Argentina coordinated actions with other South American dictatorships during Operation Condor. Faced with increasing public opposition and severe economic problems, the military tried to regain popularity by occupying the disputed Falkland Islands. After their defeat to Britain in the Falklands War, the military government were forced to step aside in disgrace and allow for free elections to be held in late 1983.
Restoration of democracy and trial of the juntas In the 1983 elections, the democratic government of Raúl Alfonsín claimed office. His government was sworn in on 10 December 1983 and the war came to an end. Alfonsín organised the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas, CONADEP) to investigate crimes committed during the Dirty War, hearing testimony from hundreds of witnesses and developing to build cases against offenders. A tribunal was organised to conduct the prosecution of offenders, holding the Trial of the Juntas in 1985. Nearly 300 people were prosecuted, including many of the leading officers, who were convicted and sentenced for their crimes.
The Argentine armed forces opposed subjecting more of its personnel to the trials, threatening the civilian leadership with another coup. In 1986, the military forced the passage of the Ley de Punto Final (Full Stop Law) in 1986, which "put a line" under previous actions and ended prosecutions for crimes committed by the National Reorganization Process. Fearing military uprisings, Argentina's first two presidents sentenced only the two top Dirty War former commanders. The Punto Final Law stated that military personnel involved in torture were doing their "jobs." In 1994, President Carlos Menem praised the military in their "fight against subversion".Argentine Economy, Issue 33, p. 27, Consejo Técnico de Inversiones S.A., 1994.
Repeal of laws In 2003, Congress repealed the Pardon Laws, and in 2005 the Argentine Supreme Court ruled they were unconstitutional. Under the presidency of Nestor Kirchner, the Argentine government re-opened its investigations on crimes against humanity and genocide in 2006 and began the prosecution of military and security officers.Condenaron a Etchecolatz a reclusión perpetua, La Nación (19 September 2006)
Origin of the term The term "Dirty War" was used by the military junta, which claimed that a war, albeit with "different" methods (including the large-scale application of torture and rape), was necessary to maintain social order and eradicate political subversives. This explanation has been questioned in court by human rights NGOs, as it suggests that a "civil war" was going on and implies justification for the killings. During the 1985 Trial of the Juntas, public prosecutor Julio Strassera suggested that the term "Dirty War" was a "euphemism to try to conceal gang activities", as though they were legitimate military activities."Julio Strassera's prosecution" 1985 Trial of the Juntas (Juicio a las Juntas Militares).
Although the junta said its objective was to eradicate guerrilla activity because of its threat to the state, it conducted wide-scale repression of the general population. It worked against all political opposition and those it considered on the left: trade unionists (half of the victims), students, intellectuals including journalists and writers, rights activists and other civilians and their families. Many others went into exile to survive and many remain in exile today despite the return of democracy in 1983. During the Trial of the Juntas, the prosecution established that the guerrillas were never strong enough to pose a real threat to the state and could not be considered a belligerent as in a war:
The guerrilla had not taken control of any part of the national territory; they had not obtained recognition of interior or anterior belligerency, they were not massively supported by any foreign power, and they lacked the population's support."El Estado de necesidad"; Documents of the Trial of the Juntas at Desaparecidos.org.
The program of extermination of dissidents was referred to as genocide by a court of law for the first time during the trial of Miguel Etchecolatz, a former senior official of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police.
Crimes committed during this time (genocide of civilian population and other crimes against humanity) are not covered under the laws of war (jus in bello), which shields enlisted personnel from prosecution for acts committed under orders given by a superior officer or the state. Estela de Carlotto, president of the Argentine human rights non-governmental organisation Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo states:
[That term] is a way to minimize state terrorism and is a term born outside the country. It is a totally wrong concept; there was no war, dirty nor clean.
Previous events
Return of Peronism
In 1955, former army officer Juan Perón was ousted from the presidency by a coup (Revolución Libertadora). This occurred three months after the Bombing of Plaza de Mayo, a failed coup attempt considered by some as "state terrorism". Subsequently, Peronism was proscribed and hostility against it and against populist politics dominated Argentine politics. Pedro Eugenio Aramburu's Decree Law 4161/56 prohibited the use of Perón's name. When General Lanusse, who was part of the Argentine Revolution, called for elections in 1973, he authorized the return of political parties. However, Perón, who had been invited back from exile, was barred from seeking office. Aramburu was kidnapped and executed extrajudicially by members of Montoneros in June 1970.