- Catalyst - University of Washington

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Mission Justice: Argentina
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Disappeared, But Not Forgotten Part 1
A Case Study of Argentina’s “Dirty
War”
The Heart of the Matter “
Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for
each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.” This quote from Helen
Keller captures the soul of a human rights framework. Our hearts must be stirred with
not only compassion, but with a feeling of obligation towards our fellow human beings
before we can rally for positive social change. Thus the first step in addressing a
particular human rights violation is to consider the human landscape of pain, loss, and
injustice--to be touched and moved by the emotional devastation that we see before
us before we can tackle the crimes and restore just practices.
As the first chapter in my case study of Argentina’s dirty war, I offer you some context
for the historical scene of this human rights violation under study: forced
disappearances. Yet, first and foremost, I desire to demonstrate to you the impact
these “disappeared” people left as a moving legacy for this generation and for
generations to come. Through images, testimonies, poetry, and song, a voice is lifted
across the world for the hurting and violated people of Argentina.
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Blog Archive
▼ 2010 (4)
▼ July (4)
Disappeared, But Not Forgotten
Part 1 A Case Stud...
Justice Blues: Prison and
Detention Center Conditi...
Censorship in Argentina
Injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhe...
The Case Exposed
About Me
Between the years of 1976 and 1983 a military dictatorship known as the Process of
National Reorganization instituted a hellish regime of oppression and torture upon the
citizens of the land and therefore became infamously labeled the “dirty war in
Argentina.” Semitism, persecution, censorship, terrorism name just a handful of the
Justice Team
View my complete profile
crimes that took place during that time. Although all these actions caused irrevocable
damage, one violation stands out as particularly devastating because of its magnitude
and deep level of pain that was inflicted upon the people. It is called “Operation
Condor” --the enforced disappearance of persons, more honestly termed “the death of
political dissidents (Argentina country reports,"2002).” According to Silvia Nagy Zekmi,
these individuals “were heavily drugged and then thrown alive out of airplanes far out
over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving no trace of their passing. Without any dead bodies,
the government could could easily deny that they had been killed.” They just simply
disappeared. This phrase was recognized by Argentinian de facto President, General
Videla, who said in a press conference during the military government which he
commanded in Argentina: "They are neither dead nor alive, they disappeared". It is
thought that in Argentina, between 1976 and 1983, up to 30,000 people (9,000 verified
named cases, according to the official report by the CONADEP were subjected to
forced disappearances. The reporting of these numbers is a vague estimate at best for
it is based upon public testimonies of relatives and friends. The regime during its reign
http://missionjusticeargentina.blogspot.com/
PDF wurde mit pdfFactory Pro-Prüfversion erstellt. www.context-gmbh.de
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carefully destroyed all documentation and so voluntary reporting is our only means of
accurately assessing this situation. However, regardless of the exact calculations, the
number is reprehensibly large and worthy of our thorough investigation.
Justice in the Balance
We all may shudder with horror and disgust as we hear this degree of atrocity leveled
against humanity, yet upon what basis do we judge this case? We must stand upon
the law, the universal standard that many individuals agree upon. The Rome Statue
which establishes the International Criminal Court declares that enforced
disappearance are a “crime against humanity.” These disappearances violate many of
our basic human rights including the “right to liberty, the right to personal security and
humane treatment, the right to fair trial, legal counsel, and equal protection under the
law, and the right of presumption of innocence.” We cannot forget the families and
friends as well who endure much hardship in relation to this crime against humanity. In
pursuit of justice, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 December
2006, also states that the “widespread or systematic practice of enforced
disappearances constitutes a crime against humanity.” It therefore offers victims’
families the right to seek reparations, and to demand the truth about the
disappearance of their loved ones. As we investigate this case, we must bear in mind
that this human rights violation is universally declared as a “crime against humanity,”
and is therefore truly a cause worth fighting for.
The Wall of Memory
A website called “Project Disappeared” has performed the heroic task of collecting
over 1300 photos of the disappeared individuals and posting them on the “wall of
memory.” As the few photos below here depict, these people were both young and
old, male and female, and their images are etched forever upon the minds of those
who loved them. For those who do not recognize a beloved one among the photos,
they can take a moment and reflect upon these faces of real human beings whose
lives were snatched away all too soon and all too sudden. By connecting with these
images, we can feel the pain that weighs upon those who were left behind and out of
true and deep sympathy seek out ways to mitigate the evil that was exercised upon
these innocent individuals.
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A Testimony by Alicia Rodríguez
Listen to these heart-wrenching words of a women who expresses the anguish and
pain she felt during this horrendous period:
Every time I try to go back to the period 1974-1977, a silent anguish rushing to my
throat. I look around me: my children, street trees, the clear air of the summer ... I
think they are not, who took their children to the hypothetical street trees that would
live in the cool of all summers ... They stayed in 24, 25 or 26 years, eternally young.
I feel guilty. I do not think I did my best to make things different. I think I made many
mistakes. I think I was a coward.
That's why I write about them, which I knew, who lost in the maelstrom. Not to die
again, to rescue them from oblivion. --Project Disappeared
A Memory, a Rhythm
Poetry is a song from the heart that pours forth when we are filled with deep emotion
and feeling. In times of tragedy and loss, affected individuals oftentimes put their pen
to paper and let the ink speak the unutterable words of sorrow and grief. Tenerife, a
victim of the dirty war, found such solace and became a renown poet because of his
passion and desire to remember those who disappeared, but left their mark upon the
souls of many.
“Few know that I am a poet, few know that in the beginning we were a group of
poetillas, so young, we draw in the air of our own destiny. I still remember our first joint
recital at the hall of a university in southern Argentina. We were five or six. I do not
remember exactly. Of those now there are only two. The rest was in that horrible mass
murder they did to our generation.
In the reconstruction of a memory must be poetry that is perhaps the only means
available to explain deep and abiding horror. I dedicate my poem those nameless,
shadows that prevent the peaceful dreams of the murderers and do not allow history
to be closed (Project Disappeared).”
Night dogs.
They did not say a peep.
They came on rails.
His eyebrows were charged
against the light of our eyes.
And he went up to the attics fear.
Everything they hit
fell wounded.
Find, found nothing.
I say, no, if found
the corpus delicti:
the open window of the ideas
with its share of fire, salt and water.
It was quite
and that's coal.
The ax of peace is still high
unborn and wheat.
[From the book "Rush Hour of Man, Tenerife, 1970]
The Mourner’s Song
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As poetry expresses the feelings of the soul, music captures the heart and unleashes
a mournful cry. In memory of the mothers of those victims of the dictatorship, an
activist group called the “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” found their voice and the
voice of thousands as they were the inspiration for a song by the Irish rock band U2
called “Mothers of the Disappeared.” This following youtube clip is rare a live version
for it shows the mothers holding images of their lost and beloved family member. This
song is truly touching and powerful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuFMoWV1cns
Stay tuned for further investigations and reports brought to you by Ava Munson,
University of Washington.
Works Cited:
Project disappeared . (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/victimas/eng.htm
Argentina country reports on human rights practices. (2002, March 4). Retrieved from
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/wha/8278.htmhttp://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/wha/8278.htm
Nagy-Zekmi, Silvia; Ignacio Leiva, Fernando (2003). Democracy in Chile. Sussex
Academic Press. p. 22
Finucane, Brian. “Enforced Disappearance as a Crime Under International Law.” Yale
Journal of International Law. 30 Dec 2009 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?
abstract_id=1427062
Posted by Justice Team at 4:13 PM
0 comments
Justice Blues: Prison and Detention
Center Conditions in Argentina
By DREW GILLESPIE
"Up to five prisoners sleep on the floor, without mattresses, in four square
metre cells. They defecate in plastic bags and urinate in bottles. The corridors,
littered with several days' worth of garbage, are often flooded by sewage."
-Amnesty International
Although there have been several positive advancements in the past decade with
regard to human rights in Argentina, very few steps have been made to improve the
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state of the criminal justice system. Human rights are still being violated in prisons and
detention centers throughout Argentina, with these violations occurring at a much
higher rate in those facilities that lie in the Buenos Aires province and in the western
provinces such as Mendoza. Among the numerous problems that remain prominent in
the Argentine justice system, one of the most alarming issues is the lack of reasonable
sanitation, which is illustrated by the quotation that introduces this article. In addition,
because of a very limited budget for the prisons, nutritious foods are scarce and meals
are irregular for the inmates. This lethal combination of malnutrition and unsanitary
living conditions leads to dangerous and unavoidable health risks for the prisoners.
Unsurprisingly, the medical attention in these prisons is inadequate as well. According
to reports conducted by Amnesty International of three prisons in the Mendoza
province, the medical staff often is only brought in after an inmate has died. In addition
to the absence of preventative measures, there is an insufficient supply of medicine
and no medical records for the prisoners. If a prisoner is suffering from a medical
problem, then they often intentionally cut or otherwise harm themselves in order to get
the attention of the medical staff. However, the inmates aren't always ignored. Prison
and detention guards routinely harass the inmates in a number of ways including
making verbal threats, stealing clothes, or spitting in their food. Though, this heckling
can seem very mild in comparison to certain other common practices of the guards.
Argentine law prohibits guards to inflict harm upon the inmates unless immediate
danger is clearly apparent. However, this principle is rarely enforced partly because
only a small number of incidences reach the public. Of the cases of excessive
violence that are presented to the Argentine government, still only a fraction of them
are investigated. Ever since the last military dictatorship began in 1976, it has been
standard practice of guards, police officers, and military officials to engage in brutality
and torture. In some cases over the last three decades victims have been murdered
following the acts of torture, which is not necessarily uncommon. As recently as 2005
several torture victims, or the families of torture victims, have reported the use of
electric shock torture. In June of 2006 a 15-year-old boy, who was suspected of
stealing a television set, was kidnapped, beaten, burned, and eventually shot three
times in the head by two Navy officials and a civilian. The nature of this homicide case
replicated methods used in the "Dirty War" era of the 1970s and 1980s, which shows
that the mentality of the most violent period of human rights violations in Argentina is
still lingering 15 years later.
The kidnapping of this 15-year-old boy was just one example of an unjust arrest that,
although is now less common than it was during the Dirty War, is still fairly routine
under the current laws. The law does prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention; but, as
with several components of Argentine law, there's a lack of accountability of the police
and military officials, who have become accustomed to this acquired sense of
"invincibility." The law allows a police officer to detain a suspect for up to ten hours
without an arrest warrent, but the officer usually exceeds the ten hour limit. Since the
internal panels that are supposed to control police abuses are usually weak, the police
officer is left with more than enough time to harm the suspect. In addition to a lack of
control over police abuse, each province has its own individual police force, which all
vary significantly in skill, regard for human rights, and degree of corruption. It's obvious
that there are inconsistencies in the law which, with an absence of accountability,
creates an unjust leniency in the policy of arresting suspects.
Policies on arrests aren't the only laws that are in need of revision. Recently the
constitutionality of the juvenile justice system has been heavily criticized and
questioned. The Supreme Court has reviewed the current law in order to determine if
the judges have too much discretion in authorizing the juvenile's detention, which
would mean that the process "lacks basic due process safeguards." (Human Rights
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Watch, 2010)
Another issue that is in need of legal revision is public trials. Many complaints have
been issued about the unfairness of trials in terms of inefficiency and subjectivity of
the judges, who have been accused of being easily manipulated by political
influences. However, the main problem with public trials in Argentina is that they lack
punctuality. It is not uncommon for a suspect to spend a number of years in prison
before they are given a court appearance. With the poor conditions of the facilities, the
suspect could leave the prison with compromised health, even if they're found
innocent. Another problem with this situation is that the prisons and detention centers
reach, and exceed, maximum capacity very quickly. Argentina's prisons are already
deficient in space, so holding guilty and innocent people in the cells will obviously
create extreme overcrowding. This overcrowding effect, combined with the unsanitary
conditions, results in a miserable and torturous experience for the inmates. To see a
typical Argentine prison cell, follow the link directly below.
http://amnesty.org.ar/mirada-abierta/index.html
Relative to the efforts of the government in the 1980s and 1990s, Argentina has taken
positive steps in giving justice to the victims of the human rights violations from the
Dirty War era. The "Full Stop" and "Due Obedience" laws of 2005 have enabled the
court system to convict several guilty police and miliary officials, some of whom were
principle violators in the Dirty War. In fact, investigations are still progressing in
Argentina.
Prison guards escort former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla into a courthouse.
Source: abcNews.com
On July 2, 2010 the former Argentine dictator of the last military dictatorship, General
Jorge Rafael Videla (shown above), went on trial to face new charges of crimes
against humanity. Videla, now age 84, once denied the disappearances of thousands
of political adversaries. However, in his 2001 biography, "The Dictator," he claimed to
the authors: "I knew everything that happened. I was above everyone." The conviction
of the ex-dictator Videla, who is sharing a courtroom with 23 fellow defendents
including former army General Luciano Benjamin Menendez, is undoubtedly a
significant accomplishment for the criminal justice system of Argentina. However,
there is still much more to achieve not only with respect to the conviction of the many
remaining violators from the Dirty War period that are still free, but also regarding the
restructure of the legal system so that there's accountability in the prisons, where
human rights violations still take place. After all, prevention of human rights violations
is the ultimate goal for Argentina in its persuit of a stable democracy and judicial
system.
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"In the years of the dictators in Argentina, I was a political prisoner. The jail
where I was held was worse than a jail-- it was a concentration camp for people
fighting the dictorial regimes of Pinochet, Bordaberri, and Videla."
-Willie Suarez
Posted by Justice Team at 9:55 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Censorship in Argentina
Anna Banchik
Si se calla el cantor calla la vida
porque la vida, la vida misma es todo un canto.
si se calla el cantor, muere de espanto
la esperanza, la luz y la alegría.
If the singer is silenced, life stops
because life, life itself is all a song
if the singer is silenced, from horror dies
hope, light and joy.
–Mercedes Sosa 1972, Si Se Calla el Cantor, If the Singer Is Silenced. (Full lyrics and
translations are included below.)
These are the words of Mercedes Sosa, the renowned Argentinian musician
and “voice of the silent majority.” During her career spanning six decades, she
asserted herself as the spearhead of the nueva canción movement of the 60s and 70s,
writing and performing political folk songs about social justice issues in her native
country and around the hemisphere. Viewed as a threat to the military, her songs were
banned from television and radio for years before she was body-checked and arrested
onstage during a 1975 performance in which many audience members, too, were
arrested. After the incident, she withstood bomb and death threats and performance
prohibitions for four more years until she left the country and continued her advocacy
and political song-writing in Europe.
---------Despite becoming a so-called democracy almost thirty years ago after the end
of the ‘dirty war’ in 1983, governmental infrastructure is still too weak to fully protect
the freedom of expression of musicians, celebrities, citizens, and journalists and
editors in particular. The Argentina Report by the Human Rights Watch highlights
rampant discrimination tainting the allocation of official advertising, noting its
preference for favorable coverage and punishment for any critical journalism. This
abusive use of official advertising is considered by many to be the primary control
mechanism in exerting subtle, indirect censorship of the media. Lacking transparency
and policies for objective regulation, the percentage of advertisements that are
government-paid can be as high as 75% in some provinces.
According to Página 12 foreign news editor Santiago O’Donnell, this injustice
is due to the lack of intermediaries, or filters, between journalists and political or
commercial pressures. Although former President Kirchner ran a campaign entitled
“Argentina, a country for real” to allow for more commentary and debate, direct
phone calls from the Cabinet to the newsroom are not uncommon. Pepe Eliaschev,
author of “Blacklist—the Return of the 1970s” and the former host of a daily radio
news show who was himself fired, maintains that “a real country wouldn’t put out
those kinds of ads,” glorifying its achievements yet “refusing all proper, formal contact
with the media. They seem to think these ads replace normal journalistic coverage.
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These people recoil from contact with actual journalists, but they’re obsessed
with the press.”
One of the latest attempts to control media coverage occurred when current
President Christina Fernandez Kirchner proposed a law that would break up one of
the largest newspapers and cable TV companies after it featured of illustration of the
President with an X taped over her mouth. In late 2009, Fernandez also ordered
newspapers and other materials to be sold only at stands run by unions, a move that
could lead to the total prevention of non-friendly media distribution.

Quino, author and illustrator the Mafalda comic strip, is the pen name of
another Argentinean artist who has used his stage to promote human rights through
the mind and mouth of a 5-year old. First appearing in 1964 in the journal Argentina
Primera Plana, Mafalda is the brainchild of Joaquín Salvador Lavado and is still in
print and on television today. The character reflects a nonconformist stance towards
global issues during that period and constantly worries about peace, politics, the
future of the planet, and the suffering of the poor, nuclear weapons, ecological
destruction, violence, racism, power in the hands of the few, and other injustices, all
while believing in Santa Claus “because my dad told me.” As an ironic and seemingly
innocent comic strip, Mafalda was an incredibly effective medium with which to
criticize the Argentinean governments and other political leaders abroad.
In the scene below, Mafalda comes across graffiti on the wall, which is cut off
from saying “Enough Censorship!” In the second box (on the right), she contemplates:
either he ran out of pai, or he cou not fini becau it is in the publ doma…” Clearly, this
strip addresses the country’s recurring past failures to provide true freedom of speech
to its citizens.
---------After being in exile for three years, Mercedes Sosa returned to Argentina and
continued to play shows and produce albums to an ever-increasing, captive audience.
Esquire magazine wrote that “Your Spanish may or may not be good, but Mercedes
Sosa requires no translation. Hers is the song of all those who have overcome their
fear of singing out.”
Blog Post by Anna Banchik
---------Below is a link to her song sung with Horacio Guarany, accompanied by the lyrics of
the song in Spanish and the best English translation I could muster!
Si Se Canta el Cantor by Mercedes Sosa
Composer: Horacio Guarany
Si se calla el cantor calla la vida
porque la vida, la vida misma es todo un canto
si se calla el cantor, muere de espanto
la esperanza, la luz y la alegría.
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If the singer is silenced, life stops
because life, life itself is all a song
if the singer is silenced, from horror
dies hope, light and joy.
Si se calla el cantor se quedan solos
los humildes gorriones de los diarios,
los obreros del puerto se persignan
quién habrá de luchar por su salario.
If the singer is silenced, alone remain
the humble sparrows of the newspapers,
port workers make the sign of the cross (or cross themselves)
who will fight for their salaries?
HABLADO
'Que ha de ser de la vida si el que canta
no levanta su voz en las tribunas
por el que sufre,´por el que no hay
ninguna razón que lo condene a andar sin manta'
CHORUS
What is there for life to be if the one who sings
does not raise his voice in the stands
for the one who suffers, for the one for which
there is no ground to be condemned to be without a blanket
Si se calla el cantor muere la rosa
de que sirve la rosa sin el canto
debe el canto ser luz sobre los campos
iluminando siempre a los de abajo.
If the singer stops singing, dies the rose
what is the purpose of a rose without a song
the song should be a light over the fields
illuminating always those underneath.
Que no calle el cantor porque el silencio
cobarde apaña la maldad que oprime,
no saben los cantores de agachadas
no callarán jamás de frente al crimén.
Do not silence the singer, because silence
cowardly protects the cruelty that oppresses
the singers do not know of bowing down
they will never keep silent in the face of a crime.
HABLADO
'Que se levanten todas las banderas
cuando el cantor se plante con su grito
que mil guitarras desangren en la noche
una inmortal canción al infinito'.
CHORUS
Let all of the flags be raised
when the singer stands with his shout
let one thousand guitars serenade into the night
an immortal song to infinity.
Si se calla el cantor . . . calla la vida.
If the singer is silenced... life stops.
Works Cited:
"Argentina: Events of 2009." Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, n.d.
Carrillo, Edgardo. "Un poco de diversion: Mafalda." Club Delfines de Sonora. N.p., n.d.
"Kirchner and Clarin: Argentina Media Fight Gets Personal." The Huffington Post. The
Huffington Post, 13 Sep 2009.
Tarnopolsky, Noga. "Critiquing Argentina’s Yellow Journalism." The Jewish Daily Forward.
Forward Association, 19 Jan 2007.
Valente, Marcela. ""Subtle" Means of Censorship." Inter Press Service News Agency. IPS, 13
Feb 2006.
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7/8/2010
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Friday, July 2, 2010
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
--Martin Luther King JR. Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
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- Catalyst - University of Washington

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