Disappeared detainees of the Dirty War

The Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, signed in 1994, classifies forced disappearance as a crime against humanity that is imprescriptible and defines it as follows: == Context ==

The from 1976 to 1983 pursued political persecution, kidnapping, torture, and murder in a secretive and systematic manner within the framework of state terrorism in Argentina. These practices were also employed in other Latin American dictatorships under Operation Condor in South America and Operation Charly in Central America. The use of forced disappearance by a totalitarian state seeks impunity by obscuring evidence of the crime, instilling terror in victims and society through uncertainty about the fate of the disappeared, and hindering citizens' ability to act while fostering division. Disappearance renders the opponent a homo sacer, a person who can be killed with impunity. The practice of disappearance fundamentally relies on producing unknownness. Consequently, uncovering what happened, recovering collective memory, and demanding truth became central demands of victims and human rights organizations. A key slogan chanted during protest marches against the military government was: "The disappeared, tell us where they are!". Forced disappearance exacerbates the repression and pain, as families struggle to accept the death of loved ones without closure, prolonging the search for their remains and the truth about their fate. == Background ==

Hitler's Night and Fog Decree The system of forced disappearance was first formalized by Nazism through Hitler's Night and Fog Decree of December 7, 1941, reconstructed by the Nuremberg Trials. Nazi ideologues argued that the decree introduced a "fundamental innovation" in state organization: the system of forced disappearances. The core order of the Night and Fog Decree was: The reconstructed text further specified: In Argentina, a truck driver who witnessed the testified that when he asked a military officer about the fate of the bodies he was transporting, the officer replied: "They go to the fog of nowhere." The Night and Fog Decree is cited as a precedent for Argentina's forced disappearance policy in some judicial rulings. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón referenced it in a November 2, 1999, ruling ordering the prosecution of 98 Argentine military officers for crimes against humanity: It was also referenced in a 2006 ruling by the Oral Criminal Court No. 1 of La Plata in the "Etchecolatz" case: French School Forced disappearance as a repressive method was introduced in Argentina by the so-called "French military school" from the late 1950s. France suffered a catastrophic military defeat in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu against the Viet Minh, ending the First Indochina War and paving the way for Vietnam's independence. This defeat against a militarily inferior but popularly supported force shocked the French armed forces, trained in conventional warfare. From this context, French military officers developed the concept of "subversive warfare," later replaced by the "doctrine of revolutionary warfare" (DGR). Shortly after the Indochina defeat, France faced another independence war led by the Algerian National Liberation Front, which, like in Vietnam, had strong popular support. In this context, French Colonel Charles Lacheroy published La campagne d’Indochine, ou une leçon de guerre révolutionnaire in 1954, outlining tactical and strategic concepts developed over the previous two years. Lacheroy described revolutionary warfare as a "new type of war," "unconventional," where psychological action is critical, and the rearguard becomes more important than the troops. As the enemy is embedded in the population, the fight is less about territory and more about the "hearts" and "minds" of the local population. Lacheroy admitted that such wars require methods "repugnant to human conscience." From May 1958, DGR techniques were taught at Bigeard’s initiative. The courses used Colonel Roger Trinquier’s manual La guerra moderna, which openly justified torture. Held at the Paris War School, they included a month of "practice" in Algeria. The first students were Argentines, including General , selected by the Argentine General Staff to learn what became known in Argentina as the "French doctrine." and later at the School of the Americas. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, established by the United States in July 1963 in the Panama Canal Zone, was a key center for promoting the establishment of totalitarian dictatorships and the use of subversive terrorism, state terrorism, and drug trafficking in Latin America. Over 60,000 military and police personnel from up to 23 Latin American countries were trained there, including ideological training in the U.S. during the Cold War, torture techniques, and media manipulation. Among them were several criminals active in Argentina, including dictators Jorge Rafael Videla, Eduardo Massera, Roberto Eduardo Viola, and Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri. In 1996, the United States declassified documents containing instructional manuals on the use of torture, extortion, and summary execution, targeting members of unions who "distributed propaganda in favor of leftist extremist groups or their interests," "sympathized with demonstrations or strikes," or made "accusations about the government's failure to meet the basic needs of the people." One of the most notorious torture manuals was KUBARK, which described the process of torture by electric shock. The manuals were declassified by the CIA in 1994. Critics, including Panama’s newspaper La Prensa, dubbed it the "School for Assassins." Panamanian President Jorge Illueca called it "the gringo base for destabilizing Latin America." In a 1993 open letter to the Columbus Ledger Enquirer, former instructor Commander Joseph Blair stated: "In my three years of service at the School, I never heard anything about lofty goals like promoting freedom, democracy, and human rights. Latin American military personnel came to Columbus solely for economic benefits, opportunities to buy quality goods exempt from their countries’ import duties, and free transportation, paid for by U.S. taxpayers." According to Democratic Senator Martin Meehan (Massachusetts): "If the School of the Americas held an alumni reunion, it would bring together some of the most infamous and undesirable thugs and wrongdoers in the hemisphere." In 1977, under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties regarding the Panama Canal, the U.S. agreed to Panama’s demand to relocate the School to Fort Benning, Georgia. == Practice of Forced Disappearance ==

General Jorge Rafael Videla explained in an interview with journalist María Seoane: On U.S. television on September 14, 1977, Videla stated: On the last Sunday of October 1979, a month after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights visited Argentina, Pope John Paul II publicly addressed the issue of the disappeared and those detained without trial in Argentina at St. Peter's Square. On December 13, 1979, Videla held a press conference in Buenos Aires, where journalist José Ignacio López asked him about the Pope’s statements, prompting a lengthy response invoking his Christian view of human rights, including the following reflection, which became historic: Detentions were typically carried out by heavily armed military or paramilitary groups of four or five individuals, who coordinated with security forces to clear the area of operation. Victims were seized on the street, in bars, cinemas, their homes, or wherever they were at the time. Once detained, they were taken to a clandestine detention center (up to 610 are estimated to have operated) where they were interrogated under systematic torture. In most cases, they were ultimately killed, and their bodies were disappeared through , buried in mass graves, or marked as unidentified (N.N.). In the early years, although the media did not provide direct information about what was happening, they occasionally reported on detentions or the discovery of bodies: Detentions were carried out by military and police forces, sometimes with active collaboration from civilian officials or authorities of the companies, schools, or universities the victims were associated with. No agency provided information on the victims’ whereabouts to their families. Judges did not process the habeas corpus petitions filed, and in many cases, the lawyers filing these petitions were themselves disappeared. == Number of victims ==

Documents In 1978, Chilean secret agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel sent a report listing some of the dead and disappeared between 1975 and July 1978 in Argentina, stating that up to that date, 22000 had been recorded. The document partially reveals the existence of individualized records of the disappeared, which were never acknowledged or found by those responsible. The initial list from the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights recorded 5,566 cases, roughly aligning with the 5,580 complaints filed in 1979 with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), established at the end of the dictatorship by Raúl Alfonsín’s government, was tasked with directly receiving complaints from victims and their relatives and forwarding them to the civil judiciary. Over eight months, it received reports of 7,380 disappearances. After its report, the book Nunca Más, was published, the Secretariat of Human Rights continued receiving complaints, raising the number of reported disappeared to 8,961. By 2003, the Argentine Secretariat of Human Rights had recorded approximately 13,000 cases. Dictator Jorge Rafael Videla himself suggested in an interview that the number of disappearances could reach "up to 30,000": Human rights organizations, the union movement, and most political parties traditionally estimate the number of disappearances at a round figure of 30000. In 2001, actress also denied the 30,000 figure, claiming there were only "2,400 disappeared." In 2003, former dictator Reynaldo Bignone, interviewed by French journalist Marie-Monique Robin, denied the 30,000 figure, stating there were "only 8,000, of which 1,500 were under their government." In November 2013, Buenos Aires newspaper Perfil published an article in which Luis Labraña, a former Montoneros militant, claimed the 30,000 figure was invented by him to secure a subsidy. According to journalist and human rights lawyer Pablo Llonto, Labraña’s claim is false, as there are no records of his participation in the 1979 trips to the Netherlands by Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Llonto also notes that the 30,000 figure predates these trips, citing a January 24, 1978, El País article that mentions it. The state only subsidized the families of 9,334 reported disappeared. Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel responded to Lopérfido: Months later, Falklands War veteran, Army Major, former carapintada, and then-Customs Director Juan Gómez Centurión questioned the number of dictatorship deaths, stating, "It’s not the same to have 8,000 truths as 22,000 lies." He also opposed the notion that the dictatorship involved a systematic and centralized plan of disappearance: == Judicial processes ==

In Argentina Upon assuming the presidency on December 10, 1983, President Raúl Alfonsín (1927–2009) signed decrees creating the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) to investigate human rights violations from 1976 to 1983. Its investigation, documented in the book Nunca Más, was delivered to Alfonsín on September 20, 1984. The Radical government ordered the prosecution of the main perpetrators of state terrorism in the Trial of the Juntas, with significant participation from prosecutor Julio César Strassera. The verdict sentenced members of the military juntas to penalties for crimes against humanity, including life imprisonment for the main culprits. This was the first time such perpetrators were tried using only the law, by the same courts that try any citizen, applying the criminal code in force in Argentina since 1922. This unprecedented event set a global precedent, leading to the inclusion of forced disappearance in the Penal Code, adopted by several countries, and its designation as a crime against humanity by the UN. However, yielding to pressure from military sectors (and some civilian sectors), the National Congress passed the Due Obedience and Full Stop Laws, proposed by Alfonsín’s government, which extinguished criminal actions against mid-level participants in state terrorism. The convicted remained imprisoned until 1990, when Justicialist President Carlos Menem pardoned them, allowing the release of those not prosecuted for other crimes not covered by the pardon, such as the appropriation of children born in captivity. On April 15, 1998, Law 24.952 repealed the Full Stop (No. 23.492) and Due Obedience (No. 23.521) On June 14, 2005, the Supreme Court of Argentina declared these laws unconstitutional and upheld the nullity law. Appeals to revoke the 1990 pardons are currently ongoing. As of 2017, relatives, some organized in Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, continue searching for grandchildren—children of the disappeared—who were stolen and raised by other families, in some cases by the same military personnel involved in their parents’ disappearance. On August 4, 2006, the first direct perpetrator of disappearances was convicted: former Argentine Federal Police non-commissioned officer Julio Simón, also known as "Turco Julián," was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Simón had been protected by the Due Obedience and Full Stop Laws, which prevented new trials against repressors. Abroad For over 25 years, laws like Due Obedience and Full Stop prevented Argentina from prosecuting all those accused of kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and murders during the military dictatorship. As a result, human rights organizations and families of the disappeared sought justice abroad. Since 1985, trials were opened in Italy for Italian-origin citizens disappeared in Argentina. The first trial concluded in Rome on December 6, 2000, with life sentences for generals Guillermo Suárez Mason and Omar Riveros. The Rome court also sentenced Juan Carlos Gerardi, José Luis Porchetto, Alejandro Puertas, Héctor Oscar Maldonado, and Roberto Julio Rossin to 24 years for the murder of Martino Mastinu. On December 21, 2001, the same court issued warrants for Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, Colonel Pedro Alberto Durán Sáenz, and General for their roles in Käsemann’s murder. Extradition requests to Germany were rejected by the . On November 28, 2003, at the request of the Nuremberg prosecutor’s office, the court issued warrants for former member Jorge Rafael Videla, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, and General Guillermo Suárez Mason for their roles in the murders of German citizens Elisabeth Käsemann and in Argentina. European trials played a significant role in pressuring Argentina’s judiciary and government, which, nearly 30 years after the coup, annulled the impunity laws to prosecute those accused of human rights crimes during the dictatorship in Argentina, avoiding extradition demands from Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. == Cultural Impact ==

Numerous artistic works have centered on forced disappearance in Argentina (for example, FilmAffinity lists 46 fictional films related to state terrorism and the disappeared). Below is a brief list of some notable works: • Proteo (1979), novel by Morris West • Preso sin nombre, celda sin número (1982), book by Jacobo Timerman about his own disappearance in clandestine detention centers during the Argentine civic-military dictatorship (1976–1983). • "Los dinosaurios", song by Argentine musician Charly García from the album Clics modernos (1983): ::The friends from the neighborhood can disappear, ::the radio singers can disappear, ::those in the newspapers can disappear, ::the person you love can disappear. ::Those in the air can disappear in the air, ::those in the street can disappear in the street. ::The friends from the neighborhood can disappear, ::but the dinosaurs will disappear. • The Official Story, 1985 film by Luis Puenzo (winner of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film), about the case of a disappeared couple’s daughter secretly given up for adoption. • The Night of the Pencils, 1986 film by Héctor Olivera, based on the book by María Seoane, depicting the 1976 kidnapping and torture of 10 students in La Plata by the military dictatorship. • Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1985), film by Pino Solanas, portraying the struggles of exiles due to state terrorism. • La amiga (1988), film by Jeanine Meerapfel, about the experiences of two friends during the dictatorship, starring Cipe Lincovsky and Swedish actress Liv Ullmann. • Sur (1988), film by Pino Solanas (winner of the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival), about the return of a prisoner victim of state terrorism after the regime’s fall. • A Wall of Silence (1993), film by Lita Stantic, featuring British actress Vanessa Redgrave, about a British filmmaker arriving in Buenos Aires to document the story of a disappeared person’s wife. • Garage Olimpo (1999), film by Marco Bechis, depicting a story largely set in an illegal detention center. • Imagining Argentina (2003), film by Christopher Hampton, about a theater director who discovers a psychic ability to locate disappeared persons during the dictatorship, starring Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson. • Chronicle of an Escape (2006), film by Adrián Caetano, about the hardships faced by four detainees in the Mansión Seré clandestine detention center and their subsequent escape. • The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), film by Juan José Campanella (winner of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film), set during the period of disappearances, depicting the regime of impunity under the military. • Clandestine Childhood (2012), film by Benjamín Ávila, about a child forced into hiding due to the threat of state terrorism against his parents. • "200 años" (2010), by the Córdoba alternative rock band Black Rose, references—among other Argentine historical events in protest—the disappeared during the last dictatorship: ::Thousands of disappeared, ::for not thinking the same, ::were banished, ::from their own freedom. • "Esos Ojos", song by No Te Va Gustar. • They Shot the Piano Player (2023), animated film and graphic novel by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, about the 1976 forced disappearance in Buenos Aires of Brazilian pianist Tenório Júnior. Other artistic works address forced disappearance elsewhere in the world: • They Dance Alone (1988), song by British musician Sting, focusing on the mothers of Chile’s disappeared. • Vuelos, song by the rock band Bersuit Vergarabat. • Besando la tierra, song by the thrash metal band Nepal. • Indultados, song by the rock band . • Desaparecidos, song by the hard rock band . • Desapariciones (1984), written by Panamanian musician Rubén Blades, not specifically referencing a political/geographical situation but written about disappearances in Panama, performed with great success by Argentine band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. • Canción inútil (2000), song by Argentine punk-rock band Attaque 77. • '''' (1987), epic and neobaroque poem by anarchist sociologist and poet Néstor Perlongher, written in 1981 during a trip to São Paulo in exile. == See also ==