Self-Amnesty Law 22,924 "National pacification law" Law 22,924, the National Pacification Law, enacted on September 22, 1983, became known as the
Self-Amnesty Law because through it, the leaders of the military dictatorship that called itself the
National Reorganization Process, faced with the possibility of being prosecuted by the government that would result from lifting the political ban and calling elections, sought to issue an
amnesty for themselves. Article No. 1 of the law stated as follows: Article No. 5 of the law stated as follows: Article No. 12 of the law stated as follows: The presidential candidate of the
Justicialist Party in the October 1983 elections,
Ítalo Argentino Lúder, declared the validity of the law, while the candidate of the
Radical Civic Union,
Raúl Alfonsín, denounced during his campaign the existence of a union-military pact and pledged to repeal it. Shortly after taking office as president,
Raúl Alfonsín sent to Congress a bill to repeal the law, which was approved with Law No. 23,040 a week later. This repeal was the first law passed by the Argentine Congress after the restitution of democracy in 1983. After the repeal of the National Pacification Law,
Raúl Alfonsín's Ministry of Defense officially communicated to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces the decree for the prosecution of the members of the first three military juntas. The repeal of this law made it possible to carry out the
Trial of the Juntas, which
judgment Jorge Rafael Videla and
Emilio Eduardo Massera to life imprisonment,
Roberto Eduardo Viola to 17 years in prison,
Armando Lambruschini to 8 years in prison and
Orlando Ramón Agosti to 4 years in prison.
Law 23,492 "Full Stop Law" against the
Full Stop Law in 1986. Law 23,492 of Full Stop is an
Argentines law that established the expiration of the criminal action (statute of limitations) against those accused as
criminally responsible for having committed the complex crime of
forced disappearance of persons (which involved illegal detentions,
torture and aggravated
homicides or murders) that took place during the
military dictatorship of the self-styled
National Reorganization Process of 1976–1983 that had not been called to testify "before sixty days from the date of enactment of this law". It was presented by Congressmen
Juan Carlos Pugliese, Carlos A. Bravo and Antonio J. Macris, and enacted on December 24, 1986, by President
Raúl Alfonsín Congress declared it null and void in 2003. During the 1983 election campaign, the Radical Civic Union candidate Raúl Alfonsín had promised that there would be no impunity for the crimes of
state terrorism. On December 5, 1986, then President
Raúl Alfonsín announced a bill that abruptly stopped the filing of complaints of human rights violations during the dictatorship. It set a term of thirty days, after which the right to claim justice expired. The bill was baptized as the Full Stop Law. The law established that "
criminal action shall be extinguished against any person who had committed
delict related to the establishment of violent forms of political action up to October 10, 1983". Since it sanctioned the impunity of the military criminally responsible for having committed the crime of forced disappearance of several thousand opponents,
leftist activists, intellectuals, peronists, trade unionists, writers and other groups during the dictatorship. It was at the time the subject of a lively and heated controversy. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people demonstrated in downtown Buenos Aires in protest against the law, among them communists and peronists. According to
El País, the Spanish newspaper, it was the largest demonstration in the federal capital since democracy had been restored three years earlier. Convened by the
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, human rights organizations and extra-parliamentary leftist parties, the march was supported by revolutionary Peronists and the General Confederation of Labor (Confederación General del Trabajo. CGT). Only cases of
kidnapping of newborns, children of political prisoners destined to
disappear, who were generally adopted by the military, who concealed their true biological identity, were outside the scope of the law. The Full Stop Law was enacted on December 24, 1986, by then President Raúl Alfonsín, and established the suspension of judicial proceedings against those accused of being criminally responsible for having committed the crime of forced disappearance of persons during the dictatorship. Months later it was complemented by the Due Obedience Law (23,521) also enacted by Alfonsín on June 4, 1987, and established a presumption iuris et de iure (i.e., which did not admit any legal proof to the contrary) that crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces were not punishable. Its first practical application occurred two days later when the Attorney General's Office, headed by the radical Juan Octavio Gauna, accepted that the law was applicable to a group of officers who acted under the orders of General
Ramón Camps in the province of Buenos Aires, annulling his conviction. The laws of Full Stop and Due Obedience, together with the
pardons granted by Carlos Menem (1989-1990), are known as
impunity laws.
Due Obedience Law The Due Obedience Law No. 23,521 was a
legal provision enacted in
Argentina on June 4, 1987, during the government of
Raúl Alfonsín, which established a presumption (that is, it did not admit proof to the contrary, although it did allow an appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the scope of the law) that crimes committed by members of the
Armed Forces below the rank of
colonel (as long as they had not appropriated minors and/or property of disappeared persons), during the
State terrorism and the
military dictatorship were not
Punishment, since they acted under the so-called "due obedience" (a military concept according to which subordinates are limited to obeying orders issued by their superiors). Although some interpreted that
legal norm had been approved by the Alfonsín government after the "
carapintadas" uprisings, to try to contain the dissatisfaction of the
officers of the
Argentine Army, which had been previously announced during the riots of March 1987 by Alfonsín himself in a public speech in the town of Las Perdices, Córdoba and already during the 1983 campaign in which Alfonsín insisted on the need to recognize that the Armed Forces were based on the rule of "due obedience" frigate captain
Adolfo Donda, and general
Antonio Domingo Bussi.
Pardons A series of ten decrees were sanctioned on October 7, 1989, and December 30, 1990, by the then President of
Argentina Carlos Menem,
pardon civilians and military personnel who committed crimes during the dictatorship self-styled
National Reorganization Process, including the members of the juntas convicted in the 1985
Trial of the Juntas, the prosecuted Minister of Economy
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz and the leaders of the
guerrilla organizations. More than 1,200 people were pardoned through these decrees.
The 1989 pardons On October 7, 1989, President Menem issued four decrees pardoning 220 military personnel and 70 civilians. •
Decree 1002/89: It pardons all the military chiefs prosecuted who had not been benefited by the laws of Full Stop and Due Obedience, except for Major General
Guillermo Suárez Mason, who had been extradited from the United States. •
Decree 1003/89: Pardons leaders and members of
guerrilla groups and other persons accused of subversion, among them persons who were dead or "
disappeared". It also pardons Uruguayan military personnel. •
Decree 1004/89: Pardons all participants in the military rebellions of the carapintadas of Semana Santa and
Monte Caseros in 1987 and of
Villa Martelli in 1988. •
Decree 1005/89: Pardons former members of the Junta de Comandantes
Leopoldo Galtieri,
Jorge Isaac Anaya and
Basilio Lami Dozo, convicted for crimes committed in the conduct of the
Falklands War.
The 1990 pardons On December 29, 1990, President Menem issued six decrees pardoning a new group of people. •
Decree 2741/90: Pardons the former members of the juntas of commanders condemned in the 1985
Trial of the Juntas Jorge Rafael Videla,
Emilio Massera,
Orlando Ramón Agosti,
Roberto Viola, and
Armando Lambruschini. It also pardons the military officers convicted of crimes against humanity
Ramón Camps and Ovidio Riccheri. •
Decree 2742/90: Pardons
Mario Eduardo Firmenich, leader of the
Montoneros guerrilla organization. •
Decree 2743/90: Pardons
Norma Kennedy, prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds. •
Decree 2744/90: Pardons
Duilio Brunello, sentenced to absolute and perpetual disqualification for the crime of embezzlement of public funds. •
Decree 2745/90: Pardons former Minister of Economy
José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz prosecuted for participation in crimes against humanity (kidnapping and torture) against Federico and Miguel Ernesto Guthein. •
Decree 2746/90: Pardons former military officer
Guillermo Suárez Mason for crimes against humanity. == Subsequent reactions ==