Main Facts

1
The dictatorship in ArgentinaMarch 24, 1976
December 10 1983

• Main Facts

2
March 24, 1976

• On March 24, 1976, Isabel Perón was deposed and
  arrested.
• The Military Junta took power.
• The junta named Jorge Rafael Videla president of
  Argentina, and established that the Army, the
  Navy, and the Air Force would compose the future
  government.
• This was the beginning of the so-called National
  Reorganization Process.

3
What were the events that led to such actions?

• Recession.
• Budget crisis foreign debt (US2.5
  billion)/budget deficits (over US5 billion), in
  1975.
• The President was accused of having embezzled
  large sums from a government-run charity into her
  personal accounts in Spain

4
Beginning of the military regime

• The junta announced its plan to contain
  inflation, stop speculation, and stimulate
  foreign inversion. But it was a slow start.
• In such economic climate, the military junta
  imposed terrorism of State, which targeted the
  elimination of any type of popular participation.
• The military regime started an implacable
  repression over all democratic forces political,
  social, and unionist, with the objective of
  subduing the population through terror. Their
  objective was to restore order.
• This day inaugurated the bloodiest authoritarian
  government in the history of Argentina. Students,
  union workers, intellectuals, professionals, and
  many others were kidnapped, murdered and, later
  on, disappeared. Those who could went on exile.

5
Censorship

• Announcement number 19, March 24, 1976
• The Military Junta announces to the people that
  any person who spreads, reveals, or promotes
  announcements or images, through any type of
  media, produced by or related to illicit
  associations, or to persons or groups dedicated
  to subversive activities or terrorism, will be
  punished with confinement for an indefinitely
  period of time. Any person who spreads, reveals,
  or promotes news, announcements, or images,
  through any type of media, with the purpose of
  disrupting, prejudicing, or discrediting the
  activities of the Armed Forces, the Security
  Forces, or the Police, will be punished with
  confinement for up to ten years. (Newspaper The
  Press, March 24, 1976)

6
Dirty War

• The disappearance was the most sinister formula
  of the dirty war the target was abducted
  (sucked) by a paramilitary squad (patota)
  the target would become a number and have no
  legal warranty nor rights the target was at
  the mercy of her/his captors.
• The disappeared ones were thrown to the Río de
  la Plata (Silver River), previously sedated, from
  military planes or helicopters, or to common
  graves with no identification whatsoever.

7
The disappeared ones

• Percentages of disappeared people according to
  their profession
• Blue collar workers...............................
  ...............30,0
• Students..........................................
  ......................21,0
• Other workers.....................................
  ..................17,8
• Professionals.....................................
  ....................10,7
• Teaching staff....................................
  ......................5,7
• Self-employed.....................................
  .......................5
• Housewives........................................
  .....................3,8
• Conscripts and military personnel.................
  ..........2,5
• Journalists.......................................
  .........................1,6
• Actors and artists................................
  ......................1,3
• Priests and nuns..................................
  ......................0,3
• (Conadep Report, 1984)

8
Detention camps

• Detention camps were clandestine. People who were
  taken to these centers were tortured and
  eventually killed.
• However, they were centrally located, in
  downtown!
• There were 340 in the whole country.

9
Theft of children

• Besides adult kidnapping, many children were
  literally stolen. The stolen kids, many times
  children of detained pregnant women who gave
  birth at detention camps, were registered as kids
  of military families other times they were sold
  or abandoned in orphanages.
• The military government thought that children of
  the disappeared ones should loose their
  identities. For this reason, the military made
  them disappeared. The government thought that
  subversion was hereditary or, at least, passed on
  by family links.

10
Mother of the Plaza de Mayo

• Born in 1977, this group was formed by the
  mothers of the disappeared ones.
• This group became the most active group opposing
  the government. They wear white head scarves with
  their childrens names embroidered.
• The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a unique
  organization of Argentine women who have become
  human rights activists in order to achieve a
  common goal. For over three decades, the Mothers
  have fought for the right to re-unite with their
  abducted children. They still gather every
  Thursday afternoon for a half hour walk around
  the plaza.
• The 14 founders of the association were Azucena
  Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée
  García Buelas, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz,
  Julia Gard, María Mercedes Gard and Cándida Gard
  (4 sisters), Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta
  Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin, and
  Sra. De Caimi. They started the demonstrations on
  the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada,
  on April 30, 1977.
• Some of the founders of this group were also
  abducted.