Dirty War

Dirty War, infamous campaign waged from 1976 to 1983 by Argentina’s military dictatorship against suspected left-wing political opponents. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 citizens were killed. Many of them were “disappeared”—seized by the authorities and never heard from again.

The onset of the Dirty War

Argentina’s political evolution in the decades preceding the Dirty War was shaped by a series of transformative developments. The election of Juan Perón in 1946 ushered in a period of significant economic and social reform—characterized by the nationalization of key industries, extensive public works projects, and wage increases and advancements in labor rights for industrial workers. These policies mobilized broad support among the working classes in Argentina but also contributed to intense political polarization.

After nearly a decade in power, Perón was overthrown in 1955 and subsequently went into exile. In 1971 the Peronist party was reconstituted, and its candidates secured victory in the presidential election the following year. Perón returned to Argentina in 1973 and was elected president through a special electoral process. However, his death in 1974 triggered a period of political uncertainty in which his wife, Isabel Perón, assumed power. Capitalizing on this instability, military officials seized control of the Argentine government in 1976 and placed Perón under house arrest, where she would remain for five years, until she went into exile in Spain.

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A History of War

On March 29, 1976, a military junta—led by Lieut. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, Adm. Emilio Eduardo Massera, and Brig. Gen. Orlando Ramón Agosti—formally assumed power. The junta installed Videla as president, dissolved the National Congress, imposed strict censorship, banned trade unions, and brought state and municipal government under military control. Under Videla’s leadership, the regime initiated a systematic campaign of state terror, transcending mere political repression to orchestrate extrajudicial killings of thousands and the enforced “disappearance” of countless others. This grim period, marked by extensive human rights abuses, would later become known as Argentina’s Dirty War.

Systematic repression and the disappearance of citizens

Under Argentina’s military dictatorship, thousands of people were forcibly disappeared as a part of a systematic campaign to eliminate perceived political threats against the government. Many of those abducted—referred to in Spanish as the desaparecidos (“those who have disappeared”)—were involved in militant or leftist organizations such the Montoneros, a Peronist guerrilla group, and the Marxist-Leninist People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP). However, the regime also targeted many groups and individuals not involved in armed conflict against the state. For example, the state repressed and carried out violence against members of political parties such as the Communist and Socialist parties in Argentina, as well as the moderate Peronists, who were all viewed as threats to the regime’s control. Moreover, institutions such as colleges and universities were targeted, because the government associated students, professors, and others affiliated with higher education as those aligned with a leftist ideology. Intellectuals, artists, writers, and religious figures who advocated for social justice or criticized the government were also persecuted and often subjected to state violence. Trade unionists and labor leaders were targeted as well for their prominent role in Argentina’s political and social movements, particularly their support for workers’ rights and social welfare policies, which the regime also associated with a leftist ideology.

The government’s repression often reached beyond its direct political targets, and in many instances, relatives, friends, or colleagues of those detained were also abducted. The regime was also infamous for the detention of pregnant women, who would be held by the government until they gave birth. After delivery, their infants were taken and often placed with families connected to the military or government, while the mothers were typically killed. In total, approximately 500 children were separated from their parents in this way. Many of these children grew up unaware of their birth parents, and efforts to recover their identities have continued for decades.

To carry out its campaign of repression, the Argentine military regime employed a coordinated system of abduction and extrajudicial detention. During this period, tens of thousands of Argentinian citizens were abducted from their homes, workplaces, or public spaces never to be seen again. Often they would be taken to clandestine detention centers that the government had concealed in such locations as military compounds, police stations, and even private residences. Inside, detainees were subjected to physical torture and psychological abuse. Many of those abducted were isolated for long periods of time without any formal charges or access to legal representation. Detainees were often transferred frequently among different locations, making it difficult to know their whereabouts. Although some of the individuals were eventually released, the majority were never located and are presumed to have been killed while in state custody.

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Because leftist guerrillas had been widely active in the country since the 1960s, the Argentine government, which maintained that it was fighting a civil war, initially faced little public opposition. However, this began to change in the late 1970s, with growing evidence of civil rights violations. For example, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, an association of women who had lost children and grandchildren to the Dirty War, began calling international attention to the plight of the desaparecidos through weekly Thursday afternoon vigils in the Plaza de Mayo, fronting the presidential palace; the vigils continued until 2006. A particularly vocal critic of both left- and right-wing violence was Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who was arrested and tortured in 1977 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980. For the most part, however, opposition was choked off by rigorous censorship, strict curfews, and widespread fear of the government.

The fall of military rule

Videla was succeeded in March 1981 by Gen. Roberto Viola, who, with the Dirty War nearing its end, was unable to control his military allies. In December he was shouldered aside by Lieut. Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri. Galtieri faced a slumping economy and increased civil opposition to military rule. After he launched Argentina’s disastrous invasion of the British-held Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), he was removed from office on June 17, 1982, three days after the conflict ended. Gen. Reynaldo Bignone was installed as president on July 1, 1982. Under Bignone, political parties were allowed to resume activities, and general elections were announced. Meanwhile, elements of the armed forces worked to conceal evidence of crimes committed during the Dirty War.

Democracy was restored to Argentina when Raúl Alfonsín of the Radical Civic Union, a major center-left political party, won the presidential election of 1983. Shortly after his inauguration, he reversed legislation passed under Bignone by announcing plans to prosecute several members of the defunct military government, including former presidents Videla, Viola, and Galtieri. Furthermore, he repealed a law granting amnesty to those accused of crimes and human rights violations during the Dirty War, and hence hundreds of military personnel were prosecuted. In the trial of nine former junta members in 1985, five were convicted, including Videla and Viola. Galtieri was acquitted in that trial, but in 1986 he was convicted, along with two other officers, of incompetency in the Falkland Islands War.

Later, however, under increased pressure from the military, President Alfonsín pushed two amnesty laws through the National Congress: the full stop law and the due obedience law, passed in 1986 and 1987, respectively. The former set a deadline for introducing new prosecutions, whereas the latter granted immunity to hundreds of military officers below the rank of colonel who were determined to have been following orders. (Exceptions were made for cases of rape or the abduction of babies.) Nevertheless, rebellion broke out within the military in the spring of 1987. There were more revolts in 1988, as the military remained discontented over wages, inadequate equipment, and the trials of its members stemming from the Dirty War.

Transitional justice and collective memory

Alfonsín resigned mid-1989 and was succeeded by Carlos Menem (1989–99), who in 1989 and 1990 pardoned Videla and other top officers convicted of abuses during the Dirty War. However, Videla was later charged with kidnapping babies and giving them to childless military couples under his regime. He was placed under house arrest in 1998 and sent to prison in 2008 after a judge revoked his house arrest status. Viola and Galtieri died before 2005, the year that Argentina’s Supreme Court voted to repeal the amnesty laws passed by Alfonsín. Afterward hundreds of military officers were tried, and several were convicted. In 2007 Bignone was charged with human rights abuses and taken into custody; he was convicted in 2010 and received a 25-year sentence. In 2012 Videla, Bignone, and seven others were found guilty of the systematic abduction of babies born to political prisoners; Videla was given a 50-year sentence, and Bignone received 15 years.

In April 2019 the U.S. National Security Council declassified and turned over to the Argentine government the last of four tranches of U.S. intelligence documents related to the Dirty War. Begun during the administration of U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, the handover was one of the largest government-to-government transfers of such documents ever. In addition to detailing human rights violations, the documents provide the names of both victims and perpetrators, seemingly setting the stage for new prosecutions.