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ARGENTINA: 30 Years On, Society, Gov’t Say ‘Never Again’

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 24 2006 (IPS) - On Mar. 24, 1976, a military coup in Argentina burned an indelible mark on the history of the country’s democratic institutions. Thousands of people were kidnapped and ‘disappeared.’ After the 1976-1983 military regime, nothing was ever the same again. But democracy acquired a renewed value and widened its base.

On Mar. 24, 1976, a military coup in Argentina burned an indelible mark on the history of the country’s democratic institutions. Thousands of people were kidnapped and ‘disappeared.’ After the 1976-1983 military regime, nothing was ever the same again. But democracy acquired a renewed value and widened its base.

Political parties and trade unions, which dominated the scene before the coup, are today only secondary channels for social participation. The guerrilla groups that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing in rebellious youngsters, have ceased to exist, and their violent methods would find few champions today.

A wide spectrum of civil society organisations has taken the place of the forms of representation that were traditional before the dictatorship. They are articulate in expressing their demands and proposals, and exert considerable influence on the outcome of a number of issues on the public agenda.

Human rights organisations, women’s groups, civil rights activists, consumer defence groups, environmentalists, organisations of the unemployed, communities affected by pollution, and victims of police brutality all raise their mixed chorus of voices in today’s democracy.

The most prestigious organisations with the longest track records are the human rights groups organised by the mothers and grandmothers of victims of the de facto regime. The mothers of the victims of forced disappearance, walking in a circle around the obelisk in Plaza de Mayo in their weekly demonstrations at the height of the dictatorship, were the germ of the new democracy.

“We did not defend human rights from behind a desk, but went out into the streets during the dictatorship to demand the return of our ‘disappeared’ sons and daughters,” Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Association of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, told IPS. “Mothers participated in building this democracy, and we continue to do so,” she added.

Although they had common aims, the group of women divided.

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Founding Line was formed, while the Association of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the children born to their daughters or daughters-in-law in the regime’s clandestine torture camps, began to grow in importance.

“I still remember the fervour among students in 1983, when the return of democracy was imminent after seven years of dictatorship,” lawyer Marta Gaba, a consultant on social participation and civil society issues, told IPS. Before then, it was impossible for more than three people to hold a meeting at the university, she recalled.

Gaba recollected that at the end of the regime, participation was channeled through the political parties. Every party rally drew thousands of people. But there have been many changes since then, and “people make their views known by different mechanisms now,” she said.

“In Argentina, we elect our government representatives. But in the case of day-to-day grievances, in demanding justice, and when we want matters that are fundamental to a community to be put on the agenda, people here choose to express themselves directly, without mediation,” said the lawyer.

“Political parties and their supporters still exist, but there are cracks in the system through which another kind of political participation slips through. I call it social participation, and it is political, but not along party lines. It makes its voice heard through civil society organisations,” she added.

Sociologist Vicente Palermo, co-author with Marcos Novaro of the book “The 1976-1983 Military Dictatorship”, agreed that after the collapse of the regime, democracy emerged on a new footing. It was more pluralist and more in line with the values of the liberal, republican tradition.

The 1976 coup was the sixth to take place within a half-century that was characterised by constant interruptions of the democratic order. Many Argentines admit today that they thought, at the time, that the 1976 coup would be much like the others. No one imagined the horror that was just around the corner.

Kidnappings, torture, rape and forced disappearance. Murder, censorship, exile. The dirty war. These were the cruel tactics used by a regime that was determined to stamp out any sign of dissent. The legacy: a much more unequal society and a heavily indebted country.

Thirty years after the start of Argentina’s bloodiest dictatorship, society and state are looking back at the past in as many ways as there are new organisations in society’s chorus: rallies, acts of remembrance, demonstrations, seminars, exhibits, stamp collectors’ meetings, special programmes on television and radio, publications and concerts.

The ministry of Defence ordered the records of the armed forces to be opened up, to provide information in the trials against former torturers. Five hundred military personnel and police have been charged in close to a thousand cases. The trials were re-opened two years ago, after the amnesty laws exonerating uniformed personnel from criminal responsibility were overturned.

The most forceful and controversial memorial gesture was President Néstor Kirchner’s proposal that Mar. 24 be declared a national holiday, as of this year. The proposal was approved by Congress, but not without debate. The centre-left president called for the day to be one of “withdrawal and contemplation,” to reflect on the past.

“We want justice, memory and truth, without hatred and without vengeance,” said Kirchner.