ARGENTINA: Changed Society Recalls 20 Grim Years

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 22 1996 (IPS) - Twenty years ago Argentina was in chaos. The economy had fallen apart, politics were in decay and the firm hand of the military appeared a valid alternative force to reimpose order and democracy.

On March 24, 1976, an army junta began its iron-fisted rule of Arentina, which included some of the darkest periods of the nation’s history, until the return of democracy in 1983.

The anniversay of the army takeover will pass quietly on Monday and most of those who supported the military have long accepted the fact that it was a bad choice. Few people think a further coup is possible in Argentina – although the popularity of democratically elected politicians is at an all-time low.

According to surveys some 80 percent of the Argentine electorate have lost their belief in politics, but more than 90 percent believe the military will not come back to power.

“I don’t think there will be another coup in Argentina. Those in power who previously passed their dirty work on to the army now pass it on to the politicians, who now make people die…” said former guerrilla fighter Jose Martinez, alluding to the social effects of the economic crisis.

The 44 year-old Martinez, belonged to the Motoneros guerrilla movement, which launched an armed attack on the government of Isabel Peron – third wife of the Dictator Juan Peron – in 1974. The m0ilitary eventually quashed the uprising and jailed the Motoneros leader Mario Firmenich, but he was later pardoned.

Since his release, however, Argentine society has shown while itt is critical of politicians they do not support Firmenich’s radical opposition. Weary of this continual rejection, Firmenich announced this week he would emigrate to Norway.

The dark days of the military regime cost the lives of 30,000 people – most of whom simply disappeared, 46 percent in the first year aftyer the coup, according to human rights organisations.

The families of the victims, many now pensioners, are still looking for an answer, and recent revelations that thousands of prisoners were thrown from aircraft into the Altantic has reopened old wounds. Although many of the families still have no idea where their loved ones died, their courage and commitment not to forget have opened the eyes of Argentine society.

“I was 10 years old when the last coup occured. I remember my mother was very relieved; it seemed at last the chaos had ended.”

Marta Vilaseca, a 30 year-old history teacher told IPS.

“My mother told me someting I didn’t understand at the time…’I hope the medicine is not worse than the illness.’ I understood that the business with the army was more serious than people thought,”

How right she was. The army’s witch-hunt sought out social idealists, workers and union activists fighting for pay increases, journalists, psychologists, sociologists, economists, pensioners, pregnant women, nuns and priests.

The secret, silent horror continued until the war with Britain over the Falklands when the Argentine invasion of the British controlled islands in the South Atlantic failed. The death of 700 young Argentine soldiers – mostly adolescent conscripts – caused the downfall of the military leadership.

“In 1983 the nightmare ended and we could talk freely. But I had the worst crisis of my life, said Marta. “I didn’t know who I was, or in which country I was living. I thought throughout the period of military rule only a small group had been arrested for their political activities. Now I know the medicine was infinitely worse than the illness.”

For Jose Martinez, the horror started before the coup, in clashes between the armed left and a right wing alliance of police officers, soldiers and some union sectors common under the Isabel Peron administration, from 1974 to 1976.

“Bombs in people’s homes and bodies riddled with bullets were everyday issues,” he said.

The terror imposed on that generation and their children left its mark, but 20 years on the socialist revolution is not a leading ideal amongst twenty year-old Argentinians more interested in their personal futures.

The “Never again” (Nunca Mas) report drawn up by a commission led by the writer Ernesto Sabato in 1985, said 62 percent of the disappeared were aged between 21 and 30, and more than 15 percent were minors.

“Now I am older I can see we made mistakes, but we were children defending causes totally abandonned by the political leadership,” said Martinez.

“In those days the models were Che Guevara (the Cuban revolutionary) and Salvador Allende (Chile’s Socialist President). Coherence was a higher value. In the same way that political commitment has lost its prestige today, in the ’70’s the one thing disallowed by youth was indifference.”

Luciana Bersi, a 20 year-old sociology student agreed: “I think the youth of the 1970’s were more human, less individualistic and frivolous than those of today. They had a strong sense of justice, rebellion, and now, the young behave as though they are asleep. It could be because of so many years of dictatorship.”

Ricardo Lauria, a 43 year-old trader, believe that while the coup period was disruptive, the current economic crisis after 13 years of democracy has, for him, been far more destructive.

“I have never been as badly off as I am now, I could always overcome the obstacles. But at 43 years-old I’ve got to work two or three times as hard as before. Things were not even this bad under the dictatorship, but I do know that if this government doesn’t do things well, we can chose another,” he said.

Lauria voted for President Carlos Menem in the May 1995 elections, but does not think politicians can do much to resolve the nations problems. He is convinced there is no possibility of another coup. “it’s history. Like the world wars, it’s over… gone,” he says.

Bersi also did not the democratic system would be easily overturned in QArgentina.

“I don’t know much about this, but I think that when there was a dictatorship in Argentina, the same was happening in other Latin American nations, and now all the governments are democratic. So I don’t think there is much possibility of a coup attempt,” she said.

Similar opinions are voiced by many political observers, for while the ghost of the dictatorship returns to haunt the nation from time to time, conditions are not ripe for a new coup.

Since the return to democracy in 1983, the military budget has shrunk from 597 million dollars to barely 132 million dollars in 1995.

The generals who led uprisings against the Raul Alfonsin and Menem administrations in the eighties and nineties have lost their influence, especially since the last foiled attempt in March 1990 which left 30 dead.

Political observers believe that today, society and the establishment have changed distinctly and while the democratic system may seem incapable of meeting current challenges creatively and efficiently, Argentina has achieved greater civic maturity.