Progress in Argentina

While Brazil finally begins to address the validity of amnesty laws passed a generation ago, Argentina continues its pursuit of justice following its overturning of equivalent policies.  December brought a major event in Argentine history, with 19 officials from ESMA, often described as the Argentine Auschwitz, put on trial.  However, even as progress occurs, popular opinion seems to turn against it, as described in an extensive article by the Christian Science Monitor’s Sam Ferguson.

Part of the challenge in any transitional justice effort is maintaining the appearance of even-handedness and fairness.  In almost every civil conflict, human rights abuses are committed by both sides; the specter of victor’s justice emerges if only one of those sides is prosecuted in the aftermath.  Claims of this very problem have circulated in Argentina.  Ferguson quotes a stock trader, who asserts that the trials are “totally political [and...] one-sided.”

In a separate article, published on Truthout, Ferguson profiles the most prominent figure on trial, the Blond Angel, Alfredo Astiz.  Astiz infiltrated many groups of desaparecidos’ family members, including the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and then reported on their activities.  Ultimately, “Astiz allegedly marked his victims with a kiss on the cheek, the traditional Argentine salutation, at which point intelligence agents waiting on the street stormed the meeting and kidnapped Astiz’s targets.”

The full article is well worth a read, providing an extensive overview of the full charges facing Astiz, his defense, and the general history of the attempts to prosecute him and other torturers from the military dictatorship.  It concludes in a particularly chilling manner: “As Astiz was lead out of the courtroom, he looked toward the protesters on the other side of a wall of bulletproof glass. Seemingly unrepentant, he provocatively waved the book he had been guarding all afternoon. The title: ‘Volver a Matar’ (’Return to Kill’).”