March 24, 2006
A 30 year struggle
On this day, March 24th, 30 years ago, a military coup led to Argentina's last and bloodiest dictatorship. Tens of thousands of people were to be killed or "disappeared" at the hands of the dictatorship. Today, in Argentina, is a holiday. "The National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice". There will be marches, vigils, memorials, tree plantings, street renamings all culminating a week of cultural activities in memory of the victims of the repression, all to the cries of "Truth and Justice" and "Trial and Punishment for the Responsible".
Today, 30 years after that terrible day, we are probably closest to achieve the latter than we have been for decades. You will remember how after democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, many members of the security forces responsible for human rights violations were tried and in many cases convicted on charges of kidnaping and murder. The turmoil that these cases caused led to military rebellions and eventually two general amnesty laws followed by pardons for the highest military leaders. For years, it seemed that impunity would reign in Argentina.
Instead, the struggle was taken abroad. Astiz, Navy Captain was convicted in absentia in France for the murder of two French nuns; Suarez Mason and Rivero, two top Army leaders, were sentenced to life in prison in Italy after a criminal procedure that took over a decade. Both of these cases were based on the legal concept of passive personality and on charges of "regular" crimes, murder and abductions, but they served as a precedent for a far more important criminal procedure that would take place in Spain, where Navy Captain Adolfo Scilingo was recently convicted of committing crimes against humanity.
The possibilities of justice abroad jump-started the quest for justice in Argentina. In addition to murdering and disappearing people, Argentinian security forces had taken the babies of disappeared women and given them to families close to them to raise as their own. This crime had not been covered by the amnesty laws, so criminal procedures re-started. Top security forces leaders - including former presidents - were arrested, released, to be re-arrested and re-released in a justice merry-go-round. Two of them, however, were convicted and are currently serving sentences.
"Trials for truth", judicial procedures aiming to investigate what happened to the disappeared were started in several cities around the country. They have been going on for years now, and their records offer a wealth of information as to how the repression took place. They also provide a better, albeit slower, alternative to truth commissions.
These procedures helped build the necessary momentum to do away with the amnesty laws. A few years ago, Congress passed a law abolishing them. The act had no legal consequences, but it was a start. They later followed by nullifying them. But it took a progressive president and Supreme Court to actually declare the amnesty laws unconstitutional and to stop that last legal impediment to justice.
Today, there are over 1,000 criminal procedures open against over 500 members of the security forces for their participation on "dirty war" crimes. Over 200 people have been arrested. Still, other than those tried for appropriation of minors, none have yet been tried.
Still, the wheels of justice are moving and I hope this will give pause to human rights violators in other countries, including the US. It may take a long time to get them, they may be tired and gray when we finally put them behinds bar (and in the US, unlike in Argentina, there is no law mandating home imprisonment for those over 70 years old), but eventually we will, we must. Because without justice there is no rule of law to cement the democratic institutions that we so cherish.
Posted by marga at March 24, 2006 5:56 AM | TrackBack