The Argentine military seized power a dozen times between 1930 and 1980. During that time, only two democratically elected presidents completed their period of office, and both were army generals. The last of these military dictatorships ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. In order to concentrate all political power, it set aside the constitution, dissolved congress, dismissed the supreme court judges, and confiscated, censored or eliminated all the opposition’s means of communication. To confront the huge protest movement, the military junta set up a terrorist state as a means of social repression. Thousands of citizens were imprisoned and tortured in secret detention centres, and then executed clandestinely. 30,000 people disappeared.
No original document produced by the armed forces which governed the country during the military dictatorship has been found. A few documents produced by the security forces give an idea of the arrangements for the persecution and disappearance of political opponents. The main official sources of information on the period of state terrorism derive from the proceedings initiated as a result of pressure by victims and their families. It was not until 16 December 1983 that the president of the Republic announced the establishment of an Archivo Nacional de la Memoria to « collect, analyze, process, duplicate, digitize and preserve information, statements and documents relating to the violations of human rights and fundamental liberties committed by the Argentine state ».
Important archival fonds have been brought together little by little by the organisations which fought for human rights during the dictatorship. These documents which were gathered together to save lives and to provide legal support for political prisoners, contain valuable information on human rights abuses committed by state terrorism. These are mainly statements by prisoners, by survivors of secret detention centres, by families and by those who witnessed disappearances and assassinations. These archives also contain many denunciations of abuses at national and international level : tracts, posters, cards sent to foreign governments, etc. They are important because, since the democratic opening, survivors, families and organisations which fought for human rights provided many information enabling to know what happened with missing people and used for legal proceedings.
Several organisations dedicated to the struggle for human rights make up Memoria Abierta. They work together to initiate some thinking and implement actions in order to enable the development of the memory work about the state terrorism and the years of political violence in Argentine and to improve the political democratic culture. As part of the program Documentary heritage, Memoria Abierta receives thousands of documents, processes them, protects them and makes them available for public use. It is also creating a new historical source in the form of oral statements by those involved and by witnesses, and has undertaken a topographical survey which will show how illegal repression manifested itself in the towns and cities.
Internet sites
Memoria Abierta
Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (APDH)
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS)
Madres de Plaza de Mayo - Línea Fundadora
Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ)
Bibliography
It is important and elaborate. We can advert in particular :
« L’Argentine de Perón à Kirchner 1973-2003 », Matériaux pour l’Histoire de notre temps, n° 81, Association des amis de la BDIC.
Historia, memoria, y fuentes orales, compilación a cargo de Vera Carnovale, Federico Lorenz, y Roberto Pitaluga- Memoria Abierta, CeDinbCI, 2006.
Romero, Luis Alberto, Breve historia contemporanea de la Argentina, 2da ed. 2001 (english translation : A history of Argentina in the Twentieth century, 2002).
Pucciarelli Alfredo (dir.), Empresarios, tecnócratas y militares. La trama corporativa de la última dictadura, Siglo XXI Editores, 2004.
Tappata de Valdez, Patricia, « Archivos y organizaciones de Defensa de los Derechos humanos en Argentina », in Actes de la XXXVIIe Conférence internationale de la table ronde des archives, Comma 2004.2, International Council on Archives, 2004, pp. 109-114.
The texts of this exhibition part have been adapted from the article wrotten by Patricia Tappata de Valdez and above quoted.
