Dirty War

This article is about the conflict in Argentina. For the conflict in Mexico, see Mexican Dirty War. For other uses, see Dirty War (disambiguation).
See also: Enforced disappearance § Argentina

Dirty War
Part of the Cold War and Operation Condor

An image of Jorge Rafael Videla inside a dossier by the U.S. Government
Date1974 – 1983
Location
Argentina
Result
Belligerents

 Argentina

Supported by:

Commanders and leaders
3rd Peronist Government
Various guerrilla leaders and civil society leaders
Casualties and losses
539 military and police forces killed[4]
1,355 civilians killed by guerrillas[5]		 5,000 members killed[6]
ERP 5,000 members killed and captured.[7]
RL 8 killed[8]
22,000–30,000 killed or disappeared[9][10][11]
Operation Condor
Background histories
Events
Government leaders
Targeted militias
Principal operatives
Organizations responsible
Locations
Laws
Archives and reports
Reactions
Memorial at the former detention center of Quinta de Mendez [es]

The Dirty War (Spanish: Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina (Spanish: dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina) for its period of state terrorism[12][10][13] in Argentina[14][15] from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and security forces and death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A)[16] hunted down any political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism, or the Montoneros movement.[17][18][19][20]

It is estimated that between 22,000 and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared, many of whom were impossible to formally document due to the nature of state terrorism;[21][12][10] however, Argentine military intelligence at the time estimated that 22,000 people had been murdered or disappeared by 1978.[22] The primary targets were communist guerrillas and sympathisers but also included students, militants, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists and any citizens suspected of being left-wing activists.[23] The disappeared included those thought to be a political or ideological threat to the junta.[17][18][19] According to human rights organisations in Argentina, between 1,900 and 3,000 Jews were among the 30,000 who were targeted by the Argentine military junta. It is a disproportionate number, as Jews comprised between 5–12% of those targeted but only 1% of the population.[24] All were killed in an attempt by the junta to silence social and political opposition.[25]

By the 1980s, economic collapse, public discontent, and the disastrous handling of the Falklands War resulted in the end of the junta and the restoration of democracy in Argentina, effectively ending the Dirty War. Many members of the junta are currently in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide.[26][27] The Dirty War left a profound impact on Argentine culture, which is still felt to this day.

  1. ^ McSherry, J. Patrice (2010). "Part 2: The Mechanisms of Violence – Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America". In Esparza, Marcia; Huttenbach, Henry R.; Feierstein, Daniel (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years. Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-49637-7. OCLC 1120355660.
  2. ^ Greg Grandin (2011). The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War. University of Chicago Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-226-30690-2
  3. ^ Walter L. Hixson (2009). The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy. Yale University Press. p. 223. ISBN 0-300-15131-4
  4. ^ "Militares Muertos Durante la Guerra Sucia". Desaperidos.org (in Spanish).
  5. ^ "Las víctimas del terror montonero no cuentan en Argentina". ABC. 28 December 2011.
  6. ^ "El ex líder de los Montoneros entona un "mea culpa" parcial de su pasado". El Mundo (in Spanish). 4 May 1995.
  7. ^ "Cedema.org - Viendo: A 32 años de la caída en combate de Mario Roberto Santucho y la Dirección Histórica del PRT-ERP". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Resistencia Anticapitalista Libertaria "Autodefensa, Clasismo y Poder popular en anarquismo argentino de los 70s". Documentos para el Debate No.3. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  9. ^ Bevins, Vincent (2020). The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. PublicAffairs. p. 305. ISBN 978-1-5417-4240-6.
  10. ^ a b c McSherry, J. Patrice (2011). "Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America". In Esparza, Marcia; Henry R. Huttenbach; Daniel Feierstein (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies). Routledge. pp. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-66457-8.
  11. ^ Fernandez, Belen (30 August 2014). "Reappearing the disappeared of Operation Condor". Al Jazeera.
  12. ^ a b Blakeley, Ruth (2009). State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South. Routledge. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-415-68617-4.
  13. ^ Borger, Julian (2004). "Kissinger backed dirty war against left in Argentina". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  14. ^ Daniel Feierstein (14 August 2016). ""Guerra sucia": la importancia de las palabras" ["Dirty war": the importance of the words] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  15. ^ McSherry, Patrice (2005). Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 78. ISBN 0-7425-3687-4.
  16. ^ Right-wing violence was also on the rise, and an array of death squads was formed from armed sections of the large labor unions, parapolice organizations within the federal and provincial police; and the AAA (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina), founded by Perón's secretary of social welfare, López Rega, with the participation of the federal police. Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, p. 22, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002
  17. ^ a b Clarín.com (18 May 2013). "El principal sostén del programa económico de Martínez de Hoz". clarin.com.
  18. ^ a b Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina, Antonius C. G. M. Robben, p. 145, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007
  19. ^ a b Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, p. 22, Rowman & Littlefield, 1994
  20. ^ "Argentina's Guerrillas Still Intent On Socialism", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 7 March 1976
  21. ^ Alemparte Diaz, Luis Filipe (July 1978). "Page A-8" (PDF). Argentine Military Intelligence estimate on the number of disappeared (PDF) (in Spanish). Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  22. ^ "On 30th Anniversary of Argentine Coup: New Declassified Details on Repression and U.S. Support for Military Dictatorship". nsarchive2.gwu.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  23. ^ "Argentina's Dirty War – Alicia Patterson Foundation". aliciapatterson.org. 10 August 1985. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  24. ^ Melamed, Diego (19 May 2013). "Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian dictator who killed Jews, dies". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  25. ^ Robben, Antonius C. G. M. (September 2005). "Anthropology at War?: What Argentina's Dirty War Can Teach Us". Anthropology News. Retrieved 20 October 2013.(subscription required)
  26. ^ Clarín.com (29 November 2017). "Megacausa ESMA: perpetua para Alfredo Astiz y Jorge "Tigre" Acosta por crímenes de lesa humanidad". clarin.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  27. ^ "Lesa humanidad: en 2016 se dictaron 136 condenas en juicios orales en todo el país". cij.gov.ar.