Political Use of Human Rights in Kirchner? Argentina

Political Use of Human Rights in Argentina

Juan Uriburu Quintana, Attorney, Law Firm, Argentina

Last week, on March 24, the Argentine government commemorated the National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice.?? The national holiday was established in 2002 to officially remember the people who died during the military dictatorship which came to power in March 24, 1976, through the coup d'état that ousted President Isabel Martínez de Perón.2The violent conflicts between the guerrilla and the paramilitary groups that had been taken place under Perón worsened during the Dirty War??years (between 1976 and 1983), mainly due to increased state-sponsored violence to counter insurgency during the National Reorganization Process??implemented by the de facto government of the juntas headed by General J. R. Videla (1976-1981), Gen. R. Viola ( in 1981), Gen. L. F. Galtieri (1981-1982) and Gen. R. Bignone (1982-1983).3

The defeat at the Malvinas/Falklands war with Great Britain, economic turmoil and eroding popular support forced the military dictators to step down, and a civilian, democratically elected government headed by Dr. Raúl R. Alfonsín came to power in 1983.4 President Alfonsín was sworn in December 10 of that year, and within one week of having been inaugurated he ordered the legal accusation and trial of the members of the first three juntas (but not the fourth), as well as the creation of the National Commission of the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), which main goal was to produce a report known as Nunca Más??(Never Again)??on the human rights abuses and disappearances of persons (unionists, journalists, lawyers, students, activists) that had taken place during the dictatorship. The report attempted to give the government an unbiased chronicle of the events,??(abduction, illegal detention, torture, forced disappearance and murder)5 and was not aimed at determining responsibility for them. The report concluded that about 30,000 people were killed during the Dirty War years, but other estimations consider that about 8,0006 is a more accurate figure. As the armed forces were unwilling to martial court the officers responsible of the abuses, President Alfonsín courageously sponsored the judicial trial of the members of the juntas, and military hierarchy of senior commanders were prosecuted for the abuses and crimes committed under their rule, with the first hearing taking place in 1985. The chief prosecutor was J.C. Strassera and the assistant prosecutor was L. Moreno Ocampo (the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ICC??since it was created in 2003). It was also during Alfonsín? period that two important and controversial laws were passed in order to contain the armed forces: the 1986 Full Stop Law (which dictates the end of investigation and prosecution against people accused of political violence during the dictatorship, up to the restoration of democratic rule on 10 December 1983) and the 1987 Law of Due Obedience (assuming that officers and subordinates cannot be accused of the crimes committed during the years of military rule since they were obeying orders from their superiors). Although most members of the trialed juntas received life imprisonment, their sentences were lifted and pardons granted to them by President Carlos S. Menem in 1989-1990. Human rights have once again been on the spotlight since 2003, when, under the government of N. Kirchner who has made the human rights issues affairs of state and has been actively supporting two large organizations, the Association of Mothers of Plaza ?? the two laws were repealed by the National Congress and declared unconstitutional in 2005. His wife and successor, Mrs Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, came to power in 2007. The Kirchners have acknowledged having been heavily involved in the 1970s guerrilla movements and have been accussed of politically manipulating the human rights issue in order to obtain electoral advantages. They have been actively conducting an extremely selective review of Argentina? past and have recently refused the proposal of former President E. Duhalde, regarding the need to call for a referendum in order to see whether the Argentine citizens are in favor or counter such review process. In addition to this, President Fernández de Kirchner has threatened the Argentine judiciary of asking international tribunals to get involved and to solve the issue of the identity of two youth who happen to be no other than the son and daughter of the owner of Clarín,??a media giant and the largest newspaper in Argentina which the Kirchners openly have defined as an enemy and a mafia-like threat??to their government.

References
1- 4 de Marzo 1976/2006??Secretary of Communications, Chief of Staff, Argentine Presidency
http://www.24demarzo.gov.ar (accessed March 25, 2010)

2- Lewis, Colin S. 2002. Argentina: A Short History. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications.

3- ODonnell, Guillermo. 1999. Counterpoints: Selected Essays on Authoritarianism and Democratization. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.

4- Carlos Escudé, Foreign Policy Theory in Menem? Argentina (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997).

5- National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP)
http://www.nuncamas.org/english/library/nevagain/nevagain_000.htm

6- Desaparecidos: el Gobierno salió a cruzar a Meijide,??Clarín, August 5, 2009
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/08/05/elpais/p-01972036.htm (accessed August 5, 2009)

7- Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo
http://www.madres.org/

8- Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo
http://www.abuelas.org.ar/

9- Rock, David. 1987. Argentina 1516-1987: from Spanish Colonization to the Falklands War and Alfonsín. London, UK: I.B. Tauris & Co.