From March 21: The Long Shadow of Argentina’s Dictatorship
The Opinion Pages | Contributing Op-Ed Writer
The Long Shadow of Argentina’s Dictatorship
Uki Goñi MARCH 21, 2016
BUENOS AIRES — When President Obama lands in Buenos Aires this week, he will be arriving on the eve of one of the most traumatic dates in our history. On March 24, Argentina commemorates the 40th anniversary of a military coup that “disappeared” thousands of people, a deep trauma in Argentina’s national psyche.
There were other, greater atrocities in South America in that era, like the ones that occurred during virtual civil wars in Colombia or Guatemala. The killings in Argentina may have been lesser in number, but this was premeditated mass murder.
Argentina’s military dictatorship organized its killings in death camps, with methods reminiscent of the Nazis’ (and many Nazis had, in fact, found asylum in Argentina after World War II and still lived there then). In many cases, doctors injected opponents with sedatives before they were dropped, still alive, from planes into the freezing waters of the South Atlantic.
Argentina must be commended for its efforts to confront this ugly past. In a reckoning rare in the annals of international justice, more than 1,000 former officers have been put on trial, and hundreds have been convicted. Last week’s announcement ahead of Mr. Obama’s visit by the national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, that the American government would declassify military and intelligence records on the dictatorship could provide evidence for further prosecutions.
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So, even 40 years later, leading human rights campaigners in Argentina feel justified in protesting Mr. Obama’s presence on this gruesome anniversary. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who in 1980 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights work, wrote an open letter to the president asking him to postpone his visit. He himself was tortured and held for 14 months without trial, including at a prison where the police had painted a giant swastika on the wall.
On May 5, 1977, Mr. Pérez Esquivel was put on a “death flight.” Chained to his seat, he watched an officer preparing a syringe. For a long time, the military plane circled over the Río de la Plata estuary that opens on the Atlantic Ocean as if awaiting orders. Finally, he heard a crackling radio command to return to base. Mr. Pérez Esquivel believes his life was probably saved by all the inquiries the authorities were getting about his disappearance.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/opinion/the-long-shadow-of-argentinas-dictatorship.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
