Steps along the continuum of destruction
Some of the historical material presented in the section on life conditions is relevant here as well. Military takeovers and repressive military dictatorships had become commonplace in Argentina. As I noted, Per6n created a police state and began using informers and torturers.30 After his overthrow political arrests and torture of political prisoners recurred. The student riots in Cordoba in 1969 and the repression that followed were a turning point toward persistent repression and confrontation.31 Suspending individual rights and press freedom reduced the free expression of diverse views.
The Marxist-Leninist People’s Revolutionary Party and a group of left-wing Peronistas who called themselves the Montoneros engaged in hit-and-run assaults, bombings, and attacks on political offices, broadcasting stations, and even military installations.32 They killed about six hundred military officers, government officials, business executives, and even labor leaders. In turn right-wing terrorist bands, including army and police groups, were killing left-wing leaders. There was an increasing cycle of violence. The Alianza Anticommnista Argentina, formed in 1974, even murdered priests suspected of left-wing sympathies.33
This cycle of violence made ever greater violence seem necessary and acceptable. It contributed to the evolution of the military’s ideology, its perception of extreme threat, and its extreme devaluation of all opponents. The result was the arrest, torture, and murder of real and supposed enemies, and even of persons who happened to be in a house from which a supposed subversive was kidnapped.
The military itself evolved over time in ways that made it psychologically easier for them first to assume total power and later to do anything they deemed right. According to Robert Potash only a minority of the army took part in the military takeover in 1930, while others regarded it as contrary to the military’s professional role and some officers refused to join. But a precedent was set that would “inspire a series of plots over the next decade and facilitate a more broadly based movement next time.”34 The military repeatedly assumed power with substantial impunity. Participation in an unsuccessful rebellion might interrupt an officer’s career, but amnesties usually allowed full restitution. The Supreme Court came to accept military rebellion as a legitimate source of power; military coups were regarded as establishing de facto governments, rather than as acts of treason.35
Anticommunist activity abroad also increased readiness for further violence. During the 1962 missile crisis the Argentine navy participated in the blockade of Cuba. In 1965 the army offered to participate in the Dominican occupation by the United States. The example of the military in nearby Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Brazil also contributed to the evolution along the continuum of destruction. In these countries military dictatorships used anticommunism to justify their brutal rule. The Brazilian army was reported to have crucified some political prisoners in 1969.36 The Argentine military acted jointly with other repressive governments to suppress dissent. Uruguayans, Paraguayans, Bolivians, and Chileans who had been granted political asylum or had fled to Argentina to avoid persecution were kidnapped, tortured, and killed in joint operations.37
Changing institutions
In 1974 the government of Isabel Perón declared a state of siege and suspended constitutional rights. In 1975 a decree ordered the police to help the army eliminate subversion in Tucumán Province. A second decree set up an internal security council to direct all armed and police forces in fighting against subversion. A third decree placed the provincial police under the council’s authority and directed military and police to “annihilate the activities” of all subversive elements.38 Although the wording is ambiguous, the last decree seemingly requires killing without due process of the law.
Upon taking power in 1976 the military junta adopted the Statute for the Process of National Reorganization. It issued communiques and enacted special laws further suspending basic rights and justifying subsequent actions. Following established precedent, it replaced many officials at the highest levels of the judiciary, for example, the Supreme Court, the attorney general, the Provincial High Courts. All members of the judiciary were suspended; the judges, some reappointed but many newly appointed, had to swear to uphold the articles and objectives of the Process of National Reorganization. Over the next few years, as disappearances progressed, changes in laws and court procedures weakened individual rights. The habeas corpus law was enfeebled (and disregarded anyway) and the right to leave the country was often denied. The judicial process became almost inoperative as a means of appeal.39 Such changes in norms, practices, and institutions, as I have pointed out, are both products and means of resocialization.
The machinery of destruction
The machinery of destruction was readily available in the military, which had been growing since before World War II. The number of soldiers and the quantity and quality of arms increased greatly. The military became an increasingly autonomous system that produced its supplies in its own factories. Admission to military academies, although partly based on ability, was limited to Catholics after 1930. Germany had helped train and organize the armed forces. Argentine officers were sent to Germany to study. The Staff College, which opened around 1900, was directed and some of the training in it was provided by German officers. German advisors remained with the army until 1940. The result was an institution that resembled the Prussian army.40 Even more than in most armies there was emphasis on discipline and obedience within a hierarchical command systems.41 The German influence partly explains the Argentine military’s inclinations toward Nazi Germany in World War II. The attitudes and practices of the military were further shaped by training by the United States in the fight against
