How can we explain this contradiction? First, Christianity was only part of the ideology. It was more important to eliminate subversives. Second, the definition of subversives was inexact, the line between ingroup and out-group poorly drawn. Varied elements of society were concerned with social change, the welfare of the workers or the poor, or held liberal ideas. The military believed that an international terrorist conspiracy had infiltrated most aspects of the nation’s life. As a result, the ideological net was broadly drawn. Third, the Christianity of the military had been modified to fit in with other strands of the ideology – anticommunism, nationalism, and hatred of social change.
To understand ideologically based violence it is important to notice how abstract ideals guide conduct. A vision of an ideal communal state of affairs can be divorced from the welfare of individuals. Thus, Christian ideals can exist without respect for individual priests and nuns; an ideal of humanity can be divorced from the value of specific human lives.
But not all the killing was ideological, and not all victims were subversives even in the minds of the perpetrators. Nunca Mas describes cases in which the primary motivation was robbery. Wealthy victims were abducted simply to collect ransom or to loot their property. Originally this may have been justified as part of the war against subversion, but once violence becomes normal practice additional, totally self-serving motives for it can come into play, including greed, sex, or sadism. According to a book by two BBC reporters, “at the height of the terror... bored junior officers in the murder squads roamed the streets in their Falcons, looking only for pretty girls to take back to camp to torture, rape and kill.”62
The reports of victims show the enjoyment of torture by some perpetrators and casual, callous brutality. Torturers would suddenly shift from casual conversation among themselves to a brutal assault on a victim. Nunca Mas indicates that the torturers’ behavior was planned. The victims were disoriented as a result of blindfolding, hunger, and psychological and physical torture. The torturers succeeded in their likely purpose: to make “casual,” but at least in part planned, brutality seemingly spontaneous and therefore unpredictable. It is known that other torturers, for example, in Algeria, have also shown such seeming caprice.63
Occasionally a perpetrator was actually “punished” for officially unsanctioned brutality. Nunca Mas reports the case of a guard who raped a pregnant woman. He was arrested, held for ten days, and then reinstated.64
The psychology of direct perpetrators
As steps along the continuum of destruction continue, the intensity of violence increases, casual torture and the enjoyment of torture become more common, probably more acceptable, and the victim group expands. This occurred even in historical periods when torture was part of the legal process: at first used to extract evidence or confessions from low-status defendants, it was eventually used on high-status defendants and even witnesses.65
We can distinguish between decision makers and direct perpetrators. Decision makers were guided by ideology and their need for defense against threats mainly to their self-image and world view, as discussed earlier in this chapter. Self-interest and maintaining privilege were also involved. However, to the extent the military leaders were protecting their status and position, they did so as part of a belief system and world view in which their long-held elite status had become their inalienable, “natural” right.
The direct perpetrators had more mixed motives. Obedience to authority was involved. According to Amnesty International, superior officers signed release forms for kidnappings.66 This relieved direct perpetrators of responsibility and thus made abduction, torture, and murder easier. The navy high command gave open support to the Task Force that carried out abduction and torture.
Admiral Massera delivered an inaugural address to the appointed officers, which concluded with the exhortation to “react to the enemy with utmost violence and without hesitating over the means employed.” Massera also took part in the first secret operations of the Task Force under the pseudonym “Black” or “Zero” to demonstrate his commitment to the task assigned to his officers.67
Direct perpetrators were also exposed to a different progression along the continuum of destruction, through their experience with victims. Their ideological and identity-related motive became integrated with other personal motives (e.g., power, stimulus seeking, sadism). People function better when their different motives join and support each other, especially if they have to overcome personal inhibitions or social prohibitions.
Over time, their respect for human life had to diminish. The many types of victims made it difficult to differentiate between more and less worthy human beings. It became acceptable to torture and murder teenage girls, nuns, and pregnant women. Learning by doing stifled the torturers’ feelings of empathy and concern. They had come to see themselves as absolute rulers over the victims’ well-being and life, not subject to normal human constraints. They often talked to the victims about this absolute godlike power and the victims’ total dependence on them; as they did this, they strengthened their own belief in it.
At this stage, whatever “higher morality” may have been the initial motive, ideological purity is lost. Violence can result from a desire for money, sex, or pleasure. What in this context must be regarded
