The kidnappers, torturers, and killers were regular members of the military and paramilitary units. Conscripts were kept on the fringes of the secret detention centers. There is some information about the types of military and paramilitary units from which perpetrators with different functions were drawn.68 Guards and torturers were usually not the same individuals. Self-selection, selection by superiors, and training probably all contributed to the creation of torturers. It makes sense from the standpoint of the theory of learning by doing that guards, as Nunca Mas reports, at times showed concern for prisoners and other signs of humanity, while torturers did not. A very small percentage of prisoners consented to become part of the “task force” of perpetrators, the “mini-staff.”
Whoever designed the system had an intuitive sense of the psychology of perpetrators and aimed at diminishing all constraints on their behavior. The prisoners were identified only by numbers.69 As in Nazi Germany, euphemisms were used. The torture chamber was the “intensive therapy room.” A person about to be killed was sometimes said to have “gotten his ticket.” Those who were to be killed were “tranferees.” Prisoners were blindfolded, not only to disorient them and protect perpetrators from recognition, but I believe also to give perpetrators a feeling of total unaccountability and reduce restraint. Perpetrators usually referred to each other by pseudonyms in the presence of victims.
The role of bystanders
Internal bystanders
When the military assumed power, many welcomed it, including the Nobel Prize-winning writer Jorge Luis Borges.70 The coup promised deliverance from difficult life conditions, political violence, and social disorganization, in a society accustomed to military takeovers.b
Most major social institutions collaborated with the military. The judiciary accepted military denials of knowledge about persons whom relatives tried to free by habeas corpus. As Nunca Mas notes, not a single judge visited any place where relatives claimed that their loved ones were held captive. According to a deposition by one abducted and tortured person:
The judge was totally passive, though I was a wreck. Two guards had to support me as I walked and my face was disfigured.... It seems that Judge Carizze approved of the methods used, as he convicted me despite all I said. Some day these judges will have to explain why they took declarations from people completely out of their minds and went to police premises to do it.71
All active opposition was eliminated. The free press, labor unions, the right to strike, the rights to a fair trial and due process, and other civil liberties were suspended. As soon as the military came to power, it issued communiques threatening up to ten years of prison for journalists who transmit information that might demean or subvert the activities of the army. The press, with a few exceptions, accepted censorship and did not report the disappearances. The population kept quiet; essential institutions were silent or cooperated, expressing (or at least allowing the appearance of) a uniformity of views and of support for the military.
Argentinians shared the difficult life conditions, and many of them shared the cultural orientation of the military and the resulting motivation for stability, order, and purification. It is difficult to explain the cooperation of the clergy in any other way. The church officially condemned the methods used by the military but was otherwise silent. Moreover, individual priests are reported to have been present at secret detention centers, even during torture.
The very methods used by the military must have impressed on the population the importance of their cause and the necessity of extraordinary measures: helicopters hovering over buildings from which citizens were taken, tanks surrounding and destroying the homes of supposed subversives. The military said they were doing it all for the sake of Argentina’s children, and the nation joined in or accepted it.
The military also “bought off” the middle class with policies that improved its material condition, for example, monetary policies (subsidizing the rate of exchange) that enhanced its international purchasing power. However, overvaluation of the currency increased foreign imports and drove down domestic production. A recession followed, with a drop of purchasing power, and by 1981-82 the middle class was disillusioned.72
Savage repression also helped to keep the population docile. For example, midwives who told relatives about a child born in captivity to an abducted woman later disappeared. Defense lawyers who were identified as subversives or tried to act on behalf of disappeared persons were assassinated or kidnapped and tortured. The fate of 109 lawyers is still unknown. Others avoided this fate by going into exile.
Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo
The example of the Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo shows that opposition was possible. The mothers of disappeared persons began to march every Thursday in the Plaza del Mayo, wearing white scarves, with the names of their children and the dates of their disappearance. There were attempts to silence them. The group was infiltrated and three of its member were kidnapped. The military also began to kidnap their relatives. Despite terrible struggles with their consciences over this, the mothers continued to gather and demonstrate.73 In the end they exerted great influence by calling the attention of the people of Argentina and the world to the disappearances.
One of the leaders of the Mothers was at first completely inactive. She spent every day waiting by the phone to hear about her son. Her daughter and daugher-in-law went to court, trying in vain to use habeas corpus. One day someone said to to the mother, “You are the mother, you have the power, they can’t treat you as they treat your daughter.” This had great impact on her. She started to haunt government offices. There she met other women, joined them, and they moved out to the plaza. Nonviolently, with dignity and courage, they pursued their aim.74
Their power arose partly from their status as mothers, a highly respected role in Argentine society, partly from their courage. Their solidarity made it possible to continue in spite of the dangers. Moreover, they
