Argentina+-+AZ+-+FA10


 * Argentina ** //The Dirty War //

**Primary Documents:** Document 1 Ambassador Robert Hill had just returned to Argentina amid reports of massacres of prisoners and widespread human rights violations by Argentine security forces, as well as mounting evidence of assassinations of foreigners under Operation Condor. On instructions from Washington, Hill was charged with raising the human rights issue at the highest level of the Argentine government. But, as Hill reported to Washington, "the Foreign Minister said that GOA had been somewhat surprised by indications of such strong concern on the part of the USG in human rights situation in Argentina. When he had seen SECY of State Kissinger in Santiago, the latter had said he 'hoped the Argentine Govt could get the terrorist problem under control as quickly as possible.' Guzzetti said that he had reported this to President Videla and to the cabinet, and that their impression had been that the USG's overriding concern was not human rights but rather that government of Argentina 'get it over quickly.'"

Argentine Torture Survivor Patricia Isasa Tells of Her Struggle to Bring Her Torturers to Justice Kidnapped and held as a prisoner without trial for two and a half years in one of 582 torture centers, Patricia Isasa endured terrifying torture at 16-years-old and a long legal battle to bring her torturers to justice. She now works on a truth commission to help innocent civilians who are being unjustly tried and prosecuted for war crimes during the dictatorship from 1976-1983.

**Artifacts:** Solving the Dirty War's mysteries During the Dirty War, a military dictatorship, up to 30,000 Argentinians disappeared - many never found. In almost all cases, people were kidnapped from their homes in the night and taken to detention and torture centers, also referred to as concentration camps. There they were killed. Julia Delgado's parents were kidnapped when her mother was still pregnant with her: after Julia's birth, she was returned to her grandparents, but to this day, she has no idea of what happened to her parents. While 28 convictions have already been given and more than 400 charges are pending for trial, justice is not fully being served. Former military officers have been committing suicide in order to avoid conviction, with 146 already dead, and more than one thousand under suspicion.

Argentina's dirty war: the museum of horrors Similar to the Holocaust, young student activists who were kidnapped were forced to write to their parents that they were doing well, and that everything was lovely where they were, as if they were at school. If they told their parents the truth about where they were, a torture center, their parents and families  would be murdered or kidnapped as well. Survivors of the torture remember "death flights": when bodies were dropped over the Atlantic ocean and others were burned. Today, repression is still alive and well in Argentina, and victims trying to prosecute torturers are being threatened by supporters of the old regime. Héctor Febres, once a powerful military leader, was found dead in his prison cell from cyanide poisoning just four days before his verdict was to be given. Someone was desperate to silence Febres, and will continue to try to silence those fighting for justice.

Argentina's Dirty War Still Haunts Youngest Victims During the Dirty War, thousands of children, particularly babies, were abducted from their parents and never saw them again. The children were often given to childless couples of the military regime, and today, many of those children now at 30 to 40 years old, continue the search for their natural birth parents and the tear they feel between their two families.