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HUMAN RIGHTS
Environmental Justice
"EL DESAPARECIDO" AS A TERROR TACTIC THAT LASTS PAST STATE TERRORISM
by Analia Penchaszadeh, Argentina
Latin America is plagued with the legacy of more than two decades of state terrorism led by military regimes imposed through violence. Although the different countries in the continent that have survived (or are surviving) military dictatorships differ in national specificity regarding the dictatorships, they hold this in common: State terrorism was justified through a doctrine of national security.
From the beginning of the seventies through the present, military regimes have declared wars on the peoples of Latin America, backed by the doctrine of national security. This doctrine was adopted in order to fight the so-called communist threat and allowed for the extermination of complete generations in order to prevent "foreign ideologies" from taking over the countries.
Detentions, torture and summary executions are common practices of state terrorism everywhere. Yet in Latin America a new phenomenon began as a mechanism of spreading terror throughout society: the "disappearances". "Disappearances" emerged as a strategy to reach "subversives" by making them fear the worst (the unknown), but they also served to maintain the families in constant anguish and terror; the hoped result was to destroy all activity (political as well as social) in society.
A "disappearance" consists of two actions: The first is the kidnapping of an individual, or a whole family, and taking them to a clandestine detention center (or concentration camp) to be interrogated, tortured, and eventually and most likely killed. The second action is denying that the person or family were ever taken, when family members begin searching for them and asking questions. The reign of terror falls on the now "disappeared", but also on the people that look for them. A situation of shame and threats is created, whereby the family members that search for the disappeared are advised not to go looking for them, because if they were taken (although it was denied that they were) "por algo sera"(there must be a reason).
The practice of "disappearing" people was effective during the military dictatorships throughout the Southern Cone in South America as well as in Central America. In response to these practices, many groups were formed with the objective of finding the "disappeared", such as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and the Committee of Mothers and Relatives of Political Prisoners, Disappeared and Assassinated Persons of El Salvador. The majority of these organizations were formed by women who had never been involved in politics and simply demanded the whereabouts of their missing relatives. Many of them were repressed and suffered their own "disappearances" as a result of their work; others continue long after the military regimes left their place in power.
Although it is important to discuss the "disappearances" during the military regime in terms of what the military and the victims went through, it is interesting to now focus on how the "disappeared" were symbolized by society then as well as after the return of democracy. The phenomenon of the "disappeared" leaves a space that's impossible to fill. It is presumed that they were killed by their captors and torturers, but as long as there was no body and no official recognition of their deaths, they cannot die. This is seen in the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo movement, in 1993, ten years after the transition to a democratic government.
With the first elections in 1983, there was a boom of information about the gross human rights violations that had taken place during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983). The Mothers continued their silent marches and outlines of bodies were drawn on walls as the image of the "disappeared". The plea was still the same "apparition with life". For the Mothers, the "disappeared" were taken alive and had to be returned alive. This did not last long as the attention span of the population at large on the topic was short and it was all soon buried.
There is no symbolism for the "disappeared". They were taken away without a trace. That was part of the terror tactic: the permanent anguish it caused the family. It is described like living with a ghost; they are not dead, but they are not alive either. The idea that some day they might return (although highly unlikely) does not allow for them to be dead. Keeping them alive and constantly present in mind does not allow for the survivors (the family) to continue living. One cannot mourn for a person who might possibly still be alive; how to move forward while maintaining the memory alive? Unlike the victims of the Holocaust, there are no monuments, no symbol (like the yellow star, the pink triangle); the "disappeared" have no meaning. They are referred to by their state of being, by a verb that was never active until now (someone is "disappeared" by someone else).
In Argentina, ten years after the fall of the last military regime, the "disappeared" still live among the living. Thirty thousand people - a whole generation - were "disappeared" in seven years of military rule. Even after the finding of mass graves and the identification of several "disappeared", they are rarely called "dead". The official policy of "el olvido" or pacification has placed it all behind without coming to terms with it. And yet by forcing society to forget, the system is creating a space to remember. When they say "you must forgive and forget", we remember what it is we are supposed to forget. And yet we do not know how to remember, what to remember; and the terror continues. Fear of the empty space that has no name, no symbol; fear of the limits of what is possible. How to recall the torture scenes without horror? How to recall the senseless deaths without fear? How to recall the dead if they did not die? Someone once wrote that "those who die for life cannot be called dead", but then how do we call them?
Adonde van los desaparecidos? Where do the disappeared go?
Busca en el agua y en los Look in the water and in the bushes
matorrales And why do they disappear?
Y porque es que se desaparecen? Because we are not all equal
Porque
no todos somos iguales
Y cuando vuelve el desaparecido? And when does the disappeared
Cada vez que los trae el return?
pensamiento Every time our thoughts bring them
Como se llama el desaparecido? How is a disappeared called?
Una emocion apretando por dentro An emotion pressing from within
Ruben Blades, "Desapariciones"
Cite as: Youth Sourcebook on Sustainable Development. Winnipeg: IISD, 1995. Online. Internet. http://iisd.ca/youth/ysbk047a.htm.