Abstract

BALE, Cinthia. Activism, production of knowledge and disputes over control: the release of the Armed Forces archives in Argentina. Hallazgos [online]. 2021, vol.18, n.36, pp.21-51.  Epub July 01, 2021. ISSN 1794-3841.  https://doi.org/10.15332/2422409x.6127.

The demand to open up the “archives of the repression” has been a constant in the Southern Cone of Latin America. In Argentina, the Armed Forces claimed for several decades that these records of illegal repression did not exist or had been destroyed. However, in 2006 Néstor Kirchner’s administration ordered for the first time to release the military records in order to gather documentation that could be linked to human rights violations committed during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983). This article examines this process, with special emphasis on the strategies that were implemented - from the Ministry of Defense- to respond to the social demand for the "opening of the archives” and to transfer the relevant documentation to the judicial branch. The scopes and limits of this policy will be identified, as well as the lessons that can be drawn from this process for the release of other records in Argentina and other Latin America countries.

Keywords : Archives; Human Rights; Dictatorship; Southern Cone; Armed Forces; Transitional justice.

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