Faculty Advisor

O'Neil, Patrick

Area of Study

Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Publication Date

Summer 2018

Abstract

The Dirty War in Argentina refers to an eight-year period, between 1976 and 1983, in which a right-wing government purged Argentina of left-wing “subversives”. The Dirty War is defined by violent tactics, repression, and cover-up. This paper explores the dominant public narrative of the Dirty War by coding and analyzing primary sources from victims, families, and perpetrators. The final goal of this paper was to understand how key groups talk about the Dirty War and what the long-term consequences of that are for Argentina. The democratic governments that took power after the Dirty War followed the military junta’s tactics of hiding key information and offering pardons to military officials, preventing people from knowing the truth about what happened to their loved ones. The torture and cover-up tactics used by the government prevented Argentine citizens from receiving much-needed closure in the Dirty War, which means there is still trauma in Argentina that people are attempting to reconcile.

Publisher

University of Puget Sound

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