Systemic use of sexual violence: Argentina during The Dirty War
This case note documents the occurrence of sexual violence in violent conflict. It contains explicit mentions of different forms of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Background of the Conflict
The Dirty War, or Guerra Sucia in Spanish, refers to the civil-military dictatorship of Argentina, and its period of state terrorism in Argentina (Blakeley, 2009; McSherry, 2005; McSherry, 2011) between 1974 and 1983, as part of Operation Condor. During this period, both military and security forces as well as death squads together as the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (AAA or Triple A) hunted down political dissidents, and anyone they suspected as associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism, and the Montoneros movement (Bouvard, 1994). As many as 30,000 people were estimated to have been killed or forcibly disappeared (Blakeley, 2009). Most targeted individuals were either Communist guerrillas and sympathizers or those suspected of aligning with Communist ideologies and left-wing activism, and included students, militants, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists, and civilians (Bouvard, 1994).
The disappeared included those thought to be a political or ideological threat to the junta, even vaguely, or those seen as antithetical to the neoliberal economic policies dictated by Operation Condor (Bouvard, 1994). By the 1980s, the Dirty War came to an end with the end of the junta following the economic collapse, rise in public discontentment, and the poor handling of the Falklands War.
Prevalence of Sexual Violence
Large-scale rape and torture were very much part of the Dirty War, and were used by the military junta and the security forces. Several individuals were targeted with rape and sexual abuse, among other forms of physical violence and torture to extract information and intimidate people for their perceived and actual political views and alignment, as revealed by a declassified Memorandum on Torture and Disappearance in Argentina (1978). Precise numbers of individuals targeted remain unclear because perpetration by the state meant that reporting to the security sector was not a safe option.
Basis of the Use of Sexual Violence
Sexual violence and rape were deployed by the military junta as part of a deliberate agenda to intimidate dissidents and those who dissented or resisted the government and its policies. It was also used as a means of torture to extract confessions and information from those who opposed the government, and to humiliate those who did not align with the government and its views. It was used as a form of repression by the government to quell, suppress, and silence dissent.
References
Blakeley, R. (2009). State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South. Routledge.
Bouvard, M. G. (1994). Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo. Rowman & Littlefield.
McSherry, P. (2005). Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
McSherry, J. P. (2011). "Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America". In Esparza, Marcia; Henry R. Huttenbach; Daniel Feierstein (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies). Routledge.
"Memorandum on Torture and Disappearance in Argentina, May 31, 1978" www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB73/780531dos.pdf
The Vanished Gallery (n.d.) The Victims:Abducted, Tortured, Vanished. https://www.yendor.com/vanished/victims.html
