Returning the Stolen: A Preview of the ISHI 27 Keynote Lecture

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Grieving Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo who have lost their children and grandchildren. Daniel Garcia / Agence France-Presse – Getty Images

Argentina is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you think of dictatorships, yet the “Dirty War” of the late 1970s killed 10,000–30,000 citizens in an act of political repression by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA). Among this figure includes some 13,000 people who disappeared overnight, sent to a network of hundreds of concentration camps.

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Citizen arrests made by the AAA. Click for full article from targina.net (Spanish)

The political landscape of Argentina was hardly stable at the time, supporting the idea that this was a civil war between the AAA and guerrilla militants. However it soon became clear that countless human rights violations were being conducted on anyone who held a contrary political ideology. Left-wing activists, trade unionists, students and journalists were subject to abduction, torture and assassination. Continue reading “Returning the Stolen: A Preview of the ISHI 27 Keynote Lecture”