Best of Argentina

On March 24, 1976, the Army Forces of Argentina took control of the country and revoked the constitutional government. The Army institutionalized a repressive system of kidnapping, torture, and “vanish” anyone they suspected that was against their regime. 600 centers of clandestine detention were functioning all over the territory. As we learned in the ESMA museum, the main objective of the army was to “install a socioeconomic, political, and cultural model that will benefit the interest of the dominant sectors to extinguish the social achievements of the last century and eliminate the organizations of revolutionary politics in the society.” It has been estimated that during the military dictatorship 30,000 people disappeared in Argentina. Ironically, and regardless of the tragedy that so many were experiencing, Argentina hosted and won the soccer World Cup in 1978. The military regime used the World Cup to mask the human rights violations and crimes they were committing. Soccer was the narcotic that the society celebrated without thinking about the pain. As mentioned earlier, we visited the old Army School of Mechanics (ESMA) where a clandestine center of detention, torture, and extermination functioned between 1976 and 1983. They detained 5000 people that were kidnapped in this center and only 200 survived. During the military dictatorship, more than 400 babies were taken away and, in most cases, their mothers killed during illegal detention. Since 1977, the group of grandmothers, Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, have been fighting to find their disappeared grandchildren and make justice. Thanks to them 116 grandkids have recovered their true identities and because of advances in science, which include the use of genetic testing and forensic anthropology, the group of mothers and grandmothers of Las Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo have been able to move forward in identifying their disappeared grandchildren and assassinated children. The incident that collapsed the military dictatorship in Argentina was the defeat in the war of sovereignty for the Malvinas Islands or Falklands Islands against Britain in 1982. The loss of the war finally brought down the cruel regime, but Argentinians still grieve the loss of these islands and their people during that dark period in their history. To us, it is unbelievable that the international law still allows Britain to claim ownership over islands that are so far away from their main territory. It is sad to accept that the power of history’s biggest colonizer still dominates the world. 🙁