Dr Francesca Lessa (UCL Institute of the Americas), writing in The Conversation with a colleague, says Argentina has made progress since the 1976 coup, however present politics downplays previous atrocities.
Nearly 50 years have handed since Argentina’s former president Isabel Martínez de Perón was overthrown by a civic-military coup on March 24, 1976. A army dictatorship led by Jorge Videla, Emilio Massera and Orlando Agosti seized management of the nation.
There had been 5 earlier coups in Argentina between 1930 and 1966. But the regime that got here to energy in 1976, calling itself the “process of national reorganisation”, stood out for its systematic campaign of political violence and terror till the finish of its rule in 1983.
The dictatorship violently dismantled political events, commerce unions, social and scholar actions and guerrilla opposition teams. Censorship was also widespread. The army managed the media, supervised universities and persecuted hundreds of intellectuals and artists or compelled them into exile.
Repression under the dictatorship was ruthless. The safety forces carried out enforced disappearances, arbitrary executions, torture and sexual violence. Detainees have been held in inhumane situations in a clandestine community of 814 detention centres throughout the nation till their destiny was determined.
The extent of the atrocities dedicated beneath the dictatorship stays debated. The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Conadep) documented 8,961 victims, who’re often known as the desaparecidos, whereas human rights organisations put this determine nearer to 30,000.
Around 250,000 individuals have been forced into exile to flee the dictatorship and roughly 500 youngsters, kidnapped alongside their mother and father or born in detention, have been illegally adopted and had their identities modified.
The army dictatorship’s free-market insurance policies additionally crippled the Argentine economic system. They generated over US$45 billion (£34 billion) in exterior debt, resulting in a severe economic crisis that elevated poverty, deepened inequality and promoted capital flight. Nowadays, virtually 40% of Argentina’s inhabitants stay affected by poverty.
After transitioning again to democracy, Argentina transformed into a pioneer of accountability. In 1983, the newly inaugurated president, Raúl Alfonsín, created the Conadep and ordered the prosecution of 9 army commanders for the crimes of homicide, illegal deprivation of freedom and torture dedicated between March 1976 and June 1982.
The Conadep grew to become the first truth commission in the world to finish a ultimate, publicly accessible report in 1984. And the following 12 months, 5 of the 9 army commanders on trial (together with Videla and Massera) have been convicted. Argentina’s supreme court docket confirmed this verdict in 1986, formally acknowledging that systematic political repression had unfolded all through the nation.
However, progress quickly slowed. Rising tensions inside the armed forces led to the parliamentary sanctioning of a “full stop law” in 1986. This successfully halted investigations into atrocities dedicated by members of the safety forces. The full cease legislation was adopted by a “due obedience law” in 1987, which granted immunity to army personnel for crimes dedicated throughout the dictatorship. Two rounds of presidential pardons occurred in 1989 and 1990.
Survivors, their relations, human rights teams and legal professionals maintained their calls for for accountability all through this era. These efforts culminated in a 2005 supreme court decision that invalidated the impunity legal guidelines and reopened criminal trials for previous atrocities.
Since then, 361 verdicts have been issued. Over 1,200 individuals have been convicted for his or her crimes, together with Videla over the theft of babies from political prisoners. Almost 1,000 individuals are nonetheless beneath investigation. Argentina grew to become a world chief in what has grow to be often known as the “justice cascade”, the worldwide shift in the direction of elevated accountability for previous human rights abuses.
Progress beneath risk
After changing into Argentina’s president in 2023, Javier Milei has taken steps to dismantle the nation’s human rights coverage. He has concurrently launched a powerful and harsh smear marketing campaign against the victims of the dictatorship and their relations, in addition to human rights teams.
Since coming into workplace, the Milei administration has downgraded Argentina’s National Secretariat for Human Rights to a sub-secretariat. This change in standing means the secretariat now has fewer powers and assets, and has misplaced practically 60% of its workers. It now not participates actively in trials, witness assist has been diminished and the recording of hearings has been halted.
Under Milei, there has additionally been a excessive fee of home detention sentences or acquittals. In 2025, 84% of these presently detained in Argentina for crimes towards humanity dedicated beneath the dictatorship (425 out of 504 people) have been being held beneath home arrest. And 51 of the 60 people whose circumstances have been determined that 12 months have been acquitted.
Meanwhile, the ministry of defence has dismantled the team liable for surveying the archives of the armed forces. This workforce had performed a basic function in figuring out these liable for “death flights”, the place drugged prisoners have been thrown from plane into the Atlantic Ocean. Similar groups working throughout different ministries have likewise been dissolved.
And in January 2025 the navy was authorised to destroy paperwork which can be held in its basic archive. Some of these paperwork may comprise data concerning crimes dedicated throughout the dictatorship. Federal decide Alicia Vence has since ordered the navy to protect paperwork that might function proof of dictatorship crimes.
The return of army officers to key resolution‑making roles in defence and safety is one other notable setback. Argentina had carried out substantial reforms to advertise democratic civilian control of the armed forces and reduce the military’s political involvement. But in 2025, military chief Alberto Presti was appointed as defence minister, making him the first active-duty officer to imagine the function since 1983.
Argentina has suffered setbacks in its human rights coverage earlier than. The administration of Mauricio Macri, which ruled between 2015 and 2019, had launched the same sample of defunding key insurance policies mixed with denialist discourses from authorities officers. But Milei’s actions show a unique velocity and depth in contrast along with his predecessors.
Together with the prospect that Milei may sign a presidential pardon for army officers convicted of crimes towards humanity on the eve of the anniversary, these developments elevate issues about the future of reminiscence, reality and justice in Argentina.
What occurs subsequent will present whether or not this second represents a brief interruption or the starting of a brand new chapter in Argentina’s wrestle to safeguard the achievements secured over 4 many years of democracy.
*This article was revealed in The Conversation on March 20, 2026.
