David M. K. Sheinin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813042398
- eISBN:
- 9780813043005
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813042398.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This book explains how Argentines came to conceive of human rights after 1976—in antagonism to, in sympathy with, and with indifference toward the dictatorship that governed. It documents the ...
More
This book explains how Argentines came to conceive of human rights after 1976—in antagonism to, in sympathy with, and with indifference toward the dictatorship that governed. It documents the emergence of human rights as a set of ideas stressing the military’s building of a chilling justification for state terror. As ludicrous as the military’s pro–human rights rationale became in the face of its horrifying record, the dictatorship narrative registered an important success overseas. By and large, Argentina was able to convince a majority of its international trade and diplomatic partners of its fanciful pro–human rights narrative. In most countries, the Argentine military staved off the international human rights related critique that entered the language of foreign policy makers in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. As a result, the dictatorship suffered minimal damage economically and diplomatically from human rights-related fall-out. The positive foreign relations legacy of military rule leads to one further stage of analysis. In early 1984, there was no more important factor in the transition from dictatorship to democracy than human rights. Even so, through the 1980s, the new democracy faced some of the same domestic and international pressures confronted by the dictatorship over rights. Weakened by a shaky 1980s economy, the new government often confirmed and defended the military’s international human rights record suggesting that the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Argentina was not the firm break with the past that Argentines had sought.Less
This book explains how Argentines came to conceive of human rights after 1976—in antagonism to, in sympathy with, and with indifference toward the dictatorship that governed. It documents the emergence of human rights as a set of ideas stressing the military’s building of a chilling justification for state terror. As ludicrous as the military’s pro–human rights rationale became in the face of its horrifying record, the dictatorship narrative registered an important success overseas. By and large, Argentina was able to convince a majority of its international trade and diplomatic partners of its fanciful pro–human rights narrative. In most countries, the Argentine military staved off the international human rights related critique that entered the language of foreign policy makers in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. As a result, the dictatorship suffered minimal damage economically and diplomatically from human rights-related fall-out. The positive foreign relations legacy of military rule leads to one further stage of analysis. In early 1984, there was no more important factor in the transition from dictatorship to democracy than human rights. Even so, through the 1980s, the new democracy faced some of the same domestic and international pressures confronted by the dictatorship over rights. Weakened by a shaky 1980s economy, the new government often confirmed and defended the military’s international human rights record suggesting that the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Argentina was not the firm break with the past that Argentines had sought.
David M. K. Sheinin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813042398
- eISBN:
- 9780813043005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813042398.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Middle-class, urban Argentines bought into a dictatorship-era fantasy of normalcy, modernization, and an Argentina on track to “overcome” its chaotic past. That fantasy—as read in part by Argentines ...
More
Middle-class, urban Argentines bought into a dictatorship-era fantasy of normalcy, modernization, and an Argentina on track to “overcome” its chaotic past. That fantasy—as read in part by Argentines through the rise of two sports figures, Carlos Reutemann and Guillermo Vilas—exposes the falsity of a binary that posits only two dictatorship-era identities, either pro- or anti-dictatorship. There were grey zones where Argentines, appalled at state-sponsored terror, might at the same time dream about the sort of modernized Argentina promised by military rule. While many Argentines wish for and remember a dictatorship era in which every Argentine struggled against human rights violations, and in which the military government found itself isolated in an international community of outraged nation states, the reality is foggy and complicated. Many fought abuses. But many more reacted to news of disappearances with the well-known dictum “por algo sera” (“there must have been a good reason”).Less
Middle-class, urban Argentines bought into a dictatorship-era fantasy of normalcy, modernization, and an Argentina on track to “overcome” its chaotic past. That fantasy—as read in part by Argentines through the rise of two sports figures, Carlos Reutemann and Guillermo Vilas—exposes the falsity of a binary that posits only two dictatorship-era identities, either pro- or anti-dictatorship. There were grey zones where Argentines, appalled at state-sponsored terror, might at the same time dream about the sort of modernized Argentina promised by military rule. While many Argentines wish for and remember a dictatorship era in which every Argentine struggled against human rights violations, and in which the military government found itself isolated in an international community of outraged nation states, the reality is foggy and complicated. Many fought abuses. But many more reacted to news of disappearances with the well-known dictum “por algo sera” (“there must have been a good reason”).
