University of Jaume I, 21 March 2017. Thanks you for the invitation. Excellent organisation.

1. THE DISAPPEARED IN ARGENTINA:
MEDIA, POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE.
P. Ariel Sanchez - PhD candidate – Institute for European studies – Vrije Univesiteit Brussel
Email: pedro.ariel.sanchez@vub.be
Universita Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana, Spain
21 March 2017

2. THE DISAPPEARED AND THE STOLEN
CHILDREN OF THE DISAPPEARED
Grandmothers of May Park
(Abuelas, 2016)
Image:
Where are the hundreds of babies born in
captivity?
Source: Abuelas 2015, p. 2.
“On October 22, 1977, twelve women founded Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. They look for their grandchildren
appropriate for the dictatorship. Kidnapped with their parents or born during the captivity of their mothers.
Grandmothers Chela Fontana, Raquel Radio de Marizcurrena, Clara Jurado and Eva Castillo Barrios march alongside
the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo” (Abuelas, 2015, p. 9)

3. FORCED DISAPPEARANCES DURING
THE DICTATORSHIP
Inter – continental scope: Condor Operation (1976 – 1982). Creation of the 1st computerised
intelligence service to end communism: Condor Operation. Dinges (2004) points the transcontinental
scope of Condor.
Domestic scope: Dictatorship: 1976 - 1983
Estimated 30,000 disappeared - 500 stolen children born from captive pregnant women (also
disappeared) during the Junta (1976 – 1983)
Fact: 121 children found to date (Abuelas, 2017)

4. THE DISAPPEARED WERE AND ARE …
• Terrorists – Subversives -
No Catholics (Documento
Final, 1983)
• Chile 1st to use the word
disappeared (Zalaquett,
2010, p.1)
• Double disappearance of
the subject: physical and
from the public sphere
• Where are they?
• Politics of silence
1970s
• Truth commission: public
discourse. Victims.
(Nunca Más, 1984).
• Re appearance: in the public
sphere but no physical.
• Forensic science - Science of
the disappeared?
• Collective and social memory
Politics of pardons
1983 - 2003 “That horrible word …
disappeared … that means to be
nowhere” yet they are every
where” (metaphysic character)
(¿Quién Soy Yo?, 2007)
Heroic militants
Idealistic youths
The more intellectual generation
ever
Presents! (emotional rather than
physical presence in Truth Trials)
End of the politic of pardons
2003 - 2016

5. QUESTIONS
1. Is past political communication a reliable political memory tool?
2. Did the media help in the recovering of stolen children, if so to what
extent?

6. METHODS
Quantitative: descriptive secondary data analysis of Grandmothers of May Park
archive (Abuelas, 2017)
 Sample: 120 identified cases considered resolved (current 121 cases)
 Stolen children and presidential periods
Qualitative:
 Media development across specific political periods (discursive changes)
 Archival, Cold War, and court document analysis (related to the disappeared)

7. THEORY
Foucault ‘s genealogy
“...a form of history which can account for the constitution of knowledge, discourses,
domain of objects, etc. without having to make reference to a subject which is either
transcendental in relation to the field of events or runs out its empty sameness
through the course of history” (Rabinow, 1984, p. 59).
Genealogy in this case is oriented to the analysis of truths and justice, and refers to
power beyond the “purely juridical” concept that defines law as a repressive, though
power is rather accepted by its transversal core (Rabinow, 1984, pp. 60 - 61). It needs
to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body,
much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression” (Ibid).

8. HUMAN RIGHTS - RESEARCH
From the United Nations’s (UN) right to a free press integrated to the human right
principles in 1948* (UN, n.d.) until the Falklands War in 1982, Latin American human
rights was “one of the most written about regions in the world” (Greenfield, 1982, p. 275).
If compared to the regional research limited by dictatorships and the leading USA
academia, Britain was less active but more selective in this field. The three dominant
subjects were human rights organisations, human rights in Latin America, and
Argentina (Library of Congress, 1982, cited in Greenfield, 1982, p. 279).
*Art 19, UN Res 207 A (UN, n.d.)

9. MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE COLD WAR
Two publications capture the issue of
human rights violations and media
coercion from similar structural
perspectives, though they differ in their
political views: “The Blue Book on
Argentina” (United States Government,
1946), and the Libro Azul y Blanco
(Perón,1946). The Blue Book refers to
the serious press claims, whereas the
White and Blue book considers the
ethical media arguments.
There is substantial evidence that
human rights and the free press in
Argentina were volatile areas two years
before the creation of the UN charter
(Lupo, 2006; Perón, 1946; United States
Government, 1946).

10. NAZI’S IDEOLOGY IN THE ARGENTINEAN MEDIA IN THE 1940S
(United States Government, 1946, pp. 53 – 55)

11. “WHO RESTRICTS FREEDOM OF THE PRESS?”
(Perón, 1946, pp. 15 – 16)

12. PUBLIC AND OFFICIAL MEDIA SCHOOLS
In theory, public media scholars do not reject the relevance of objectivity in traditional journalism. Public media promotes challenging
traditional boundaries by encouraging the civil society involvement (Eksterowicz, 2000, pp. 3, 4). The discrepancy between traditional
or objective and public media schools lies between separating the data “right” (objective media) and doing the “right connections”
(public media) (Woo, 1995, cited in Rosen n.d., cited in Eksterowic, 2000, p. 3). In 1999, the USA’s Congress released the Condor
archives that highlighted the relationship between Latin American dictatorships and the CIA (Congressional Record, 1999, pp. 15375-
15377).
Public media (Dinges, 2004; Kornbluh, 2011) likewise international relations and international law scholars (McSherry, 2005, Roth -
Arriaza, 2005), consider Condor Operation as a unique phenomenon that caused the “political cleansing” of leftists (Dinges, 2004,
pp. 3 - 4). This became the widely accepted inductive posture.
Accordingly, managed by the CIA, Condor country – founder members were Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay
(Dinges, 2004, p. 4; Kornbluh, 2013, p. 51; Roht-Arriaza, 2005, p. viii). The media ideological swing this time was from the
external (axis/allies) to the “internal enemy” discourse (communists) (Documento Final, 1983; UN, 1981, pp. 30 – 33)

13. MEDIA AND IDEOLOGICAL SWINGS IN THE COLD
WAR UNTIL THE JUNTA
In the later Cold War period the Junta’s instrumental role during Condor Operation (1973 – 1982)
ended the ideological triad of the 1940s media. A neo liberal media ideology was imposed. What is
known regarding the violations of human rights in this period has been heavily debated by several
media schools …

14. CONDOR OPERATION: A NEW PHENOMENON?
The image on the left is from the Blue Book
(United States Government, 1946, p. 12). In
contrast to previous claims (Dinges 2004, p. 4;
Kornbluh, 2013, p. 51; Roht-Arriaza, 2005, p. viii,
McSherry, 2005), Latin American countries were
well-aligned three decades before the creation of
Condor Operation (United States Government,
1946, p. 12). This tensions studies that sided with
Dinge’s (2004) view, that similarly consider Condor
period as a unique political period. The claims
were fuelled by the CIA disclosure of Condor
archives in 1999 (Congressional Record, 1999,
pp. 15375- 15377).

15. Source: Central Intelligence Agency – weekly summary (CIA, 2 July
1976)

16. CIA WEEKLY SUMMARY
“… intelligence representatives from Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, and Argentine decided of a meeting in
Santiago early in June to set up a computerized intelligence data bank – known as “Operation Condor” – and to establish
an international communication network” (CIA, 2 July 1976, p. 2)

17. CONDOR …
Historically (Perón, 1946, United States Government,1946), Condor violence mirrored previous
institutionalised cultural practices in Argentina. This tensions ongoing assumptions that Condor was the
root of the problem. While we cannot seriously assume that a software’s name (Condor) is a reliable
indicator (social process), it was the first time that computerised intelligence with continental scope was
used. Nevertheless, Condor Operation forced a discursive change from the external to the internal
enemy. In practice, Chomsky points, “[The USA] ...was picking up where the Nazi had left off...”
(Barsamian, 2003, p. 18). This is factual when considering Varela’s (2005, p.p. 2 - 3) study that shows to
what extent the Junta forced the national production drops in the printed media.

18. DICTATORSHIP: EFFECTS IN PRINTED MEDIA
Previous Junta Military
coup
Later Junta Period
Total magazines
produced (millions)
235,6 (1970) 100,7 -
National Magazines
(millions)
122,1
(1973)
79,6 -
Edited books
(millions)
5,5
(1975)
- 1,3
(1980)
Newspapers 1,985,900
(1975)
- 1,780,100
(1980)

19. FINAL DOCUMENT OF THE MILITARY JUNTA ABOUT THE WAR AGAINST
THE SUBVERSION AND THE TERRORISM (1983)
"Historical synthesis of a painful past still close, it wants to be a message of
faith and recognition of the struggle for freedom, justice and the right to
life“ (Documento Final, 1983, p. 1). Since the 1960s, the terrorists “… tried to
change the conception of the homeland and the State that has our community,
conquering power through violence (Ibid)
1974: 21 attempts of copying units of legal forces, 466 bombings and 16
robberies, 117 people abducted, and 110 killed (Ibid, p. 5) .
1976: “maximum point of violence”. 600 kidnappings, 646 murders, two daily
victims by terrorism, 4,150 "terrorist actions“ (Ibid, p. 5)
"A review of the journalistic chronicle corresponding to the years 1973/79
reports that in that period, there were 742 clashes, 2,050 people were killed, a
figure that does not include the casualties suffered by the Legal Forces“ (Ibid,
p. 5)
"In 1969 and 1979 there were 21,642 terrorist acts … 15,000 combatants,
individuals technically capable and ideologically fanatical to kill” (Ibid, p. 5)-
This figure correlates to the estimated 25,000 subversive members.

20. HR RESEARCH
At the national level, Greenfield cites 69 Argentinean authors, from which two were influential in the contemporary
political communication field: Rodolfo Walsh and Jacobo Timerman (Greenfield, 1982, pp. 293 – 298).
Walsh was killed in 1977, a year after the Junta took power, and created the Agencia Clandestina de Noticias
(Clandestine Agency News) (ANCLA). ANCLA was a communication key of Montoneros (extreme leftists). ANCLA
informed to the international media representatives the scope of violations of human rights during the Junta (McCaughan,
2015, pp. 217 - 219). Unlike Walsh, due to the international pressure Timerman was released and survived thirty
months of torture (Jornadas de Reflección, 2004, p. 49). Timerman owned the newspaper La Opinión, and occasionally
employed Walsh and his family. Walsh’s daughter, María Victoria or Vicky (war nickname), also worked as a
journalist, was a Montonero member, and was killed before Walsh in 1976 (McCaughan, 2015, pp. 174 - 176, 226 -
228).

21. RODOLFO WALSH: ROOT OF INVESTIGATIVE
JOURNALISM IN ARGENTINA
“In particular, there is a loose phrase that sums up his aspirations as an intellectual: “To use language as an
object, to wield it like a hammer ". And another phrase that gives greater density to the previous one: "The
field of the intellectual is by definition the conscience. An intellectual who does not understand what
happens in his time and in his country is a walking contradiction; and he who understands does not
act will have a place in the anthology of weeping but not in the living history of his earth“ (Walsh
1971, cited in UNLP, n/d)

22. OPEN LETTER FROM A WRITER TO THE MILITARY JUNTA
“The censorship of the press, the persecution of intellectuals, the search of my house in Tigre, the
murder of dear friends and the loss of a daughter who died fighting them are some of the facts that
force me to this form of clandestine expression … as a writer and journalist for almost thirty years. The
first anniversary of this military junta has motivated a balance of government action in official documents
and speeches, where what you call successes are mistakes, those that recognize as errors are
crimes and what they omit are calamities ... Fifteen thousand disappeared, ten thousand prisoners,
four thousand dead, tens of thousands of exiles are the naked figure of that terror. When the
ordinary prisons were filled, you created in the main garrisons of the country virtual concentration camps
where no judge, lawyer, journalist, international observer comes in. The military secrecy of the
proceedings, invoked as a necessity for the investigation, makes the majority of the arrests in
abductions that allow the torture without limit and the execution without trial … The lack of time
limit has been complemented by the lack of limits in methods ... you have arrived at the absolute,
timeless, metaphysical torture…” (Walsh, 24 March 1977)

23. ANCLA: CLANDESTINE JOURNALISM

24. TABLE 1: HOW MANY …?
Clandestine Archives CONADEP Updated
Disappeared 15,000 15,000
to 22,000
8,960 8,865
Habeas corpus 7,000 3,100 5,847 -
Disappeared
Lawyers
50 – 70 - 120 98
Disappeared
Journalists
Several - 84 118 to 129
Illegal
detention
centres
Several - 320 360
The above table summarises the empirical contrast between clandestine (McCaughan, 2015, p. 252; Vineli,
2006, pp. 9 - 10, 14 – 15; Walsh, 2000, p. 122) and official media sources (CONADEP, cited in Bohoslavsky,
2015, p. 28, Memoria Abierta, 2011; Molina, 2009; Nunca Más, 1984, pp. 288 – 289; Parque de la Memoria,
2014, NSA, 1978 a, 1978 b). There is a consistent discrepancy in every single row and column, with
exception of the matching claims of 15,000 disappeared (clandestine and archives sources).

25. *IDC: Illegal Detention Centres
Source: Sanchez (2016)
*

26. If we place what is at stake with the current knowledge of the disappeared (yellow line, updated data) against three different archival sources
(clandestine journalism, Cold War archives, and the National Commission for the Disappeared or CONADEP) we can superficially capture
the diverse nature of the disappeared. We can observe the discrepancies between the different sources. Besides the diverse data available, I
could not find any empirical source that could corroborate the historical claim of 30,000.

27. 1ST RESEARCH QUESTION
Is past political communication a reliable political memory tool?
In the case of Argentina it leads to a very diverse path. It has the potential to
enhance political memory studies (diversity). The similar is observed at the macro
political level.
Pros: wealthy public archival resources available.
Cons: impossibility to triangulate data (empirically) to confirm historical and political
claims regarding the disappeared.

28. 2ND QUESTION
Did the media help in the recovering of stolen
children, if so to what extent?

29. NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS 2007/8
2007: National media campaign: Latin American Initiative for the Disappearance of Persons “... a simple
drop of your blood can help to identify her/him” (LIID, 2009, p.5).
2008: Program “To Search For” (Law 26675, Bolletín Oficial, 2008). Financial reward (MJDH, 2008).

30. MEDIA CAMPAIGNS AND NATION STATE SUPPORT
In 2013 BUSCAR increased the rewards for the information that leads to finding abductees by 10-times, from
£6,892 to £68,297 for information (Law 26,375; Boletín Oficial, 2008) to provide support to Abuelas campaign
As a result, 1,900 calls and 200 witness statements related to abductees were received within a year
(Télam, 2014).
Abuelas argue that BUSCAR’s financial incentive for information had an impact on their campaign as it
encouraged and mobilised public response in providing information in relation to the disappeared and their stolen
children; 1,900 calls were received between 2013 and 2014, which according to them justified 10-times
increase in rewards for information (Télam, 2014).
However, the Argentinean Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), an adjacent institution to Abuelas, received
2,750 calls between November 2007 and October 2008 (LIID, 2009, p. 48), when there were no financial
incentives mentioned. Therefore, public response rate in terms of calls made to Abuelas is despite the 10-
times increase in payment for information 30% lower than the response EAAF received five years earlier.
The role of the media?

31. VIDELA’S TRIAL: THE CASE 35
..."the most significant human rights problem, because these children were alive”
(TOF 6, 2012, p. 1101 - 1102, Osorio, 2012)
From the “bad” to the “worse” violation of HR: discursive root
Memorandum of conversation between the USA Assistant Secretary of State, Elliot Abrams, and the
Argentinean Ambassador, García del Solar (Department of State, 3 December 1982):
“I raised to the ambassador the question of children in this context, such as children born to prisoners or
children taken from their families during the Cold war. While the disappeared were dead. These children
were alive and this was in a sense the gravest humanitarian problem”

32. FROM SOME CHILDREN TO
HOW MANY (407 CASES)

33. WHO IS SEEKING WHOM?
65
32
13
7
3
Insitutions seeking them
Stolen children finding them
Death
Irrelevant
Family bridge
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

34. FINDING “STOLEN CHILDREN”
42
7
8
30
41
4
20
Stolen by security forces
Abandoned - social service
Abondoned - neighbour
Illegal/unclear adoption
Abandoned - Adopted
Raised by parent's friends
Biological family
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
The children of the disappeared
(Several cases are transversal)

35. 120 RESOLVED CASES: 1978 – 2016
(1ST CASE RESOLVED 1978, CHILD ABDUCTED ON 26 OCT 1976)
13
32
19
0
7
0
4
13
31
1
Junta (1976 - 1983_
Alfonsín (1983 - 1989)
Menem (1989 - 1999)
De La Rúa (1999 - 2001)
Rodríguez Sá (2001)
Duhalde (2002)
Kirchner, N (2003 - 2007)
Kirchner, C. (2007 - 2015)
Macri (2015 +)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Resolved cases and Argentinean presidents

36. DID THE MEDIA HELP IN THE
RECOVERING OF STOLEN CHILDREN, IF
SO TO WHAT EXTENT?
National media campaigns supposed to trigger more resolved cases post
2007. However, 36 cases (from a total of 121) were resolved in the post
politics of pardons period (root of the national media campaigns).
Value of media campaigns?
 Co-shaping political and juridical changes (e.g., the worse human rights
violations)
 Not linked to finding children directly (more children found prior to media
campaigns)
 Possibility of long-term cultivation effect and collective memory

37. THANK YOU!
pedro.ariel.sanchez@vub.be

38. REFERENCES
Abuelas - Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (2015). Fotografías de 30 años de lucha. Buenos Aires, Abuelas de Plaza de
Mayo.
Abuelas - Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (2017). Casos Resueltos. Available at
https://www.abuelas.org.ar/caso/buscar?tipo=3 (Accessed 14 March 2017)
Bravo, E. (2007) ¿Quién Soy Yo? Bravo Films, Argentina [online] https://www.abuelas.org.ar/video-galeria/quien-soy-
yo-140 (Accessed 12 March 2017)
Barsamian, D. (2003). What uncle Sam really wants. Noam Chomsky. Tucson, O. Press.
Bohoslavsky, J. (2015) Usted También Doctor? Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editors.
Boletín Oficial - Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina (2008) Creacíon de un fondo de recompensa y de la unidad
especial para búsqueda de personas ordenada por la justicia en el ámbito del Ministerio de Justicia, Seguridad y
Derechos Humanos. Available at http://www.jusrionegro.gov.ar/inicio/biblioteca/docs/leyes%20nacionales/LN26375.pdf
(Accessed: 3 December, 2016)
CIA - Central Intelligence Agency. Weekly Summary 2 July 1976. CIA
Congressional Record. (1999). Congressional Record: proceedings and debates of 105th Congress. First Edition (Vol.
145). Washington, U. S. Office.
Dinges, J. (2004) How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents. New York: The New Press

39. Documento Final (1983). Documento final de la Junta Militar de la guerra contra la subversion y el terrorismo.
Available at http://www.ruinasdigitales.com/revistas/dictadura/Dictadura%20-%20Documento%20Final.pdf
(Accessed 10 March 2017)
Eksterowicz, A. (2000). The History and Development of Public Journalism. In Eksterowicz, A., Roberts, R. Public
Journalism and Politial Knowledge. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 3 - 20.
Greenfield, R. (1982). ‘The Human Rights Literature of Latin America’. Human Rights Quarterly, 4 (2), pp. 275 – 298
Jornadas de Reflección. (2004). Medios, Comunicación y Dictadura. Buenos Aires, Edición de las jornadas de
reflección.
Kornbluh, P. (2013). The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability. New York: The New
Press
LIID - Latin American Initiative for the Identification of the Disappeared (2009). First Report, 2007 – 2009. Available
at http://www.eaaf.org/eaaf_reports/2007-2009/AR09_p16-87_Argentina.pdf (Accessed: 20 December, 2016).
Lupo, G. (2006). El "Libro Azul" de EE.UU contra Perón que no pudo evitar su victoria. Clarín (24 February)
McCaughan, M. (2015). Rodolfo Walsh: periodista, escritor y revolucionario. 1927 - 1977. Santiago: LOM
McSherry, J. (2005). Predatory States. Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America. Maryland: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Memoria Abierta. (2011). Memoria Abierta: 10 años. Available at Memoria Abierta:
http://www.memoriaabierta.org.ar/mapasimprimibles.php (Accessed: 6 February, 2017)

40. Molina, R. (2009). Veinticinco años del informe de la Conadep. Página 12 (15 September)
Nunca Más (1984). Informe de la Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas. Buenos Aires, Editorial
Universitaria de Buenos Aires.
Osorio, C. (2006) 30 Aniversario del golpe militar en Argentina. Documentos que muestran apoyo de EEUU y la
brutal represión en la dictadura. Available at http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/index2.htm#19780715
(Accessed: 6 December, 2015).
Parque de la Memoria (2014) Monumento a las víctimas de terrorismo de estado. Available at
http://basededatos.parquedelamemoria.org.ar/registros/ (Accessed 8 March 2017).
NSA - National Security Archives (a) (1978). Unclassified memorandum ATQ56. Disappearances Number. Available
at: http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/19781227%20Disappearance%20Numbers%200000A8B1.pdf
(Accessed: 6 December, 2015).
NSA - National Security Archives (b) (1978). Batallón 601. Available at:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/full%20%5BReport%20on%20Argentina%20disappeared%5D.pdf
(Accessed: 6 February, 2017).
Perón, C. (1946). Libro Azul y Blanco. Buenos Aires : Editorial Freeland
Rabinow (1984). The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books.
Roht-Arriaza, N. (2005). The Pinochet Effect: Transitional Justice in the Age of Human Rights. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.

41. Sanchez, P (2016). Stolen Children, Social Inversion, and the Media. Media and Governance in Latin America
Conference. University of Leeds, 25 – 26 July 2016.
Télam (2014) Aumentaron a un millón de pesos la recompensa por aportar datos sobre hijos de desaparecidos.
Available at http://www.telam.com.ar/notas/201403/57013-aumentaron-a-un-millon-de-pesos-la-recompensa-por-
aportar-datos-sobre-hijos-de-desaparecidos.html (Accessed: 6 February, 2017)
UN – United Nations (n.d.). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Available at http://www.un.org/en/universal-
declaration-human-rights/ (Accessed: 6 February, 2017)
United States Government. (1946). Blue Book on Argentina. Consultation among the American Republics with
respect to the Argentine Situation. New York: Greenberg.
UNLP – Universidad Nacional de la Plata (n/d). El lenguaje como martillo. Available at
http://perio.unlp.edu.ar/node/4040 (Accessed: 6 February, 2017).
Varela, M. (2005). Los medios de comunicación durante la dictadura: entre la banalidad y la censura. Los medios de
comunicación durante la Dictadura: entre la banalidad y la censura”. In: Camouflage Comics. Censorship, Comics,
Culture and the Arts. Director Aarnoud Rommers. The Netherlands.
Vineli, N. (2006). ANCLA (Agencias de Noticias Clandestinas). Una experiencia de comunicación clandestina
orientada por Rodolfo Walsh. Buenos Aires: La Rosa Blindada.
Zalaquett, J. 2010. The Emergence of “Disappearances” as a Normative Issue. Human Rights: From Practice to
Policy. Proceedings of a Research Workshop. Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan,
October 2010.