Human rights in Argentina

The Dirty War, a state-sponsored violence against Argentine citizenry from roughly 1976 to 1983, was carried out primarily by Jorge Rafael Videla's military government, ended years ago, and the human rights situation in Argentina has improved since.

The history of human rights in Argentina is affected by the Dirty War and its aftermath.

According to the Nunca Más report issued by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) in 1984, about 9,000 people had "disappeared" between 1976 and 1983. According to a secret cable from DINA (Chilean secret police) in Buenos Aires, an estimate by the Argentine 601st Intelligence Battalion in mid-July 1978, which started counting victims in 1975, gave the figure of 22,000 persons. This estimate was first published by John Dinges in 2004. Estimates by human rights organizations were up to 30,000. The Montoneros admitted losing 5,000 guerrillas killed, and the ERP admitted the loss of another 5,000 of their own guerrillas killed. By comparison, Argentine security forces cite 775 deaths of their own. In contrast, there were 13,500 victims of left-wing terrorism in Argentina. There is no agreement on the actual number of detenidos-desaparecidos. In an interview with Buenos Aires daily Clarin in 2009, Fernandez Meijide, who formed part of the 1984 truth commission, claimed that the documented number of Argentines killed or disappeared was closer to 9,000. The Asemblea por los Derechos Humanos (APDH or Permanent Assembly for Human Rights) estimated the number of disappeared as 12,261, which included "definitive disappearances" and PEN detainee survivors of the clandestine detention centres spread throughout Argentina. The total figure of official prisoners was 8,625 and of these PEN detainees 157 were killed after being released from detention. Between 1969 and 1979 left-wing guerrillas accounted for 3,249 kidnappings and murders. CONADEP also recorded 458 assassinations (attributed to the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance) and about 600 forced disappearances during the period of democratic rule between 1973 and 1976.

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