1. The Politics of Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay 1983 - 2010.
- Author
-
Más, Nunca
- Subjects
- *
TRANSITIONAL justice , *POLITICAL systems , *PRESIDENTS ,URUGUAYAN politics & government ,ARGENTINE politics & government - Abstract
Argentina has been aptly defined as a 'global protagonist' in transitional justice (TJ), because of its pioneering innovations with accountability for past crimes (Sikkink, 2008). Conversely, Uruguay chose a path of amnesty and oblivion in coming to terms with its own past evils. This paper contends that three phases in TJ can be identified in Argentina and Uruguay. In the first, these countries adopted opposite approaches: Argentina established a truth commission and carried out prosecutions, while Uruguay selected oblivion and silence. The second phase saw Argentina and Uruguay's positions becoming increasingly aligned. Initially, both societies witnessed a silencing of any discussion on the dictatorship. Later on, by the late 1990s, they slowly began to warm up to questions of accountability. Only in the early 21st century, these issues forcefully returned to the social and political arenas. During this third and current phase, Argentina and Uruguay adopted similar stances, attempting to explore their pasts from the perspectives of truth, justice and memory. The progression among these phases is explained with reference to several factors, including Presidential leaderships; the attitude of the armed forces; the role of human rights activists; and finally, developments on the international stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011