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The Economic Accomplices to the Argentine Dictatorship: Outstanding Debts
Much has been written on the Argentine dictatorship and the transitional justice movement that brought its members to justice. However there has been no study to date of the economic accomplices to this dictatorship and the recent advancements in Argentina towards holding these actors accountable. What was the role of banks, companies, and individuals in perpetuating a murderous regime? To what extent should they be held responsible? As the first academic study on economic complicity in Argentina, this book attempts to answer these questions. Renowned human rights scholars investigate the role played by such actors as Ford, Mercedes Benz, the press, foreign banks, and even the Catholic Church. Across numerous case studies, the authors make a compelling argument for the legal responsibility of economic accomplices. A groundbreaking interdisciplinary study, this book will be essential to anyone interested in transitional justice, business, and human rights.
418 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2015
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March 27, 2016
This book explores the developments surrounding the struggle to hold accountable the civilian accomplices of the crimes committed by the Argentine dictatorship of 1976-1983. So far the dictatorship has been seen through the lenses of military actors and their crimes against physical integrity, but their civilians accomplices, especially the economic ones, remained largely anonymous until now.
There is a never ending debate on the ethics of international trade, finance and business; but the authors of this book go beyond that, focusing on the economic actors as interested parties, accomplices, enablers or instigators of human rights violations. The quest for justice around the world has been progressing towards that area, and Argentina is back again the at the cutting edge of transitional justice, providing innovative ways of achieving this goal.
An entirely new Chapter 2 by Leigh A. Payne and Gabriel Pereira is included in this edition, which is a translation of the original 2013 Spanish edition. They provide interesting perspective and statistics on Argentina's transitional justice progress: 64% of criminal cases and 31% of civil cases of economic complicity around the world are taking place in Argentina.
As an innovator, Argentina faces new technical and political challenges. This led Kirchners' government to confront with a few still powerful economic groups. Some critics also pointed to their allege abuse of transitional justice to take on political/economic rivals. Luckily this book manages to stay away from those controversies, despite many of the authors being staunch kirchnerites. Their essays are surprisingly spot on, fact based and with little misrepresentations (Only two are worth mentioning: 1. It is wrongly asserted that Cavallo statized private debt, in fact he was sidelined for refusing to sign it, and 2. It is suggested that cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was involved in the disappearance of two priests, now we know he secretly helped them to flee).
Besides the above mentioned chapter 2, the book contains some other gems. Chapters 5 and 6, by Eduardo M. Basualdo and Alfredo Fernando Calcagno respectively, explain the macroeconomics of the dictatorship years; they are of great interest to courses of Latin American studies. Chapter 7 by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky on the link between financial aid and human rights violations. Chapter 8, a selection of paragraphs from the report of International Commission of Jurists on corporate complicity. Cases studies of Chapters 11 by Victoria Basualdo, Tomás Ojea Quintana and Carolina Varsky on the complicity of Ford and Mercedes Benz, and Chapter 12 by Victorio Paulón on the complicity of Acindar and Techint. Chapter 13 by Alejandra Dandan and Hannah Franzki, about the Ledesma case; it provides an amazing insight on the way historical context started being used in Argentinian courts to understand the scale of repression. And chapters 18 and 19 by Federico Delgado and Alejandra Dandan respectively, on the organized pillaging by the State over private companies conveniently labelled "subversive".
As of march 2016 this book stills particularly relevant. The efforts to bring economic accomplices to justice rested largely on the many human rights offices scattered throughout the country's institutions. They made possible the uncovering and study of new documents that shed light over the dark past. Macri's government opposes this aspect of transitional justice in favour of an alleged reconciliation. He shut many of those offices, among which are those at the CNV (National Securities Commission, it produced evidence now used in courts) and BCRA (Central Bank, it was still assessing documents). The new government also stopped using the term "civilian-military dictatorship" and erased all civilian references to the dictatorship in their official communications, including those of their state radio broadcasts. As recently reported by the Buenos Aires Herald, the cases of business complicity are stalled in courts.
Now think of this: Macri's family economic group was one of the most benefited by the dictatorship. According to the study exposed in chapter 16 by Martín Schorr, Macri group went from controlling 7 companies in 1973 to 47 in 1983. That growth is only paralleled by few other groups, such as Pérez Companc, Bridas, Techint, Alpargatas and Clarín. As this books explains at depth, the crimes of the dictatorship were not only meant to silence dissent but to reorganize the economic foundations of the country with newly imbued neoliberal overtones. Until today many of those companies hold privileged positions in the market through dealings obtained during the dictatorship which often involved extortion, kidnappings, torture, enforced disappearances and pillaging. The struggle for transitional justice, especially the accountability of civilian accomplices, has a long way ahead in Argentina.
There is a never ending debate on the ethics of international trade, finance and business; but the authors of this book go beyond that, focusing on the economic actors as interested parties, accomplices, enablers or instigators of human rights violations. The quest for justice around the world has been progressing towards that area, and Argentina is back again the at the cutting edge of transitional justice, providing innovative ways of achieving this goal.
An entirely new Chapter 2 by Leigh A. Payne and Gabriel Pereira is included in this edition, which is a translation of the original 2013 Spanish edition. They provide interesting perspective and statistics on Argentina's transitional justice progress: 64% of criminal cases and 31% of civil cases of economic complicity around the world are taking place in Argentina.
As an innovator, Argentina faces new technical and political challenges. This led Kirchners' government to confront with a few still powerful economic groups. Some critics also pointed to their allege abuse of transitional justice to take on political/economic rivals. Luckily this book manages to stay away from those controversies, despite many of the authors being staunch kirchnerites. Their essays are surprisingly spot on, fact based and with little misrepresentations (Only two are worth mentioning: 1. It is wrongly asserted that Cavallo statized private debt, in fact he was sidelined for refusing to sign it, and 2. It is suggested that cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was involved in the disappearance of two priests, now we know he secretly helped them to flee).
Besides the above mentioned chapter 2, the book contains some other gems. Chapters 5 and 6, by Eduardo M. Basualdo and Alfredo Fernando Calcagno respectively, explain the macroeconomics of the dictatorship years; they are of great interest to courses of Latin American studies. Chapter 7 by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky on the link between financial aid and human rights violations. Chapter 8, a selection of paragraphs from the report of International Commission of Jurists on corporate complicity. Cases studies of Chapters 11 by Victoria Basualdo, Tomás Ojea Quintana and Carolina Varsky on the complicity of Ford and Mercedes Benz, and Chapter 12 by Victorio Paulón on the complicity of Acindar and Techint. Chapter 13 by Alejandra Dandan and Hannah Franzki, about the Ledesma case; it provides an amazing insight on the way historical context started being used in Argentinian courts to understand the scale of repression. And chapters 18 and 19 by Federico Delgado and Alejandra Dandan respectively, on the organized pillaging by the State over private companies conveniently labelled "subversive".
As of march 2016 this book stills particularly relevant. The efforts to bring economic accomplices to justice rested largely on the many human rights offices scattered throughout the country's institutions. They made possible the uncovering and study of new documents that shed light over the dark past. Macri's government opposes this aspect of transitional justice in favour of an alleged reconciliation. He shut many of those offices, among which are those at the CNV (National Securities Commission, it produced evidence now used in courts) and BCRA (Central Bank, it was still assessing documents). The new government also stopped using the term "civilian-military dictatorship" and erased all civilian references to the dictatorship in their official communications, including those of their state radio broadcasts. As recently reported by the Buenos Aires Herald, the cases of business complicity are stalled in courts.
Now think of this: Macri's family economic group was one of the most benefited by the dictatorship. According to the study exposed in chapter 16 by Martín Schorr, Macri group went from controlling 7 companies in 1973 to 47 in 1983. That growth is only paralleled by few other groups, such as Pérez Companc, Bridas, Techint, Alpargatas and Clarín. As this books explains at depth, the crimes of the dictatorship were not only meant to silence dissent but to reorganize the economic foundations of the country with newly imbued neoliberal overtones. Until today many of those companies hold privileged positions in the market through dealings obtained during the dictatorship which often involved extortion, kidnappings, torture, enforced disappearances and pillaging. The struggle for transitional justice, especially the accountability of civilian accomplices, has a long way ahead in Argentina.
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