Spanish 18

A horrible time for the world

The Dirty War

There is only one time in history that comes to mind when someone talks about thousands of people disappearing. People disappearing because they simply disagreed with the government’s actions. These people were either tortured and released, and simply murdered and then either buried in graves, were burned, or even taken up in planes and thrown into the Atlantic Ocean. And this time would be known as an event that is still affecting the civilians of Argentina today. And this time is known as “The Dirty War.” In this essay, I will tell you everything about what happened during this horrific time, and also my opinions on the subject.

                The start of the dirty war all happened around 1976 with the Independencia campaign in the Tucaman province. It all started when a military junta took power in Argentina. People were not happy with the form of government, so the government decided to fight back, in a very much unfair way.

                Soon, kidnappings and disappearances started to take place. People of all ages were taken. The people that were kidnapping were usually military members and police forces dressed up in regular civilian clothes. Sometimes, they were just in their regular uniforms when they would take people. They would go into homes, take people when they were alone, or other ways. Any ways they could get someone, they would. If you think about it, the government is going against everything they should be teaching to make a good life for all the people of their country.

                Now we will talk about what happened to the victims of this horrible event in history. Some of the kidnapped people’s lives did not all result in death. A lot of the victims were taken and tortured. Tortured meaning they were beaten, raped, electrocuted with cattle prods, and genital mutilation with razor blades. All of this happened when a person was kidnapped, and were usually driven to a secret detention center. These centers were called Centros Clandestinos de Detencion, also known as CCDs. There are thought to be approximately 340 of these horrible centers were the victims were taken to after they were kidnapped. These people were either kept until beaten to death, or some of them were even released. When released, they were very strongly threatened of having horrible things done to them if they were to tell anybody about what had happened to them after they had been kidnapped. Or for that matter, who kidnapped them.

                Many people were released, but a majority of people were not so lucky. People would die while being tortured. Others would just simply be killed on the spot by the military or police force in Argentina. The people that were killed were either all buried in graves, burned, or thrown in the Atlantic Ocean. Many of the people that have died were never found. Still to this day people are searching for their loved ones that were lost during this time.

                Of course, if you had a family member or loved one that had disappeared during this time, it would not go down without suspicion. And I would imagine you would do everything in your power to figure out what happened to that person, and try everything you can to find them. That is what some people did. A lot of the people that had disappeared were under the age of thirty. Mothers of these children would not let it go without an answer. They would go to police station, military buildings, and hospitals asking if anyone knew anything about their children. They were told that they either ran away or were kidnapped. Fourteen mother then set up a group known as Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo. The group would meet once a week and protest against what had happened to their children. Then there was a second group designed more for elders. These people were the ones that had a pregnant daughter, or a grandchild kidnapped. They too protested, but both of these groups rarely found answers. Sometimes their children were released and found, but most cases resulted in death for these kids.

United States gave money and support to the military junta, which in this case is the bad guys, because they were the ones kidnapping people and overthrowing the government. This entire ordeal, with the kidnapping of people, reminded me so much of what Hitler did to the Jews. They had so many similarities, from the kidnapping of innocent people, to the torturing that they did. So many people died in this epic event, and I am shocked that as students, we didn’t learn any more about this. After all, it is a part of our world, and this affected a large amount of people in society. I also think it is far more interesting and important to learn about than things that happened almost 1,000 years ago. This event should certainly be discussed in one of our World History classes, because that is what it is. World History.  One of the final things I researched on this topic was the cases that are still open and alive today. In fact, in 1989, a group of about 40 people attacked army barracks outside of Buenos Aires. 28 people were killed, 5 went missing, and 13 were sent to prison. In 1992 and in 1994, two bombs were set off in Buenos Aires, killing numerous Jewish people. In one of the bombings, 29 people were killed, and 242 people were injured in a car bombing. Two years later another car bomb devastated the community. Both of these cases are still under investigation, almost 17 years later. Which I don’t think is very impressive, because they should be doing more, because they have plenty of resources available to them. Many books and numerous films have been written about this event, and many have been sold. Another interesting thing I found on the sites was the Wall of Memory. It had tons and tons of pictures on it of the people who were missing. Having all the pictures in one spot really helped you to get a visual of just how many people this catastrophe affected in Argentina. Just like the Wall of Memory, when you looked at just the names it was also a significant amount of people. It’s almost hard to believe that all of these people had died, or went missing. This truly was an epic event. I hope that the support groups like the Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo and the Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo have success in the near future when fighting this. I am glad that someone in that area is standing up for what is right against the government, and making sure that the people whose lives were lost aren’t merely forgotten in time.  And I know that it is impossible for this to happen, but I hope that people get found and are able to reunite with their families. And also, if there are people who are still out there, who don’t know anything about themselves, that they, too can be reunited, and start a new life.  It first talked about a movie that is called “La Historia Oficial”. This movie is about a couple that adopts a little girl named Gabby. But when the mother does research of Gabby’s biological parents, she finds that Gabby’s mother was a desaparecido. During The Dirty War in Argentina, desaparecidos were people that disappeared. They disappeared because they did not agree with the government, so they were drugged and thrown out of a plane into the Atlantic Ocean. This terrible time was between 1976 through 1983, and it is believed that there are about 30,000 desaparcidos. The people that disagreed with the government were kidnapped, and usually killed. Some of them were also kidnapped, and they were set free in an unknown location. The military and police force that dressed up at civilians, and were the people that kidnapped them, threatened them seriously if they were to tell anyone.