Argentina Welcomes Dictatorship-era Officers: A 'Political Shift,' or History Repeating?
ABC breathlessly covers the latest 'political shift' in Argentina, noting the reappearance of dictatorship-era military figures and their acolytes. The article frames this as a new development, sans any inconvenient mention of the historical context. For those with slightly longer memories, these are the same forces that orchestrated the 'Dirty War' (1976-1983), a period of state terrorism that
'disappeared' an estimated 30,000 citizens. Who armed and trained many of these delightful characters? A significant chunk received training and support from the US under Operation Condor, a Cold War-era program of political repression and state terror orchestrated by right-wing dictatorships in the Southern Cone with active US backing. Funny how that part always gets left out of the 'political
shift' narrative. So, when ABC News describes this as merely a 'latest sign of political shift,' one has to wonder if they mean a 'shift' back to a brutal, US-backed past, or if they simply have a peculiar definition of 'context.' Are we to applaud the return of those responsible for mass disappearances and torture as just another facet of democratic expression? One might infer that some
'political shifts' are more palatable to report than others, especially when they involve inconvenient truths about historical US foreign policy. (Some shifts involve more 'freedom' than others, apparently.)