Taboo Topics

The junta tries to make a deal

The plea from Argentina's military rulers was a strange one, and bore signs of more than a little desperation. In a discreet radio and television announcement, the junta that has ruled the country since 1976 urged Argentine civilians to show "greatness of spirit," "patriotism" and "definitive national unity." Then the military government itemized a list of 15 topics on which it would like to see concertacion (understanding) with local politicians, union leaders and perhaps even the Roman Catholic Church before the government fulfills a promise to return the nation to civilian rule in March 1984. The list was described as a set of principles to help create "the necessary conditions for a stable democracy." In fact, it looked as if the nervous junta wanted a blanket amnesty for its actions during the past six years.

The list contained among other things a series of restrictions on any future government that might want to investigate the military stewardship. Chief among the areas to be glossed over was military culpability in the fate of Argentina's desaparecidos (disappeared ones). At least 6,000 Argentines and foreign nationals vanished between 1974 and 1979 during the country's fratricidal struggle against left-wing terrorism. Also included on the proposed list of taboo topics was the military's humiliating defeat by Britain in last spring's Falkland Islands war, which resulted in 1,366 Argentine casualties. The government further demanded a veil of silence over its role in accumulating Argentina's $42 billion foreign debt, and over any charges of corruption against members of the current regime. In addition, the military announced that it would like a "constitutional presence" in the next national government.

Argentina's military President, Retired General Reynaldo Bignone, appointed in the wake of the Falklands fiasco, reiterated that the promised return to democracy would take place on schedule. But many Argentine civilian leaders suspected that there was a dangerous alternative: if civilians were relentless in seeking the truth on some painful topics, the military would renege on its pledge to return to the barracks. Said a government official in Buenos Aires: "The military realize they have been discredited and want to go, but there's always the problem of the desaparecidos and the war. They must provide some answers on those issues before they depart."

Even as the junta issued its proposals, an international diplomatic storm continued to swirl over Argentina as a result of the discovery of some 1,500 unidentified bodies in unmarked burial sites across the country. The furor was ignited after an Argentine couple discovered the body of their son, Miguel Angel Sosa, in one of the cemetery plots. Subsequent investigations revealed that the corpses were stacked as many as six deep in unmarked graves, and that numerous victims had been killed with a single bullet in the head. Most of the bodies are still unidentified, but there is little doubt as to who they are: desaparecidos.

The governments of Italy, France, West Germany, Spain and Sweden, in addition to human rights groups from Uruguay, have renewed their pressure on the Argentine military junta to look into the fate of their unfortunate citizens who are believed to be among the desaparecidos. Among Argentine civilians, the clamor for more information has also grown.

The response of President Bignone was to circulate an edict forbidding radio and television stations to report on "issues relating to subversive acts," including military actions during the antiterrorist war. Three Buenos Aires magazines were ordered shut down for "disrespectful criticism" of the regime. As matters stand, the Argentine junta is unlikely to obtain its hoped-for understanding with civilians. Last week five political parties rejected the proposed guidelines as "alien to the national constitution." Says Raul Alfonsin, a leader of the middle-class Radical Civic Union: "There is no way that we can allow the military regime to condition the future constitutional government." Assuming there will be one, that is.

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