Argentina's dirty war

In the 1970's Argentina went trough a very complex period in its political history.

In the 1970's Argentina went trough a very complex period in its political history. After the return of Juan Domingo Perón from exile in 1973 and his election to become the president of Argentina, following his death in 1974 and his widow Isabel Perón taking over the presidency leading to the military coup that created one of the most violent dictatorships in South America, during the "dirty war" period, in which anti-communist right wing military dictatorships go together to eliminate the political opposition in an secret military plan known as Operation Condor.

As a result of that time, an estimated 30.000 people were forcibly "disappeared" by the argentine armed forces and are today known as desaparecidos. For democracy to be re-instated in 1983, amnesties for the dictators and people involved in human rights violations were a mandatory condition. After that the country has gone trough several political and economical crisis, that has led the issue of human rights abuses and historical memory, relegated to a secondary position, despite thousands of families still not knowing what happened to their loved ones, and living with those memories and pains without closure.

In 2004, just after president Nestor Kirchner got elected, and the economical situation of the country increased tremendously after the 2002 country's default, finally the voices of the mothers of the disappeared, survivors of the dictatorship and other victims was listened and the Argentine state started to build up memory about its own dark times, were the armed forces were used to capture, torture and kill thousands of people for thinking differently.

The work presented here, is a long process of documenting the memory making process in this country, both from photographing victims and families of desaparecidos from this period, but also to show the work being done to recover bodies, identify them, and creating evidence to bring the responsible people to justice for horrendous human rights violations.