NEVERTHELESS, WE PERSISTED: Anti-Impunity and Criminal Accountability in Post-Dictatorial Argentina and Chile

Abstract

Between 1973 and 1989, Argentina and Chile both suffered under brutal military dictatorships that instituted wide campaigns of repression against their citizens under the guise of combatting communist subversion. In 1983 and 1989, respectively, Argentina and Chile shook off these dictatorships and transitioned to democratic rule. In each case, the resulting government faced a choice between justice and stability. In deciding between these choices, Argentina and Chile were faced with a multitude of transitional justice questions as they struggled with how to best implement judicial and non-judicial measures to redress the legacies of massive human rights abuses. In the immediate regime transition, Argentina pursued criminal prosecutions of human rights abusers while Chile pursued a reconciliatory agenda that highlighted non-judicial measures over criminal prosecutions. Despite these differing agendas during the immediate democratic transition, both countries have now converged toward widespread and sustained prosecutions for past human rights violations. This convergence toward individual criminal accountability begs the questions why are there such divergent initial strategies between Argentina and Chile in seeking accountability for human rights abusers? And, what explains the convergence in strategy later on? Through a critical examination of Argentine and Chilean legal, government, and NGO documents, as well as news stories, interviews, and special correspondence with experts, several explanations for the trend toward criminal prosecutions emerge. First, the contrasting modes of democratic transition- military collapse in Argentina, and military-controlled handover in Chile- do not account for the development of the transitional justice process. Second, the Argentine and Chilean cases converge on criminal prosecutions as a result of civil society activism, international pressure, international legal standardization, and institutional reform. Third, without the presence of all four of these variables, criminal prosecutions of human rights abusers on a domestic level fail. Finally, while both countries are unique in the manner in which they have judicialized past cases of human rights abuses, there are still fundamental flaws that undermine the justice process. This thesis proposes policy recommendations in order to address the future of widespread and sustained transitional justice prosecutions, and the flaws that are present within the current system. As it has now been over 30 years since the military coup d’états in both Argentina and Chile, these policy recommendations both recognize the extent to which both countries are moving beyond prosecutions and the ways in which to memorialize this process. Hopefully this thesis can begin a larger discussion on how countries that are very different at the time of transition can pursue similar paths of justice.