Desaparecidos

   Spanish and Portuguese for “missing,” or “disappeared.” It refers to forced disappearances, those who vanish while in state custody. The state often refuses to release information about the victims—indeed, often denies ever having had them in custody. The term originated in Guatemala during the 1960s and then became associated with Argentina during the 1970s. It was adopted into the English language in its original Spanish version, though the Anglicized version, “disappeared,” is also common. Instances of a transitive use of the verb “disappear” (meaning to cause to disappear) existed in English long before the “dirty wars,” but the events of the period have popularized its use, with or without quotation marks (the security force “disappeared” her; he was “disappeared” by the military). Disappearances, however, are by no means peculiar to Latin America. They are a common occurrence in national-security states throughout the world and are condemned by the United Nations (UN) as a fundamental violation of human rights.

   In Argentina the Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (CONADEP, National Commission on the Disappeared)— the government truth commission established after the return to democracy in 1985—documented 8,960 desaparecidos, though estimates by human-rights groups reach as high as 30,000. One reason for the discrepancy is that the truth commission reported only documented cases collected during the short period it was allowed to work—nine months. During that period, it was able to sift through less than half the data it received. Even so, the evidence was strong enough to convict the former junta commanders and middle-ranking officers of human-rights crimes, though they were later pardoned by President Carlos Saúl Menem. The evidence also refuted the military’s allegation that most of the missing were guerrillas. The documentation showed that most of the missing had been abducted at home, 150 were under 15 years old, 125 were over 60, and 268 were pregnant. Some of the victims were physically disabled. As many as 2,000 of the victims in Argentina were disappeared by being drugged and thrown into the Atlantic Ocean from navy aircraft. An estimated 500 of the missing were children abducted with their parents or born in prison. Many of these children were illegally adopted and raised by military families. Among the local human-rights organizations that were formed in the 1970s to protest the disappearances were the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo), who brought international attention to their cause by marching every Thursday outside the Casa Rosada (Pink House, or presidential palace). An offshoot of the Madres, the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers), set out to trace missing children and reunite them with their biological families. In 1979 the military government attempted to rid itself of the issue of disappearance by pronouncing the missing dead. The Madres and other human-rights groups challenged the attempt and kept the issue in the forefront. Even after the officers convicted of human-rights violations were pardoned and the cause of justice seemed lost, the issue refused to go away. In 1999 a federal court ruled that as long as victims remained missing—bodies unrecovered and children unaccounted for—the crimes of disappearance were still being committed. The ruling gave new life to a case against several former high-ranking military officers, including the junta commanders Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Massera, and Reynaldo Benito Bignone, who had been charged in connection with the kidnapping and illegal adoption of children—crimes not covered by their pardons.

   Far fewer people disappeared in the other five countries covered in this volume. In Bolivia the Comisión Nacional de Investigación de Desaparecidos (CNID, National Commission of Inquiry into Disappearances), investigated 155 cases of disappearance for the period 1967–1982. In Brazil the Comissão Especial sobre Mortos e Desaparecidos Políticos (CEMDP, Special Commission for the Dead and Disappeared), identified at least 136 cases of disappearance out of 475 total deaths. In Chile the Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación (National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation) documented 877 desaparecidos, though the commonly accepted estimate now is 1,500 (out of more than 3,000 total deaths). Paraguay never established a truth commission, but it is believed that 8,000 people were arrested, tortured, and murdered between 1954 and 1989. In Uruguay the Comisión Investigadora Parlamentaria sobre Situación de Personas Desaparecidas y Hechos que la Motivaron (Commission on the Situation of “Disappeared” People and Its Causes) documented 164 disappearances, many of whom (about 130) disappeared in Argentina, Chile, or Paraguay, presumably victims of Operation Condor. Project Disappeared puts the Uruguayan figure at about 300.

   In addition to the cases of disappearance, there were many thousands of cases of temporary disappearance—abduction, rape, and torture—also considered by the UN to be gross violations of human rights.