From the beginning of the seventies through the present, military regimes have declared wars on the peoples of Latin America, backed by the doctrine of national security. This doctrine was adopted in order to fight the so-called communist threat and allowed for the extermination of complete generations in order to prevent "foreign ideologies" from taking over the countries.
Detentions, torture and summary executions are common practices of state terrorism everywhere. Yet in Latin America a new phenomenon began as a mechanism of spreading terror throughout society: the "disappearances". "Disappearances" emerged as a strategy to reach "subversives" by making them fear the worst (the unknown), but they also served to maintain the families in constant anguish and terror; the hoped result was to destroy all activity (political as well as social) in society.
A "disappearance" consists of two actions: The first is the kidnapping of an individual, or a whole family, and taking them to a clandestine detention center (or concentration camp) to be interrogated, tortured, and eventually and most likely killed. The second action is denying that the person or family were ever taken, when family members begin searching for them and asking questions. The reign of terror falls on the now "disappeared", but also on the people that look for them. A situation of shame and threats is created, whereby the family members that search for the disappeared are advised not to go looking for them, because if they were taken (although it was denied that they were) "por algo sera" (there must be a reason).
There is no symbolism for the "disappeared". They were taken away without a trace. That was part of the terror tactic: the permanent anguish it caused the family. It is described like living with a ghost; they are not dead, but they are not alive either. The idea that some day they might return (although highly unlikely) does not allow for them to be dead. Keeping them alive and constantly present in mind does not allow for the survivors (the family) to continue living. One cannot mourn for a person who might possibly still be alive; how to move forward while maintaining the memory alive? Unlike the victims of the Holocaust, there are no monuments, no symbol (like the yellow star, the pink triangle); the "disappeared" have no meaning. They are referred to by their state of being, by a verb that was never active until now (someone is "disappeared" by someone else).
In Argentina, ten years after the fall of the last military regime, the "disappeared" still live among the living. Thirty thousand people - a whole generation - were "disappeared" in seven years of military rule. Even after the finding of mass graves and the identification of several "disappeared", they are rarely called "dead". The official policy of "el olvido" or pacification has placed it all behind without coming to terms with it. And yet by forcing society to forget, the system is creating a space to remember. When they say "you must forgive and forget", we remember what it is we are supposed to forget. And yet we do not know how to remember, what to remember; and the terror continues. Fear of the empty space that has no name, no symbol; fear of the limits of what is possible.
---
Adonde van los desaparecidos? Where do the disappeared go?
Busca en el agua y en los matorrales Look in the water and in the bushes
Y porque es que se desaparecen? And why do they disappear?
Porque no todos somos iguales Because we are not all equal
Y cuando vuelve el desaparecido? And when does the disappeared return?
Cada vez que los trae el pensamiento Every time our thoughts bring them
Como se llama el desaparecido? How is a disappeared called?
Una emocion apretando por dentro An emotion pressing from within
Ruben Blades, "Desapariciones"
---
"They were unconscious. we stripped them, and when the flight commander gave the order, we opened the door and threw them out, naked, one by one. That is the story, and nobody can deny it."
Prisoners were trucked to the Buenos Aires airport, put on a military plane, and then dropped, drugged but alive, from a height of about 13,000 ft. into the Atlantic Ocean.
"At times there were 20 prisoners, even 300." When there were too many the prisoners were placed aboard army cargo planes and helicopters and flown out to sea."
"We flew at very low altitude and the flights were never registered. Prisoners were injected with a very strong drug, they were brought over to the door and two officers threw them out." In some cases, the victims' bellies were cut open so that they would sink faster and be eaten by sharks.
"I hear those screams at night and there isn't a day that goes by without their memory. There were many young people aged 14 to 16. The centre could hold about 300 people, and so the camp personnel kept count of the prisoners. Whenever the number of detainees exceeded the centre’s capacity, prisoners were eliminated to make room, and then new ones were brought in. Some of them arrived in trunks of cars, like Oscar Steinmberg and García (desaparecidos), two soldiers who were still dressed in their military uniforms. Others were brought in by trucks. They were beaten while being led into the camp. They were counted, each of them given a number. When the torturers came, prisoners were called up by their number, 25 or 30 or 50, and were taken to a small bitumen building. It was terrible for everyone. The detainees were held in three large zinc sheds, tied with a heavy chain and hooded".