Operation Condor, The Intention of Changing The Situation in Argentine and The Impact of The USA

The Consequences of the National Reorganization Process in Argentina

Genocide is a massacre of a specific group of people over ideology or ethnicity. The genocide in Argentina was political and ideological. Argentina experienced a Reorganization Process, which was about removing communist ideas and promoting Western and Christian ideals. Argentina’s government fell into a military dictatorship that committed horrific violence towards the civilian population. Due to harsh policies, cities built concentration camps or clandestine centers with the intention to silence the political activists. This paper will analyze how the United States influenced Operation Condor with the intention to create social change in Argentina.

Operation Condor started after the Cuban Revolution due to fear that Latin American countries would become either communist or socialist. Operation Condor targeted ideological enemies that challenged the traditional Western ideals. Their views of enemies ranged from peaceful social activists to armed revolutionaries. “The Condor apparatus was a secret component of a larger, U.S-led counter-insurgency strategy to preempt or reverse social movements demanding political and socioeconomic change” (McSherry, p.1). The United States was involved in creating Operation Condor under the leadership of Henry Kissinger. He was aware of the human rights violations that were occurring in Argentina. Despite the power change in Argentina, Kissinger made sure that Operation Condor military personal would receive enough funding. Indirectly, this created a military dictatorship, which carried out the atrocities and restricted any documentation that showed the plans of the military juntas.

However, people in Argentina wanted change and intellectuals believed that their economy could benefit from the West. “Prominent Latin American leaders and intellectuals linked underdevelopment in the Third World to neocolonial practices by the major Western states and demanded self-determination and control over national resources” (McSherry, p. 2). The Argentinean people wanted autonomy over their nation and did not want their government to act in the best interests of the West. When Argentina’s military dictatorship started to follow the United States agenda, people started to vanish due to their affiliations with political parties and activist movements. “A key aim of these states was to depoliticize and demobilize politically active groups and movements of workers, students, peasants, and intellectuals which were identified as ‘internal enemies’” (McSherry, p.4). This was political genocide because many civilians did not know they were at war with their own government and this created powerlessness.

Progressive leaders were primary targets and were the first to disappear due to the influence in creating a revolution. “Within the framework of Operation Condor, military and paramilitary commandos ‘disappeared’ refugees and exiles-including democratic leaders-who had fled coups and repression in their own countries’ (McSherry, p. 4). The abductions of leaders and activists affected everyday life and created social unrest in the Argentinean society because of the fear that they would be the next to disappear. “Victims were abducted as they walked off the buses, as they walked home from school or work, or in midnight raids of private residences and of safe houses where guerrilla groups or of banned trade and student organizations lived in hiding” (Goldman, p. 1). The military regime targeted the general population in a political genocide because they believed that anyone could be anti-Western and wanted socialist practices that would benefit everyone. During this political genocide, the military abducted pregnant mothers who were later killed, which resulted in military families raising their children with the “right ideals.”

The National Reorganization Process brainwashed an entire generation that were raised in military families. “The Process of National Reorganization wanted to define and create ‘authentic Argentines” (Goldman, p.1). These children were a clean slate in rebuilding society in the way that the military dictatorship wanted to create. In the New Yorker, Clara Anahi was a baby when she was kidnapped from her home. Both parents were murdered due to their political involvement in Monteros and running an underground newspaper called Evita. For example, Jorgelina Molina Planas grew up as Carolina Maria Sala. Her father was involved in the People’s Revolutionary Army. Due to his political activism, Jorgelina lost both biological parents and never learned about their contributions. The military family degraded the memory of her biological parents in which they were labeled as terrorists. “But when she finally summoned up the courage to reclaim her identity after her adoptive mother’s death in 2009, he disowned her. “He wouldn’t accept that I am Jorgelina,” she says” (Sutterud, p.1). This is evidence that Jorgelina knew that she was not part of that family and she never felt that she truly belonged. This genocide had not only created violence towards people who questioned Western, Christian values but also brought violence into their homes and stole a generation of youth.

Personal accounts of Jorgelina and Clara only scratches the insidious purpose of the Dirty Wars. Clara and Jorgelina had parents who belonged to “terrorist groups” which were the People’s Revolutionary Army and Monetras. Both of these groups were guerilla groups that fought for a cause in making sure that their voices were heard despite the disappearances. The Catholic Church stood by the actions of the military regime. Fernstein uses the example of Archbishop Jorge Mayer when he states “The subversive guerilla wants to steal the cross, the symbol of all Christians, to crush and to divide all the Argentine people by means of the hammer and the sickle” (Fernstein, p.152). The symbolism is very much apparent in this statement in which the cross represents good and hammer and the sickle represents evil.

General Jorge Rafael Videla defined terrorism in a very pervasive way and socially constructed an image of a terrorist. Videla describes “a terrorist is not only someone with a weapon or a bomb, but anyone who spreads which are contrary to our western and Christian civilization” (Fernstein, p. 153). Videla’s statement puts into perspective the kind of hostility that the Argentinian military regime had towards the political organizations such as the People’s Revolutionary. Before carrying out disappearances in a social construct needed to be made in order to justify their actions. Fernstein states “Even though there were many differences between these two constructions-‘race’ and ‘subversive criminal’-the image of the latter figure also showed a radical and unassimable otherness” (Fernstein, p.159). This political genocide did not just destroy the lives of those who were impacted as whole but it harmed the social community. Because the identities of the disappeared were reduced to a basic level in which they cannot be named or found so there is no form of closure.

Due to lack of closure, organizations were created in order to investigate and locate the disappeared children as well as finding out what happened to their loved ones. Obtaining the rightful identity for many of these children who were abducted was extremely difficult, even with the work of Grandmothers de Plaza de Mayo. One of these organizations was the Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo and Madres of Plaza de Mayo and they had only recovered a fraction of what the military Juntas had taken from them. These human rights organizations had even created a blood bank and a safe atmosphere of anonymity for people who believe that they were given an identity that was artificial. Even the nature of these forced separations were violent because the pregnant mothers gave birth in horrible conditions and the baby was later ripped out of the mother’s arms. After the birth, the mother was transferred to another clandestine center or put on a death flight, in which the body was disposed into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo had done considerable work when it came to recovering the real identities of their grandchildren and bring their kidnappers to justice. Despite, the honorable intentions that these organizations, there was resistance from the children who were kidnapped and raised in families that valued the ideals of the military dictatorship. The Abuelas of Plaza de Mayo role is extremely important because they are conscious of events that occurred during the Dirty Wars. However, in some cases the grandchildren of the disappeared do not cooperate with the processes of justice. For example, in the news documentary, Lost and Found, of Al Jazzera it talks about the difficult process that these kidnapped children had when it came to discovering that their identity had been a lie and the shame that they felt when it came to discovering the truth that their biological parents were leftist guerillas.

One of these cases talks about Maris Sol Tetzlaff, but her real identity is Victoria Montenegro whose parents were in a guerilla group. Victoria stated that her home had been raided and military forces killed her parents. After the raid, Commander Tetzlaff found Victoria hidden under the kitchen table and was later adopted by the man who killed her parents. However, her real identity and family ties would not have been found without Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the help of a law that had been passed by the Kirscher administration. This law had supported the right for the state to acquire the DNA of suspected young adults that were children of the disappeared. However, the problem is that those same children do not want to be found and are refusing to find their real identity.

There is another case where the children refused to learn about their identity and wanted to remain ignorant because they believed their adopted parents were biological and loved them for their artificial identities. The Noble siblings were adopted by a powerful, influential woman in the media who has been a strong critic of the democratic government that is now in place in Argentina. The Argentine authorities had obtained the DNA sample of the siblings through force. Due to the new law that mandates the DNA samples for trials that are supposed punish any families that had raised, however there are questions if the government is either seeking justice or vengeance for the children of the disappeared. The Argentina trials are trying to persecute the people responsible in the killings of civilians that had nothing to do with the Dirty War.

The compliance and ignorance from the Noble siblings and Maria Sol Tetzloff shows the impact that the military had on the youth of Argentina and how they were brainwashed to believe in certain ideals. Despite the hard work of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, this shows that these young adults were the products of the Reorganization Process. These young adults felt ashamed to be related to parents who had a different ideology from their real families. Unfortunately, the legacy of the military dictatorship succeeded in causing the pain and suffering in the lack of knowledge of where the disappeared are as well as the search for the missing grandchildren.

After all the atrocities that have been committed by the military dictatorship, Argentina has been able to dispense justice. However, because of the unique circumstances these trials were not separated because of the circumstances from Operation Condor. “What distinguishes this trial from other cases involving isolated crimes committed by Operation Condor is that the defendants now face being condemned for being members of an illegal association” (Goni, p.1).

These trials have been a form of reconciliation, punishment and healing because the truth of many crimes against humanity and it created a sense of normalcy for the Argentina criminal court to be punishing those responsible for committing war crimes.

Despite, the resistance that has been met with many young adults did not want to find their real identities. However, they failed to realize that finding out the truth of their identity plays a much bigger role than displacing their lives it helps heal the wounds of families that have lost loved ones to the Dirty Wars. The military personnel who had involved in the National Security Doctrine and Operation Condor have either received their sentences or are awaiting justice. Due to practice of justice Argentina has begun to heal its wounds, therefore giving security and reconciliation back to the Argentines and the families that were affected by this atrocity.