Conflicts over Memories in Argentinean Courts. An Ethnographical Perspective of Trials for Crimes Against Humanity

Abstract

For over three decades in Argentina, the families of the disappeared of the Military Dictatorship have engaged in political actions to demand “Justice” against human rights violations conducted during the repression. Legal paths to achieve penal liability have been opened since the annulment of the amnesty laws in 2005. Since then, the narratives concerning the past have definitely arisen —and been in dispute— in the Argentinean courts. Based on the ethnography of “trials for crimes against humanity”, the article analyses how victims, State agents accused of human rights violations and judicial actors have converted the courts into a privileged place for the assertion of meanings to the dictatorial past. The intention is to question how the judicial system is being developed into a place for disputes over the production of truth concerning the military dictatorship in Argentina, through an enchantment analysis of the politics and symbolisms that take into consideration the emotional and existential aspects of human action.