Memorial for the Disappeared - Argentina

24 de Marzo. The 24th of March. This is the day in 1976 that the Argentine Military Junta staged and succeeded in the coop over President Isabell Peron. Juan Peron's third wife had accended to the Presidency because of Juan's death in July of 1974, but was more of a puppet than leader.

It is now a national holiday - a day of remembrance for the Dirty War that would follow in the wake of the coop.

I have become fascinated with the Guerra Suciar, (Dirty War) been doing a lot of reading and when I can, talking to people about it. The Military Junta began and led an aggressive campaign against left wing political/social activists and military guerrilla activity in the country. It is estimated that there was 10,000 to 30,000 Argentine "desaparecidos" or forced disappearances, for committing subversion and treason.

I am not going to go into huge detail on it but I will give you link for a declassified file from the United States National Security Archives.

Nuts and Bolts on US/Argentina

Not surprisingly we had a role in this proxy battle during the final years of the Cold War. This file contains more or less an interview with one of the high ranking officers in the Argentine Military. It goes into detail about the disappeared and the detention centers around the nation. They definitely didn't teach us anything about this in history.

If you Google Dirty War (or click because I did it for you) you can read for decades about this.

I just wanted to say that we might think we are in a huge, devastating crisis, but the people of Argentina are laughing at us.

As our new amigo Fernando said, "Crisis, Ha, We are always Crisis."


On another note: Today is the 20th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez crash that spewed 10.8 million gallons of oil in the pristine Prince William Sound. While Exxon originally had been levied with $5 Billion in punitive damages; the US Supreme Court overturned the ruling in July 2008 and reduced the damages to 383 Million -- a drop in the ocean.