This article is about the conflict in Argentina. For the conflict in Mexico, see Mexican Dirty War. For other uses, see Dirty War (disambiguation).
See also: Enforced disappearance § Argentina
Dirty War
Part of Cold War and Operation Condor.
An image of Jorge Rafael Videla inside a dossier by the U.S. Government
Date
1974–1983
Location
Argentina
Result
Operativo Independencia
1976 Argentine coup d'état
National Reorganization Process
Operation was concluded after the Falklands War
Belligerents
Argentina
Argentine Army
Argentine Navy
Argentine Air Force
Argentine Federal Police
Argentine National Gendarmerie
Argentine Anticommunist Alliance
Justicialist Party (Right-wing faction)
Supported by:
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
United States[1][2][3]
France
Israel
United Kingdom (until 1982)
ERP (1973–1979)
Montoneros (1974–1980)
Fuerzas Armadas Peronistas
Resistencia Libertaria
Supported by:
Cuba
Commanders and leaders
3rd Peronist Government
Juan Perón
José López Rega
Isabel PerónNational Reorganization Process Jorge Rafael Videla
Emilio Eduardo Massera
Orlando Ramón Agosti
Roberto Eduardo Viola
Carlos Lacoste
Leopoldo Galtieri
Various guerrilla leaders and civil society leaders
Casualties and losses
539 military and police forces killed[4] 1,355 civilians killed by Guerillas[5]
5,000 members killed[6] ERP 5,000 members killed and captured.[7] RL 8 killed[8]
22,000–30,000 killed or disappeared[9][10][11]
Operation Condor
Background histories
Argentina (1976 coup d'état)
Bolivia
Brazil (1960s)
Chile (1973 coup d'état)
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Events
Dirty War
National Reorganization Process
Operation Colombo
Operation Charly
Night of the Pencils
Operativo Independencia
Ezeiza massacre
Margarita Belén massacre
Death flights
Desaparecidos
Government leaders
Jorge Anaya
Hugo Banzer
Basilio Lami Dozo
João Figueiredo
Leopoldo Galtieri
Augusto Pinochet
Alfredo Stroessner
Jorge Rafael Videla
Targeted militias
Montoneros
Tupamaros
People's Revolutionary Army (ERP)
Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR)
Principal operatives
Alfredo Astiz
Orlando Bosch
Hugo Campos Hermida
Manuel Contreras
Stefano Delle Chiaie
José López Rega
Virgilio Paz Romero
Luis Posada Carriles
Paul Schäfer
Michael Townley
Organizations responsible
Central Intelligence Agency
Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional
Caravan of Death
Batallón de Inteligencia 601
Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations
Serviço Nacional de Informações
Argentine Anticommunist Alliance
Locations
Esmeralda
Estadio Nacional de Chile
Villa Grimaldi
Colonia Dignidad
Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics
Laws
Full stop law
Due obedience law
Archives and reports
Archives of Terror
Rettig Report
Valech Report
National Security Archive
Reactions
National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons
Trial of the Juntas
Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
v
t
e
The Dirty War (Spanish: Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina (Spanish: dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina) for the period of state terrorism[12][10][13] in Argentina[14][15] from 1974 to 1983 as a part of Operation Condor, during which military and security forces and death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA, or Triple A)[16] hunted down any political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism, or the Montoneros movement.[17][18][19][20]
It is estimated that between 22,000 and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared, many of whom were impossible to formally document due to the nature of state terrorism;[21][12][10] however, Argentine military intelligence at the time estimated that 22,000 people had been murdered or disappeared by 1978.[22] The primary target, like in many other South American countries participating in Operation Condor, were communist guerrillas and sympathisers, but the target of Operation Condor also included students, militants, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists and any citizens suspected of being left-wing activists.[23] The disappeared included those thought to be a political or ideological threat to the junta, even vaguely, or those seen as antithetical to the neoliberal economic policies dictated by Operation Condor.[17][18][19] According to human rights organisations in Argentina, between 1,900 and 3,000 Jews were among the 30,000 who were targeted by the Argentine military junta. It is a disproportionate number, as Jews comprised between 5–12% of those targeted but only 1% of the population.[24] All were killed in an attempt by the junta to silence social and political opposition.[25]
By the 1980s, economic collapse, public discontent, and the disastrous handling of the Falklands War resulted in the end of the junta and the restoration of democracy in Argentina, effectively ending the Dirty War. Many members of the junta are currently in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide.[26][27] The Dirty War left a profound impact on Argentine culture, which is still felt to this day.
^McSherry, J. Patrice (2010). "Part 2: The Mechanisms of Violence – Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America". In Esparza, Marcia; Huttenbach, Henry R.; Feierstein, Daniel (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years. Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-49637-7. OCLC 1120355660.
^Greg Grandin (2011). The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War. University of Chicago Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-226-30690-2
^Walter L. Hixson (2009). The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy. Yale University Press. p. 223. ISBN 0-300-15131-4
^"Militares Muertos Durante la Guerra Sucia". Desaperidos.org (in Spanish).
^"Las víctimas del terror montonero no cuentan en Argentina". ABC. 28 December 2011.
^"El ex líder de los Montoneros entona un "mea culpa" parcial de su pasado". El Mundo (in Spanish). 4 May 1995.
^"Cedema.org - Viendo: A 32 años de la caída en combate de Mario Roberto Santucho y la Dirección Histórica del PRT-ERP". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
^"Resistencia Anticapitalista Libertaria "Autodefensa, Clasismo y Poder popular en anarquismo argentino de los 70s". Documentos para el Debate No.3. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
^Bevins, Vincent (2020). The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. PublicAffairs. p. 305. ISBN 978-1-5417-4240-6.
^ abcMcSherry, J. Patrice (2011). "Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America". In Esparza, Marcia; Henry R. Huttenbach; Daniel Feierstein (eds.). State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies). Routledge. pp. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-66457-8.
^Fernandez, Belen (30 August 2014). "Reappearing the disappeared of Operation Condor". Al Jazeera.
^ abBlakeley, Ruth (2009). State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South. Routledge. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-415-68617-4.
^Borger, Julian (2004). "Kissinger backed dirty war against left in Argentina". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
^Daniel Feierstein (14 August 2016). ""Guerra sucia": la importancia de las palabras" ["Dirty war": the importance of the words] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
^McSherry, Patrice (2005). Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 78. ISBN 0-7425-3687-4.
^Right-wing violence was also on the rise, and an array of death squads was formed from armed sections of the large labor unions, parapolice organizations within the federal and provincial police; and the AAA (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina), founded by Perón's secretary of social welfare, López Rega, with the participation of the federal police. Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Marguerite Guzman Bouvard, p. 22, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002
^ abClarín.com (18 May 2013). "El principal sostén del programa económico de Martínez de Hoz". clarin.com.
^ abPolitical Violence and Trauma in Argentina, Antonius C. G. M. Robben, p. 145, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007
^ abMarguerite Guzmán Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, p. 22, Rowman & Littlefield, 1994
^"Argentina's Guerrillas Still Intent On Socialism", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 7 March 1976
^Alemparte Diaz, Luis Filipe (July 1978). "Page A-8" (PDF). Argentine Military Intelligence estimate on the number of disappeared(PDF) (in Spanish). Washington, D.C.: National Security Archive. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
^"On 30th Anniversary of Argentine Coup: New Declassified Details on Repression and U.S. Support for Military Dictatorship". nsarchive2.gwu.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
^"Argentina's Dirty War – Alicia Patterson Foundation". aliciapatterson.org. 10 August 1985. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
^Melamed, Diego (19 May 2013). "Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian dictator who killed Jews, dies". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
^Robben, Antonius C. G. M. (September 2005). "Anthropology at War?: What Argentina's Dirty War Can Teach Us". Anthropology News. Retrieved 20 October 2013.(subscription required)
^Clarín.com (29 November 2017). "Megacausa ESMA: perpetua para Alfredo Astiz y Jorge "Tigre" Acosta por crímenes de lesa humanidad". clarin.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 October 2019.
^"Lesa humanidad: en 2016 se dictaron 136 condenas en juicios orales en todo el país". cij.gov.ar.
The DirtyWar (Spanish: Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina (Spanish: dictadura cívico-militar...
The Mexican DirtyWar (Spanish: Guerra sucia) was the Mexican theater of the Cold War, an internal conflict from the 1960s to the 1980s between the Mexican...
DirtyWars is a 2013 American documentary film, which accompanies the book DirtyWars: The World Is a Battlefield by Jeremy Scahill. The film is directed...
A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device is a radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of...
at Wembley Stadium. The band released a second single, "No Soap (in a DirtyWar)" in October. McClure was in the media spotlight for his personal views...
while Peronists and leftists were persecuted. The junta launched the DirtyWar, a campaign of state terrorism against opponents involving torture, extrajudicial...
The use of detention centers in the DirtyWar, the period of state terrorism in Argentina between 1976 and 1983 caused immense fear for victims throughout...
dictatorship's "National Reorganization Process" and the subsequent "DirtyWar" against everyone deemed subversive, especially leftists, including left-wing...
although fighting continued for several years after. The war has been referred to as 'the dirtywar' (la sale guerre), and saw extreme violence and brutality...
committed during the years of the dictatorship" in the 1970s, during the DirtyWar. Bergoglio made it his custom to celebrate the Holy Thursday ritual washing...
Condor exacerbated existing political violence and contributed to the "DirtyWar" that left an estimated 30,000 people dead or disappeared. The Archives...
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine...
Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Guerra sucia (Spanish for dirtywar) may refer to: DirtyWar (Argentina, 1974-1983), a period of state-sponsored violence...
forbidden by the government to prevent the war from becoming more unpopular at home. It was called the "dirtywar" (la sale guerre) by leftists in France...
dare sully the Russian soldier with your dirty hands!" In what is regarded as one of gravest war crimes in the war, Russian federal forces went on a village-sweep...
him. Acosta was also accused of 143–500 disappearances during Mexico's "DirtyWar" in the 1970s. Acosta Chaparro, son of the Mexican Army general Francisco...
Contras guerrillas during the Nicaraguan civil war. In domestic policy, General Galtieri continued the DirtyWar with the 601 Intelligence Battalion death...
murdered thousands of political critics, activists, and leftists in the DirtyWar, a period of state terrorism and civil unrest that lasted until the election...
(2017). DirtyWar: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare, 1975–1980. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company. Bird, Ed (2014). Special Branch War: Slaughter...
estimated 600 Spanish citizens who disappeared in Argentina during the "DirtyWar", evidence was presented to support the allegation that much of this repression...
violent dissident communist guerrillas. The PRN called this period the "DirtyWar" — a term refused by jurists during the 1985 Trial of the Juntas. Batallón...
Videla regime and claimed that, as a civilian, he was unaware of the DirtyWar while he was a cabinet minister. Professor Michiel Baud [nl], who on request...
Generals: The "DirtyWar" in Argentina, Paul H. Lewis, Page 125, Praeger (2001) Lewis, Paul H. (2002). Guerrillas and Generals: the DirtyWar in Argentina...