Revolución, derechos humanos y exilio: Montoneros y la Comisión Argentina de Derechos Humanos en los orígenes de la denuncia de la dictadura argentina (1976-1980)

Abstract

Este artículo propone un cruce, a través del exilio, entre dos campos que hasta la actualidad no han dialogado en profundidad: el de las investigaciones sobre las organizaciones armadas y el de los estudios sobre el movimiento de denuncia de las violaciones a los derechos humanos de la última dictadura argentina. Por eso, profundiza en los vínculos que se establecieron entre la organización armada Montoneros y la Comisión Argentina de Derechos Humanos (CADHU) desde el comienzo de su “exilio orgánico”, entre fines de 1976 y principios de 1977, hasta la realización del “testimonio de París” y la última disidencia montonera, entre fines de 1979 y principios de 1980. A través de un mosaico de fuentes que incluye documentos partidarios, entrevistas a los protagonistas e informes desclasificados de la inteligencia militar, el trabajo aborda el rol desempeñado por las organizaciones armadas en la constitución de las redes que motorizaron inicialmente la denuncia transnacional de las violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas por la dictadura en la Argentina.

Almost disarmed: Politics and violence in the final years of the Argentine organization Montoneros (1979–1983)

“…6 The plan was to launch propaganda campaigns, establish political contacts, and carry out armed attacks against members of the regime’s economic department and the business sector. As Hernán Confino (2018) explains in detail, almost 200 militants were recruited, mainly in Madrid and Mexico City, then trained in Mexico, Spain, Syria, and Lebanon, and finally smuggled into Argentina. There were two phases, the first in 1979 and the second in 1980.…”

“…10 They were joined by other dissenting militants. A few had returned to Argentina in the first phase of the Counteroffensive (Confino, 2018) and others had recently collaborated with the Sandinistas (Cortina Orero, 2017). The group’s members included Miguel Bonasso, Daniel Vaca Narvaja, Ernesto Jauretche, Susana Sanz, Jaime Dri, Pablo Ramos, Julio Rodríguez Anido, Pedro Orgambide, Sylvia Bermann, Eduardo Astiz, René Chávez, Gerardo Bavio, and Olimpia Díaz.…”

“…As Hernán Confino (2018) has shown, rather than any kind of ideological transformation, it was only after the kidnapping in February 1980 of the entire first military group that had returned to Argentina in the second phase of the Counteroffensive that the National Leadership dismantled the armed group that was due to follow. This coincided with the capture of militants in Brazil as a result of the international cooperation of other governments in the region (under Operation Condor; McSherry, 2005).…”

“…It could be argued that this silence is reflected in academic studies on the organization. While there are many works on the organization’s origins (Lanusse, 2005), its links with Catholicism (Campos, 2016; Donatello, 2010), its discourses and imaginaries (Sigal and Verón, 2004; Vezzetti, 2009), its relationship with the Peronist government (Servetto, 2010; Svampa, 2003), and its legal activities (Grammático, 2011), there are few that address its final stage (Confino, 2018; Cortina Orero, 2017). 2 Except for this handful of studies, Montoneros’ final years are not subjected to a detailed analysis, if they are even mentioned at all.…”

“…13, Partido Montonero, February 1980. Of course, the position of the Montoneros leadership in its official bulletins (and its strategic rather than ideological use of human rights) does not disregard the shifts in thinking that individual militants may have had, especially those who made the denunciations (for the case of Mexico, see Confino, 2018).…”