Sin pensar en las consecuencias: desertion from the army during the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983)

• In Event: Rethinking the dictatorship: consensus, collaboration, and cooperation in Argentina, 1976-1983

Abstract

Cases of desertion of conscripted soldiers during the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) reveal a long standing tension within the Argentine armed forces. On one hand, the armed forces repressed wide sectors of the civilian population from 1974-1983. That repression first required the brutal internal repression of conscripts and junior officers whose political or social affiliations rendered them suspect. This state sponsored repression was new in its intensity and scope but the armed forces had history of waging war against fellow citizens dates back to the post World War One period. But the armed forces at times also operated as a social welfare institution for its own personnel. Poor rural men who arrived to the barracks were often illiterate and “uncultured” and the year of service was transformational and gave many men educational and vocational opportunities. The Armed Forces ran schools, clinics, hospitals, and engaged in public health surveys in the communities around their bases. Using recently declassified sumarios from the Archivo Historico de Justicia Militar, this paper examines a large collection cases of ‘desercion simple’ (first time desertion) by men from poor households. These cases lead us to ask how these two realities of military life coexisted during the last dictatorship? What, in other words, was the balance between these two traditionally sets of practices? Furthermore, how did soldiers use desertion as a mode of negotiation? To what extent did the Armed Forces understand the problem of the economic precariousness of their common soldiers?

Author

• Jonathan D Ablard, Ithaca College