“Revisioning Civil-State Relations under the Last Military Dictatorship in Argentina, 1976-1983”

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

Abstract

While most well-known for the Dirty War – the systematic abduction, torture, and murder of citizens – the last military regime in Argentina pursued other agendas in its obsessive efforts to save and transform the nation. My study will look at the urban reforms initiated between 1976 and 1983 and how those actions present a more complex understanding of the dictatorship. I will focus on how citizens responded to the state’s intrusion in their lives. Instead of seeing a populace cowed into submission, this study finds a creative citizenry that criticized the regime publicly and consistently. Argentines organized alternative forms of dissent, mostly through the press and professional identities, and managed to avoid violent reprisals. As highways cut through the urban fabric, green spaces expanded, and new garbage trucks collected refuse, Porteños questioned the promises of the reforms and held the generals accountable for shortcomings. In several cases, the regime found itself on the defense as citizens lashed out at these transformations. By shifting focus from the Dirty War, scholars can understand how other citizens might have experienced life under the dictatorship. We can also see the limits of the military’s repressive apparatus; the armed forces could not rely on coercion alone to compel cooperation or stymie popular option. The result of this study is a more nuanced understanding of civil-state relations that may open other avenues of inquiry into this period.

Author

• Jennifer T Hoyt, Berry College