La construcción de la memoria de la experiencia represiva en el Cono Sur de América Latina: memoria, apropiación y elaboración

Between the years 1973 and 1989, the countries of the southern cone of Latin American underwent an abrupt and traumatic transformation of their social relations, by means of the implementation of military dictatorships which, based on the logic of the Doctrine of National Security implemented in the region by the United States since the 50’s and on the teachings of the French doctrines of counter-insurgence, deployed a concentrationist apparatus which bound up each of these societies. The core of these practices was based on the kidnapping –in most cases, clandestine– of thousands and tens of thousands of people and subjecting them to different forms of torture in environments that worked like concentration camps. In addition, in Uruguay, hundreds of people were killed; in Chile, the killings numbered in the thousands; and in Argentina, more than 20,000. The processes of “the transition to democracy” –in 1983 in Argentina, 1985 in Uruguay and 1989 in Chile– brought into discussion the problems of the manners of construction of memory, its connection to the possible “elaboration” of the traumatic consequences, the role of the judges and the levels of treatment of the different parties responsible for those actions. The objective of this work is to recount briefly some of these discussions. Key words: genocide, memory, elaboration of trauma, Latin America, State terroris

The Meaning of Concepts: Some Reflections on the Difficulties in Analysing State Crimes

The article analyses the different concepts used to conceptualise State Crimes (politicide, massacre, State Terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity) in order to explore the theoretical advantages and disadvantages in comparison with the concept of genocide. The article highlights the conceptual problems of the different terms and the theoretical strength of the concept of genocide when compared with any of the other possibilities

Human Rights? What a Good Idea! From Universal Jurisdiction to Crime Prevention

Over the last decades, Genocide Studies has entered in a “comfort zone.” With fellowships and support from governments or NGOs, we have developed a very comfortable environment in which the knowledge we produce about genocide prevention is neither critical nor useful. We have become trapped by assumptions we have never checked against reality and many of us have chosen to work inside the circle of those assumptions: genocide and mass violence are horrible acts committed by horrible people; we cannot stand by and do nothing; we have the responsibility to protect civilian populations and that responsibility takes the form, as a last resort, of military intervention. This paper analyzes the validity of such assumptions against different data about the levels of violence in the world and the use of the "human rights" discourse as a new and effective tool (a good idea!!) to justify the same "military interventions" and the violation of the soverignty produced in the past with worst excuses.Fil: Feierstein, Daniel Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales; Argentin

Editors’ Introduction

This special section focuses on genocide and related mass violence in Latin America. Clearly there is a long history of genocide of indigenous peoples, from the arrival of Columbus and other conquerors to the present day. Perpetrated first by European colonial powers, particularly Spain and Portugal, genocidal activities continued in postcolonial settler states following the revolutions of the nineteenth century. Government shifted from Europe to local Euro-American, as well as in some cases indigenous, elites, who shared economic and thus political power with imperialist international actors—including, in many cases, the United States and some of its large corporations. Human-rights abuses continued. In the second half of the twentieth century, the Cold War–era National Security Doctrine, as well as state- specific tensions and agendas, played out in various Latin American contexts in a new round of repression, genocide, and other forms of mass violence. The Guate- malan Genocide of the 1980s and systematic killings and general military repression under dictatorships in Chile and Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s are perhaps the best-known cases, but others abound

Introducción

Introducción al dossier Experiencias de tribunales nacionales en casos de genocidio y crímenes de lesa humanidad

Algunos interrogantes sobre las modalidades de juzgamiento de los crímenes estatales masivos

El artículo propone un análisis criminológico de las categorías jurídicas creadas para lidiar con los crímenes estatales masivos (crímenes de guerra, crímenes contra la humanidad, genocidio), señalando las potencialidades, límites y desafíos de cada una de ellas, al tratarse de figuras que por primera vez aplican la capacidad de juzgar sobre el propio poder punitivo, lo cual genera ciertas paradojas. Se destaca la problematicidad de la figura de crímenes contra la humanidad como un posible "tipo abierto" y su utilización como ariete para vulnerar los ordenamientos jurídicos y derechos soberanos de las naciones en desarrollo. Se señala la necesidad de una mejor codificación del concepto de genocidio que, garantizando la inclusión de todos los grupos y la igualdad ante la ley, podría resultar una figura más sólida y menos peligrosa que la de crímenes contra la humanidad. Asimismo, el texto propone repensar los modos procesales en el juzgamiento de crímenes estatales masivos, con el fin de enfrentar con eficiencia aquellos delitos que son organizados por el propio poder punitivo, en condiciones de clandestinidad,  y donde la propia lógica de la prueba del delito es puesta en cuestión

El concepto de genocidio y la "destrucción parcial de los grupos nacionales": algunas reflexiones sobre las consecuencias del derecho penal en la política internacional y en los procesos de memoria

El artículo analiza las distintas interpretaciones de la Convención para la Prevención y la Sanción del Delito de Genocidio y sus impactos en la construcción de la memoria colectiva de las sociedades que han vivido esta experiencia histórica de terror masivo estatal. Centrando el eje de análisis en el grupo sobre el que se considera que se ejerció la violencia -y la novedad que implica pensarlo como el conjunto del grupo nacional sobre el que se implementó el terror-, se compara la jurisprudencia internacional con la producida por sistemas jurídicos nacionales -en especial en Argentina, pero con repercusión en Bangladesh, Camboya y Colombia-, con el fin de comprender sus consecuencias en la construcción de las identidades de las sociedades posgenocidas.This article explores the different juridical interpretations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and its impact on the collective memory building of societies that have undergone the historical experience of massive State terror. It analyzes the international jurisprudence vis-à-vis national jurisprudences -particularly in the case of Argentina, but also with regards to Bangladesh, Cambodia and Colombia-. The study is focused on how the group that underwent the violence is defined -and the possibility to define it as a whole national group in the society in which terror happened-, thus allowing the understanding of its impact on the collective identities created in post-genocidal societies through these representations of the past

Panel “Genocidio y negacionismo. Disputas en la construcción de la memoria”

Acto inaugural mes de la memoria. 21 de marzo de 2017. Rectorado UNLP. Panel “Genocidio y negacionismo. Disputas en la construcción de la memoria”. Coordinación: Ana Barletta y Verónica CruzFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació