The silenced dead

The Silenced Dead is an invaluable contribution to filling a substantial gap in the memory picture of our recent past and to putting an end to the conversion of crime into an archetype of good.

Juan was only three years old when he was killed in a barrage of gunfire unleashed by Montoneros as they mounted an attack. Andrea was ten when a bomb detonated remotely by Montoneros tore apart the car in which she was riding with her parents, who were instantly killed. Mario Alpern had three children and ran a factory when a guerrilla squad gunned him down in front of his son. María de los Ángeles was still in her sleep when someone knocked on the door at her home; her husband Georgie, a manager with Chrysler, went to answer the door, only to have his body riddled with machine-gun bullets. Hugo was 22 when he was kidnapped for a second time, and although his father paid a new ransom, he was killed and his body was thrown alongside a motorway. Héctor Saraspe had two daughters and worked at a club canteen in Tucumán when an ERP group murdered him at his workplace.

These are some of the stories of the 1,094 fatal victims claimed by terrorism in Argentina-families who have seen History and the human rights policy turn their back on them. They are the forgotten face of the 1970s. This book, which includes a list of those who died, were wounded or murdered, shows that the armed organizations of the time attacked the civil population, and that many of those who took part in the attacks not only enjoy complete impunity but are also viewed as morally irreproachable in the current political scenario and even dare to hold themselves out as judges of the rest of society.

The Silenced Dead is an invaluable contribution to filling a substantial gap in the memory picture of our recent past and to putting an end to the conversion of crime into an archetype of good.