Jacobo Timerman was a Soviet-born Argentine publisher, journalist, and author, who is most noted for his confronting and reporting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War during a period of widespread repression in which an estimated 30,000 political prisoners were disappeared. He was persecuted, tortured and imprisoned by the Argentine junta in the late 1970s and was exiled in 1979 with his wife to Israel. He was widely honored for his work as a journalist and publisher.
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after the 7-years National Reorganization Process. Ideologically, he identified as a radical and a social democrat, serving as the leader of the Radical Civic Union from 1983 to 1991, 1993 to 1995, 1999 to 2001, with his political approach being known as "Alfonsinism".
The Dirty War is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina for its period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 as a part of Operation Condor, during which military and security forces and death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance hunted down any political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism, or the Montoneros movement.
The National Reorganization Process was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, which received support from the United States until 1982. In Argentina it is often known simply as the última junta militar, última dictadura militar or última dictadura cívico-militar, because there have been several in the country's history and no others since it ended.
The Buenos Aires Herald is an English language daily online newspaper. Originally published as a daily newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1876 to 2017, its slogans were A World of Information in a Few Words and Unbiased press, a better society. The online format began on 24 March 2023.
The theory of the two demons is a rhetorical device used in Argentine political discourse to disqualify arguments that appear to morally equate violent political subversion with illegal repressive activities carried out by the state.
Hebe María Pastor de Bonafini was an Argentine activist who was one of the founders of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the National Reorganization Process military dictatorship.
Christian Federico von Wernich is an Argentine Roman Catholic priest and a former chaplain of the Buenos Aires Province Police while it was under the command of General Ramón Camps, during the dictatorial period known as the National Reorganization Process (1976–1983). Wernich worked in Miguel Etchecolatz's Direction of Investigations of the provincial police with the rank of Inspector. He became internationally known in 2006 after being indicted for murder and kidnapping in aid of the military junta; he was convicted at trial in October 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Carapintadas were a group of mutineers in the Argentine Army, who took part in various uprisings between 1987 and 1990 during the presidencies of Raúl Alfonsín and Carlos Menem in Argentina. The rebellions, while at first thought to be an attempt at a military coup, were staged primarily to assert displeasure against the civilian government and make certain military demands known.
Juan Gelman was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, country where he arrived as a political exile of the Process, the military junta ruling Argentinia from 1976 to 1983.
Horacio Verbitsky is an Argentine investigative journalist and author with a history as a leftist guerrilla in the Montoneros. In the early 1990s, he reported on a series corruption scandals in the administration of President Carlos Menem, which eventually led to the resignations or firings of many of Menem's ministers. In 1994, he reported on the confessions of naval officer Adolfo Scilingo, documenting torture and executions by the Argentine military during the 1976–83 Dirty War. His books on both the Menem administration and the Scilingo confessions became national bestsellers. As of January 2015 Verbitsky is a Commissioner for the International Commission against the Death Penalty.
The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth century, following the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina, in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies. In addition, many of the Portuguese traders in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata were Jewish. An organized Jewish community, however, did not develop until after Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816. By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina. Argentines of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic heritage have left their mark on all aspects of Argentine culture, including in areas such as cuisine.
Angel Kreiman-Brill was the Chief Rabbi of Chile during the 1970s and 1980s. Kreiman-Brill was a leader in interfaith outreach and cooperation, especially with Catholicism.
The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights is an Argentine non-governmental human rights organization; founded in 1975. According to its official website the organization is the product of a "call from people coming from distinct areas: the church, politics, Human Rights, sciences, culture, and labour Argentines in response to the increasing violence and the collapse of the most elemental Human Rights in the country".
Enriqueta Estela Barnes de Carlotto is an Argentine human rights activist and president of the association of Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. One of her daughters, Laura Estela Carlotto, was kidnapped and missing while pregnant in Buenos Aires, in late 1977. Through stories, she could ascertain that her daughter had given birth to a boy, and that her grandson was appropriated and his identity changed. She searched for him for nearly 36 years, until, on 5 August 2014, after a DNA check voluntarily made by the person concerned, her grandson was identified, and became the 114th in the list of recovered grandchildren.
Victoria Eugenia Villarruel is an Argentine politician, lawyer, writer, and activist who has served as vice president of Argentina since 2023. Described as a conservative politician, she is the founder of the civil association Centro de Estudios Legales sobre el Terrorismo y sus Víctimas, which she has chaired since its inception. She was a member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies from 2021 to 2023. Villarruel belongs to the La Libertad Avanza political coalition. She has been accused of Argentine state terrorism denial by several media outlets and human rights organisations. Villarruel denies such accusations, maintaining that she does not support the National Reorganization Process.
Alberto Emilio Nadra is an Argentine politician, writer and journalist of Marxist formation. He stood out as a human rights activist and also in the constitution of the Argentine Youth Political Coordination between 1970 and 1980.
Eduardo Salvador Barcesat is an Argentine constitutional lawyer and defender of human rights.
The Movimiento Judío por los Derechos Humanos was a human rights organization in Argentina. It was founded by Marshall Meyer and Herman Schiller on August 19, 1983.
Herman Schiller is an Argentine journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of Nueva Presencia, an Argentine Jewish newspaper, from its founding in 1977 until 1987. He also co-founded the Movimiento Judío por los Derechos Humanos with rabbi Marshall Meyer in August 1983, and was later involved in the creation of Memoria Activa. He hosted a radio program called Memoria y realidad on FM Jai until it was cut in 1999.
