Impunity, Human Rights, and Democracy: Chile and Argentina, 1990–2005 by Thomas C. Wright (review)

Thomas Wright has written a well-researched and succinct account of the efforts in Argentina and Chile to bring human rights abusers to justice after the transition from military to civilian rule. His goal is to understand how impunity was eroded, and justice advanced, even if slowly and imperfectly, in the face of stiff resistance from the military, its political allies, and even cautious policy makers.

Wright combines his synthesis of the existing literature with information gleaned from over 40 of his own interviews and a variety of primary documents. The essential argument of the book is that human rights activists laid the initial groundwork in each country, even where outcomes of their efforts were negative. During the same period, buoyed by increased attention from the United States and the United Nations, international human rights NGOs increased the scope of their work. Further, a confluence of precipitating events gave new life to domestic activists and judges.

Wright begins with an overview of the dictatorships and transitions back to civilian rule, showing how impunity trumped accountability and justice as the transitions began. Argentina’s military government collapsed in 1983 after the implementation of disastrous economic policies and an ill-conceived war with Great Britain over the Islas Malvinas. The military was disgraced and on the defensive. In Chile, the dictator Augusto Pinochet lost a referendum in 1988 but retained a significant amount of popular support. Therefore, he was able to negotiate a transfer of power that not only involved a high level of military influence, but also allowed Pinochet himself to stay on as commander in chief of the army.

That difference is one of several that separate the two cases. Another was the stance of the Catholic Church. In Chile, it played an integral part in aiding victims and providing information to human rights organizations. The Vicariate of Solidarity helped train lawyers and file briefs on behalf of victims. In Argentina, the Church had been deeply involved on the wrong side of the Dirty War. In contrast, the Argentine dictatorship was less controlling than its Chilean counterpart, both because its repression was more decentralized and often personalized, but also because the Argentine military had no blueprint for the future and certainly no plan for a return to civilian rule. That gave civilians more leverage.

The domestic response to amnesty is yet another difference. When the Argentine Congress and President Raúl Alfonsín repealed the military’s amnesty in 1983, the judiciary—although it was conservative and often dragged its feet—was able to shift its orientation from fearful collaboration to judicial action. In Chile, judges remained constrained by the military’s 1978 amnesty, and Pinochet packed the supreme court before leaving power. Chilean human rights activists were therefore largely unsuccessful in pursuing cases for many years.

For Wright, what brings the cases together are the precipitating events that served to overcome the obstacles. In Argentina, retired naval officer Adolfo Scilingo gave an interview in 1995 detailing the horrific treatment of political prisoners. For Chile, the event occurred abroad, in 1998, when Pinochet was arrested in Great Britain on the orders of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. The result was that in both countries human rights organizations were quickly energized, judges emboldened, and museums of memory established. Governments took active steps to investigate the crimes committed by the military.

These are useful and important case studies, but the book did leave me wondering which factors of the struggle for human rights might be applied elsewhere. The question of comparison is raised only briefly in the introduction. The supportive international environment is the same for all countries, for example, but the outcomes of accountability are not. One would suppose that other cases of impunity lack a precipitating event, but from these two cases it is not easy to determine what type of event is necessary.

Overall, anyone interested in human rights will...