State Terrorism in Argentina: Mechanisms of Repression and Control during the Military Dictatorship (1976-1983)

Abstract

State terrorism constitutes one of the most aberrant forms of political violence, where the state apparatus, instead of protecting citizens, becomes the main perpetrator of systematic human rights violations. In this way, the rule of law is instrumentalized in order to protect and maintain a certain illegitimate political and social order, even in spite of the harm it may inflict on society. This phenomenon occurred largely within the framework of Latin American dictatorships, especially in the Southern Cone, and left behind a region marked by shadows, wounds and scars whose consequences persist to this day.