Las dictaduras militares de Argentina, Brasil, Chile y Uruguay y la justicia transicional

Abstract

The framework of the Cold War, the Cuban Revolution and the social and political situation in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay led to the existence of military dictatorships in these countries in the sixties and seventies of the last century, characterized by a policy of systematic human rights violations and the physical elimination of those they considered subversive, and by their unsuccessful attempts to institutionalize a different structure of state models. After examining these points and analyzing them comparatively, the end of these dictatorships and the legal obstacles, self-amnesties and amnesties, created to avoid accountability for the crimes committed are dealt with. The second part of this study analyzes the situation of transitional justice in each of the countries examined, with the common denominator of overcoming and breaking down the legal obstacles created by the military governments. To this end, following the Argentinean model, they undertake a first and unavoidable phase of “Truth Commissions” to ascertain the reality and overturn the “official story”, and a second phase of prosecution of those responsible, with different scopes in each of the countries studied. Throughout the process of transitional justice, the tension between political demands and the imperatives of justice is always present. The important contribution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the fact that we are facing a new phase in the evolution of international criminal law is highlighted in this transitional justice process.