Some Closure for the ‘Dirty War’

In Buenos Aires this week, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright heard a powerful plea from the abuelas, the grandmothers, Argentine women whose daughters and grandchildren and other relatives were swept up and disappeared in Argentina’s notorious “dirty war” of the late 1970s and early 1980s. No stain more certainly marks the horrors of that time.

The grandmothers called on Albright to declassify U.S. documents detailing the crimes of Argentina’s military against the nation’s citizens. The abuelas believe CIA and State Department files contain information that could help locate some of the stolen children and turn up evidence of what happened to their mothers.

There is no question that these atrocities occurred. They have been documented by the State Department and the U.S. and South American press. A prompt decision by Albright could give credence to her claim that U.S. policy adheres to two fundamental principles: support for democracy and for human rights.

Sadly, the U.S. policy that the grandmothers remember was one that allowed the CIA to help right-wing military governments in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile crush dissent during the 1970s and 1980s. The number of Argentines killed or “disappeared” has been officially estimated at 15,000; relatives of the victims say the number is double that.

Certainly, the abuelas have the right to know what happened to their daughters and grandchildren and other relatives. Opening the State Department and CIA files on the era could possibly lead to reunions.

During the last seven years, President Clinton has presided over an era of growing optimism in U.S.-Latin American relations. Perhaps his most dramatic step was ordering the National Security Council, CIA and State Department to declassify files on U.S. actions during Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship in Chile. Opening the books on what U.S. diplomats and intelligence agents knew about the “dirty war” could deliver some release to the abuelas. That’s the least that Albright and the Clinton administration should do in this cruel affair.