Genocides and Politicides

From WolfWikis

Colombia

Although the Colombian politicide is one that persists even to the present day, it can be broken into two parts. First, “La Violencia,” a horrible time that is claimed to have ended around 1965. Referred to as “La Violencia” or “The Violence,” this event stems from the corruption of all of the major groups in Colombia. Some, “date la violencia from 1930, the year the Liberals came to power by means of a free and honest election, after a period of Conservative dominance.[1] ” These groups include, but are not limited to, the government, FARC, the guerilla forces, the paramilitary, and the drug cartels. Unfortunately, these groups refuse to play nice and this internal instability has resulted in atrocious crimes and numerous human rights abuses.

But what was “La Violencia?” Sánchez and Bakewell say that “La Violencia” is a term “used to denote the social and political agitation that shook the country from 1945 to 1965, which left between 1oo,ooo and 300,000 people dead.[2] ” On the other hand, Bailey explains that these killings could have occurred and “yet still not have been given the name of "The Violence," perhaps, had it not been for the almost incredible ferocity with which most of the killings, maimings and dismemberings were done. Certain techniques of death and torture became so common and widespread that they were given names.[1]”

Second, the politicide that occurred post “La Violencia” when Colombia became a democratic state. This politicide persists even today, under President Uribe- an ally of the United States. In, “Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy,” Giraldo shows us some values about victims of political violence in Colombia. Although there is most likely error in these values because of unrecorded deaths, they are strikingly large .

Argentina

In Argentina, the politicide began around 1976 and ended by 1983, and it victimized somewhere between 9,000 and 20,000 individuals [4]. Although these numbers aren’t nearly as high as those in the Colombian warfare, the human rights abuses caused by the government of Argentina during that time were numerous. Similar to the Nazi genocide, the Argentina politicide was silent in the way it would creep into villages and kidnap many to never be seen again. These individuals would either be tortured to death or tortured to near death and brought to one of the many concentration camps that Argentina still refuses to recognize existed.

In fact, Argentina has done its best to avoid the horrors it went through. But certain individuals- Los Madres de La Plaza de Mayo- refuse to allow people to forget the disappeared, “Los Desaparecidos.” In an interview Mabel Bellucci had with one of the most vocal mothers of the plaza, it was explained what exactly the mothers believe happened to their loved ones during this politicide. As an introduction to the interview, Bellucci detailed the overarching story of Los Desaparecidos, “They broke into and searched homes and kidnapped who- ever they found. If the victims survived the search and seize operation, they were taken clandestinely to concentration camps or torture centres, where they were hooded and chained until the executioners decided their fate.” [5]. This is painfully similar to what happened during the holocaust. After this time, democracy was returned to Argentina. It was found that there were “340 clandestine detention centres,” “hundreds of thousands of exhiles, 9,000 political prisoners, and 250 missing children whose whereabouts are still unknown.” [5]. The politicide in Argentina is unforgivable. For all of the families who still suffer from the disappearances of loved ones Los Madres de La Plaza continue to speak out.

This is fortunate, because the world wouldn’t know about the horrors that took place in Argentina without these strong women. They marched at the Plaza de Mayo every day for years asking where their children were. This hard work paid off in 1979 when the Inter-American Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) arrived in Argentina. Upon their arrival the Argentine people began to speak out against the oppression, “the families of the disappeared… waited in long lines to testify about the disappearances.” In their report, the OAS documented “the illegal detentions, the torture, and the clandestine deaths.” And upon receiving this report, the Argentine government’s junta prohibited its publication [6]. Argentina tried very hard to cover up their connection to the deaths and disappearances of all these individuals. In “The Argentine Pariah,” Charles Maechling, Jr. discussed the undercover way in which Argentina conducted these abuses and then tried to cover them up. He explained how during this horror, “special army and police squads conducted night raids on the homes of suspected terrorists and their sympathizers, either shooting them or removing them to secret jails and detention centers for torture, interrogation, and in the majority of cases, summary execution.” He went on to explain how, “no records were kept of the victims.” [7]. This way of conducting the politicide aided the Argentine government in their quest to just pretend it never happened. Although they never denied the OAS allegations, they do everything in their power to erase this from the history books.

Paraguay

The Paraguayan genocide occurred during a four year period that left three Aché Indian tribes disappeared, with an estimated 900 Indians dead and 350 known to be dead [8]. This group of murders is classified as genocide for many reasons. Unfortunately, it did not receive much press coverage and isn’t well known around the world. Elie Weisel, the Nobel Laureate author of Night, holocaust survivor, and professor of literature at Boston University, is a known advocate against genocide. As an epilogue to Arens book Genocide in Paraguay, Wiesel wrote his own two cents about the genocide and the lack of response it received from the global community. He explained that the, “Deculturization, ghettos, collective murders, manhunts, tortures, and agonies, that in a country so near to ours humans can still be locked with impunity inside stifling camps… ought to battle anyone who still believes in Man, in his conscience, and his possibility of survival.” [9]. He also expressed concern at the stories that he read that depicted the poor truth of the Aché Indian life during this genocide. It is unreasonable that, “These men [are] hunted, humiliated, murdered for the sake of pleasure.” [9]. Although not nearly as massive or popular as politicides in South America, this genocide did happen recently. As Harff wrote in her article one of the Genocides in the world was, “in Paraguay against the Aché Indians in 1962-72.” [8]. Despite the ill coverage, this genocide did occur and should be recognized as such instead of being forgotten like many awful things in South America have been.

Annotated Bibliography

[1]Bailey, N. A. (1967). La Violencia in Colombia. Journal of Inter-American Studies , 9 (4), 561-575.

This source really focused on the violence that was La Violencia. It was a great source and was easy to understand. It made it very clear what the human rights issues were and why it was so bad.

[2]Bakewell, G. S. (1985). La Violencia in Colombia: New Research, New Questions. The Hispanic American Historical Review , 65 (4), 789=807.

This source talked about the definition of "La Violencia" and the new questions brought about by new research into what had happened. It was a good source to explain what it was, but it wasn't the best as far as statistics and talked a lot about the economy, rather than the murders.

[3]S.J., J. G. (1996). Colombia The Genocidal Democracy. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.

This book wasn't very helpful for me. I focused on La Violencia rather than the current issues in Colombia. it had a great table of information, but other than that it went too much into the current problems.

[4]Harff, B. (2003). No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955. The American Political Science Review , 97 (1), 57-73.

This source contained little information about Argentina, and more information about genocides and political mass murder in general. It was a great source to understand the genocides and political mass murder in other parts of the world, it neglected much of South America.

[5]Bellucci, M. (1999). Childless Motherhood: Interview with Nora Cortinas, a Mother of the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina. Reproductive Health Matters , 7 (13), 83-88.

This was an amazing source. Bellucci made sure to speak about the situation in Argentina before going into the interview with Nora Cortinas. The interview was very informative and emotional, and his pre-cursor to it made it very easy to understand the devastation of Cortinas.

[6]Gil, N. A. (1987). Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo: The Mourning Process from Junta to Democracy. Feminist Studies , 13 (1), 9-18.

This also was very informative, but it went too much into the mourning process instead of information about what happened. Very scientific.

[7]Charles Maechling, J. (1981-1982). The Argentine Pariah. Foreign Policy (45), 69-83.

This source had a lot of statistics in it. That was very helpful. But at the same time it lacked emotional writing.

[8]Stohl, M. (1987). Outside of a Small Circle of Friends: States, Genocide, Mass Killing and the Role of Bystanders. Journal of Peace Research , 24 (2), 151-166.

This source was not very good. It was a general source and not specific towards any of my countries.

[9]Wiesel, E. (1976). Now We Know. In R. Arens, Genocide in Paraguay (pp. 165-167). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

This was one of the best sources. Wiesel is a known advocate against genocides because of his role in the Holocaust. He did a great summary of Arens book and touched on the problems surrounding the worlds response to the Paraguayan genocide.