Historical Dictionary of the Dirty Wars (Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest, No. 24)

251 Pages·2003·9.25 MB·English

by  Beatrice Julian

Historical Dictionary of
"Dirty Wars"
David Kohut
Olga Vilella
Beatrice Julian
The Scarecrow Press
HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES
OF WAR, REVOLUTION, AND CIVIL UNREST
Edited by Jon Woronoff
1. Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies, by Ludwig W.
Adamec. 1996.
2. The United States-Mexican War, by Edward H. Moseley and Paul
C. Clark, Jr. 1997.
3. World War I, by Ian V. Hogg. 1998.
4. The United States Navy, by James M. Morris and Patricia M.
Keams. 1998.
5. The United States Marine Corps, by Harry A. Gailey. 1998.
6. The Wars of the French Revolution, by Steven T. Ross. 1998.
7. The American Revolution, by Terry M. Mays. 1999.
8. The Spanish-American War, by Brad K. Berner. 1998.
9. The Persian Gulf War, byClaytonR. Newell. 1998.
10. The Holocaust, by Jack R. Fischel. 1999.
11. The United States A ir Force and Its Antecedents, by Michael
Robert Terry. 1999.
12. Civil Wars in Africa, by Guy Arnold. 1999.
13. World War II: The War against Japan, by Anne Sharp Wells.
1999.
14. British and Irish Civil Wars, by Martyn Bennett. 2000.
15. The Cold War, by Joseph Smith and Simon Davis. 2000.
16. Ancient Greek Warfare, by lain Spence. 2002.
17. The Vietnam War, by Edwin E. MOIse. 2001.
18. The Civil War, by Terry L. Jones. 2002.
19. The Crimean War, by Guy Arnold. 2002.
20. The United States Army, a Historical Dictionary, by Clayton R.
Newell. 2002.
21. Terrorism, Second Edition, by Sean K. Anderson and Stephen
Sloan. 2002.
22. Chinese Civil War, by Edwin Pak-wah Leung. 2002.
23. The Korean War: A Historical Dictionary, by Paul M. Edwards,
2002.
24. The "Dirty Wars, " by David Kohut, Olga Vilella, and Beatrice
Julian, 2003.
25. The Crusades, by Corliss Slack, 2003.

Historical Dictionary of the
"Dirty Wars"
David Kohut
Olga Vilella
Beatrice Julian
Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution,
and Civil Unrest, No. 24
j
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford
2003
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.scarecrowpress.com
PO Box 317
Oxford
OX29RU, UK
Copyright © 2003 by David Kohut, Olga Vilella, and Beatrice Julian
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission ofthe publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kohut, David R., 1953-
Historical dictionary of the "dirty wars" / David Kohut, Olga Vilella, Beatrice
Julian.
p. cm. - (Historical dictionaries of war, revolution, and civil unrest; no. 24)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8108-4853-8 (alk. paper)
1. Argentina-History-DirtyWar, I 976-1983-Dictionaries. 2. Chile
History-1973-1988-Dictionaries. 3. Uruguay-History-1904-1973-
Dictionaries. 4. Political violence-Chile-History-20th century-Dictionaries.
5. Political violence-Uruguay-History-20th century-Dictionaries. 1. Vilella,
Olga, 1954-II. Julian, Beatrice, 1954-III. Title. IV. Series.
F2849.2 .K64 2003
303.6'098'03-dc21
2003010162
8nd
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSIINISO 239.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Contents
Editor's Foreword Jon WoronofJ Vll
Preface ix
Acronyms and Abbreviations Xl
Chronology xv
Introduction
THE DICTIONARY 9
Bibliography 173
About the Authors 219
v

Editor's Foreword
Warfare can assume many forms other than the more classical wars be
tween states and civil wars, which are generally recognized if imperfectly
regulated by international law. There is a vast category that does not pit
one state against another or even the state against armed force-instead, it
is the state that engages in warfare against some of its own citizens for
economic, social, ethnic, or ideological reasons. These are often horribly
violent and implacable because the state, namely, the government and/or
military establishment, has infinitely more power than its opponents and
can crush them or just make them disappear with impunity. Such "dirty
wars" have occurred on both sides of the communist-capitalist divide for
much of the past century for sometimes rather specious reasons, and some
times for no reason at all. And they have been around much longer in
countless countries of mixed racial or religious composition through "eth
nic cleansing" and other techniques. Only in South America, more specifi
cally Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, has the subject received serious at
tention, and where circumstances and events have been sufficiently
elucidated to see just how this kind of warfare manifests itself and just how
dirty it can be.
This Historical Dictionary of the "Dirty Wars" is, therefore, particu
larly welcome in expanding the scope of the war series and showing us
what the future of warfare may hold in store if we are not careful. This is
done, first, through a chronology of events, and more broadly, by putting
these events in the overall context in the introduction. The dictionary in
cludes more details, with entries on persons-those who ran the state and
those who were crushed by it-some considerably more guilty than others
and some who were pure victims. There are also entries on various politi
cal parties and other organizations that were involved in these events,
again on both sides, and the methods they used, including torture and guer
rilla warfare. Some entries, all too few, trace efforts to stop or at least re
strain the excesses. The situation in each country is brought together in the
three key entries on Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. This book, while rea
sonably rounded and comprehensive, obviously cannot tell the whole
Vll
viii I EDITOR'S FOREWORD
story. The bibliography, therefore, refers readers to other sources of infor
mation.
This book was written by three persons with a keen interest in the situa
tion of Latin America during the period of the "dirty wars." They are all
close observers but with somewhat varied academic backgrounds and ca
reers. Both David Kohut and Beatrice Julian are reference librarians at the
Byrne Memorial Library of Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Olga
Vilella is a professor at the same university with a specialization in Latin
American literature. Between them they have done an excellent job of
tracking down often elusive information and providing an overall picture
of a period that is all too often seen only from one angle or another, miss
ing those parts one does not want to see.
Jon Woronoff
Series Editor
Preface
The "dirty wars" waged in the Southern Cone of South America
Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay-during the 1970s and 1980s form the
scope of the dictionary. The term "dirty war," originally associated with
the dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, is now regularly applied
to the regime of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990) in Chile
and to the dictatorship in Uruguay (1973-1985). Indeed, the term has be
come a byword for state-sponsored repression anywhere in the world.
These countries were selected for inclusion for three reasons. First, they
were notorious offenders, their names synonymous with human rights vio
lations, though Uruguay, overshadowed by its neighbors, received far less
world attention. Second, they are often discussed together in the literature
on the topic of military dictatorship and its aftermath. Third, the arrest and
eventual release of Pinochet Ugarte in Great Britain have brought renewed
attention to the period and the region.
Categories of entries include the countries themselves; guerrilla and
political movements that provoked (though by no means exonerated) gov
ernment reaction; leading guerrilla, human rights, military, and political
figures; local, regional, and international human rights organizations; and
major literary figures whose works reflect the period of repression. Other
entries relevant to the story include the United States, the Catholic Church,
and such terms as "dirty war," desaparecidos, and liberation theology.
Words in boldface point the reader to additional entries.
The alphabetization of the dictionary entries follows the letter-by-letter
system in which sorting ignores spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes. Com
mas and slashes, however, interrupt the sorting: FAMILIARES / RELA
TIVES precedes FAMILIARES DE DESAPARECIDOS Y DETENIDOS
POR RAZONES POLiTICAS, and PERON, JUAN precedes PERONISM.
Dictionary entries for organizations formed in Spanish-speaking countries
will be found under the Spanish version of the name; hence, readers look
ing for the Argentine human rights organization MOTHERS OF THE
PLAZA DE MAYO will be referred to MADRES DE LA PLAZA DE
MAYO. References to individuals will follow the Spanish-speaking model.
If an individual has two surnames (the paternal followed by the maternal),
IX