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Disappeared Detainees ( es, detenidos desaparecidos, ) is the term commonly used in
The simultaneous and massive appearance of this practice in various countries is considered to be the result of the common training provided by the U.S. Defense department at its School of the Americas in Panama. Antecedents of the forced eliminations and disappearances of political prisoners can be found in the Hitler dictatorship, which issued an ordinance ( the Nacht und Nebel Decree, Night and Fog) applicable to captured English "Commandos" who were summarily executed without any record of their capture and execution. This practice was systematized by paratroopers and legionnaires (including ex-Nazi soldiers of the Foreign Legion) in the wars of Indochina and Algeria, and later picked up by the American military and members of the CIA trained by French instructors, veterans of the colonialist wars.
The first step of this method consisted in the apprehension of the victims by law enforcement agencies, undercover secret police or paramilitary groups with official support. Sometimes the arrest was conducted with a certain formality; at other times it took on the appearance and brutality of a kidnapping.
Once arrested, the victim was usually subjected to physical and psychological torture sessions, while official channels of information denied relatives any knowledge of the person's whereabouts. The "detainees pointed the finger at complete strangers for protecting their companions. They hoped that the interrogators would quickly determine their innocence, although often the opposite was true: the detainees could not provide them with any information because they had no information to offer, which led to even greater torture". Finally, the prisoner was killed and his body was buried clandestinely. In some cases, the hostages survived and are considered "ex-disappeared detainees".
The hiding of the corpse was often carried out with the support of aerial vehicles, such as airplanes and helicopters, from which the bodies were thrown into the sea or into inaccessible areas.Report of the ''Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición Forzada de Personas'' (
/ref>
The massive disappearance of people implied long years of search and suffering for their relatives (causing severe anguish due to long unfinished mourning). This situation led relatives to organize themselves to demand information, justice and the search for the corpses by filing ''
Ministerio del Interior, Chile. INFORME DE LA COMISIÓN NACIONAL DE VERDAD Y RECONCILIACIÓN (INFORME RETTIG), 8 de febrero de 1991
(in Spanish).
(in Spanish). * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080429202908/http://www.diarioperfil.com.ar/edimp/0235/articulo.php?art=5786&ed=0235 Nota de Prensa, Inauguración del Monumento a las Víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado, Buenos Aires, Argentina] (in Spanish). Operation Condor Enforced disappearance Human rights abuses Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay Dirty War
Disappeared Detainees ( es, detenidos desaparecidos, ) is the term commonly used in Latin American
Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...
countries to refer to the victims of kidnappings, usually taken to clandestine detention and torture centers, and crimes of forced disappearance
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
, committed by various authoritarian military dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s, and officially recognized, among others, by the governments of Argentina (1984) and Chile (1991).
Origin
The simultaneous and massive appearance of this practice in various countries is considered to be the result of the common training provided by the U.S. Defense department at its School of the Americas in Panama. Antecedents of the forced eliminations and disappearances of political prisoners can be found in the Hitler dictatorship, which issued an ordinance ( the Nacht und Nebel Decree, Night and Fog) applicable to captured English "Commandos" who were summarily executed without any record of their capture and execution. This practice was systematized by paratroopers and legionnaires (including ex-Nazi soldiers of the Foreign Legion) in the wars of Indochina and Algeria, and later picked up by the American military and members of the CIA trained by French instructors, veterans of the colonialist wars.
Procedures
The first step of this method consisted in the apprehension of the victims by law enforcement agencies, undercover secret police or paramilitary groups with official support. Sometimes the arrest was conducted with a certain formality; at other times it took on the appearance and brutality of a kidnapping.
Once arrested, the victim was usually subjected to physical and psychological torture sessions, while official channels of information denied relatives any knowledge of the person's whereabouts. The "detainees pointed the finger at complete strangers for protecting their companions. They hoped that the interrogators would quickly determine their innocence, although often the opposite was true: the detainees could not provide them with any information because they had no information to offer, which led to even greater torture". Finally, the prisoner was killed and his body was buried clandestinely. In some cases, the hostages survived and are considered "ex-disappeared detainees".
The hiding of the corpse was often carried out with the support of aerial vehicles, such as airplanes and helicopters, from which the bodies were thrown into the sea or into inaccessible areas.Report of the ''Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición Forzada de Personas'' (CONADEP
National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Spanish: ', CONADEP) was an Argentine organization created by President Raúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, shortly after his inauguration, to investigate the fate of the ''desaparecidos'' (v ...
) (in Spanish/ref>
Consequences
The massive disappearance of people implied long years of search and suffering for their relatives (causing severe anguish due to long unfinished mourning). This situation led relatives to organize themselves to demand information, justice and the search for the corpses by filing ''habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'' petitions in the courts. For example, in Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared
The Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared (AFDD) ( es, Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos), is a Chilean human rights group that formed in Santiago in 1974 in the wake of detentions and disappearances of thousan ...
and the ' acted; and in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, the organization of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the .
This illegal practice forced, with the passage of time and the fall of the dictatorships that carried it out, the creation of official bodies to clarify these crimes (such as the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
or the {{ill, Commission for Peace, es, Comisión para la Paz in Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
) and of a new criminal offense in many of the countries affected, where today the forced disappearance
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
of persons is explicitly punished, in addition to international human rights treaties and conventions.
See also
*Clandestine detention center (Argentina)
Clandestine may refer to:
* Secrecy, the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals
* Clandestine operation, a secret intelligence or military activity
Music and entertainmen ...
* Enforced disappearances in Chile
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
References
External links
Ministerio del Interior, Chile. INFORME DE LA COMISIÓN NACIONAL DE VERDAD Y RECONCILIACIÓN (INFORME RETTIG), 8 de febrero de 1991
(in Spanish).
(in Spanish). * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080429202908/http://www.diarioperfil.com.ar/edimp/0235/articulo.php?art=5786&ed=0235 Nota de Prensa, Inauguración del Monumento a las Víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado, Buenos Aires, Argentina] (in Spanish). Operation Condor Enforced disappearance Human rights abuses Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay Dirty War