Isabel Peron: Argentina And The Us-Them Model

Evita Peron was a woman who was loved all throughout Argentina. Her death had a large effect throughout the whole country. After she died, Domingo Tellechea, was in charge of making her body presentable for the country. According to a BBC article, her body probably stayed in a van parked on the streets of the capital, behind a cinema screen in Buenos Aires and inside the city's waterworks. However, she was stored in military offices. In 1957, her body was taken to Italy and buried in a Milan cemetery under a false name. Her next stop would be Spain. The Peronist Party wanted to look for peace, so they decided the body of Eva would be brought to her widower in Spain. So, her body was driven across Europe, and deliver to John Peron.

Eventually, the victims were sent into gas chambers to be killed. Individuals allowed this to happen, but why? Learned Helpless, Social Identity theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are psychological concepts that prove why individuals allow human atrocities to happen.

In the early 20th century, Argentina had a very successful economy that specialized in exporting agricultural goods. Even while the rest of Latin America struggled during the economic hardships of the 1930s, Argentina’s strong export economy allowed the country to flourish due to high international demand for their goods. Despite this early 20th century strength, Argentina’s economy fell behind as the century went on, with roots in the fact that Argentine stayed neutral for most of the war and alienated the United States. Though Argentina’s president at the beginning of the war, Roberto

What I hope to do in this paper is to show that many of the philosophies Enrique Dussel writes about in his book Twenty Theses on Politics, have a direct correlation to what has become to be known as Argentina’s ‘Dirty War,’ with a particular interest on the struggle of the people, the ignorance towards them and the idea that they did not exist to their capturers’ except as ‘things at the disposal of the powerful.’ (TTP pg. 79). Their reaction to this type of oppression, after years of detention, torture and death, touches upon Dussel’s idea of the irruption of the collective conscious of a community that breaks the hold of the oppressor and ignites into a collective dissent.

Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a number is a melancholy novel that expresses Argentina’s terrorist state. Jacob Timerman, a well respected man of Argentina, an editor of a well know Argentinian paper, La Opinion, tells the audience his story of the terrorist state of Argentina from 1967-1978. His gripping novel both describes his personal experience being kidnapped by terrorist, while he tells us about the condition of the terrorist state of Argentina. His book is important because it tells a first hand account of the fear, the distrust, and the mere insanity of conditions in the country of Argentina during its darkest time.

    The Argentine Dirty War was a deadly tumultuous war that struck the country sort of by surprise forcing many to abandon their homeland. It all started with Isabel Peron becoming the first female president of Argentina after her husband was forced out due to illness where he received around the clock care. Although there were many Peronist supporters in favor of her rule, there was a growing insurgency to overthrow her corrupt regime. “Her regime inherited problems of inflation, labour unrest, and political

Six million Jews were persecuted during the Holocaust. Those still alive, were reduced to bones and forgotten identities. At that time, many people had difficulties comprehending the atrocities the Nazis committed. For example, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Elie Wiesel quotes, “This is the 20th century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed?”

A quote from Albert Einstein states “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. As difficult as it is to describe the terrible deeds of those who were part of the Holocaust, it is true that those who did nothing are at fault just as much as those who carried out the actions. When one thinks of the Holocaust today it is difficult to picture that such events were done by human beings. Societies have advanced but it is important to acknowledge the reason as to why many bystanders refused to help or why they were so indifferent to the pain felt by the Jews. “The psychological mechanisms used to come to terms with the suffering of another appear to be very similar, whether the person is standing right before us or is 2,000 miles away. (Barnet:118) Barnett explains that ideological and moral principles also come into play, as do self-interest and the weighing of the possible consequences of our actions. We try to establish what is or is not possible. In the end, our decision will be determined not so much by whether we actually have the power to change a situation, but whether we have the will to do so. (Barnett, 118). In the case of many of the individuals who chose to become bystanders rather than change the situation they were not willing to get involved. Although not every German was a bystander, those who

The Holocaust is something that we must never forget. Its occurrence relied only “upon the indifference of bystanders in every land” (Zukier). Even today we stand by while innocent lives are taken. The recent conflicts in Rwanda or Bosnia, or past conflicts in Cambodia, are merely three examples. Wherever genocide occurs one thing is sure to happen– individual lives become lost in massive numbers and the tolls are so large

Pinochet was put into power . This is a perfect example of how the US foreign policy replaced genuine democracy with dictatorship for their own benefit, and again, supposedly in the name of National Security. Latin America was a victim of US foreign policy and corporate greed.

The Argentine Dirty War was a deadly tumultuous war that struck the country sort of by surprise forcing many to abandon their homeland. It all started with Isabel Peron becoming the first female president of Argentina after her husband was forced out due to illness where he received around the clock care. Although there were many Peronist supporters in favor of her rule, there was a growing insurgency to overthrow her corrupt regime. “Her regime inherited problems of inflation,

In 1977 Nilda “Munu” Goretta was walking home from work on a busy street in downtown Buenos Aires when members of the Argentinean Military Death Squad blindfolded her from behind and shoved her into a nearby car. She wasn’t seen or heard from for 13 months. During the height of Argentina’s seven-year military dictatorship Munu lived as a political prisoner in the torture center, ESMA. In order to maintain control, the junta organized a system to eliminate any threats to the new government. Anyone who expressed the slightest sympathies for leftist politics would vanish without a trace. The general public was not aware of the concentration camps. ESMA operated as the navy mechanical school in the center of the city, but beneath its deceitful concrete exterior was a basement death camp where thousands of political prisoners, including pregnant women, were brutally tortured and killed. Munu is one of the few who narrowly survived. Each time she was taken by guards from her

Discovery of the Nazi death camps at the end of World War II sent shockwaves throughout the entire world and brought to question how civilized humans could participate in the atrocity of what is now known as the Holocaust. Although from the beginning, it was clear Nazi’s believed Jews and other races were inferior to the Aryan race, the idea of genocide was not their original intent. How then were German soldiers able to exterminate Jews without question? Christopher Browning in his book Ordinary Men dives into the human psyche to try and recreate the possibilities in which the German soldier were able to carry out these horrifying acts.

During 1973, the Franco regime was slowly coming to an end, however according to Pavlovic, “The early 1970’s saw even more turmoil, and opposition to the regime became more violent at the very end of Franco’s dictatorship” (Pavlovic 105). The tension reached its climax on December 20, 1973 when Franco resigned and made Admiral Carrero Blanco president, however, Blanco was shortly after assassinated. After the assassination, Franco made Carlos Arias Navarro the new Prime Minister of Spain. Pavlovic mentions that “The years between the deaths of Franco and Blanco were characterized by violence, political tension, and social uncertainty” (Pavlovic 105). As a result, the regime returned to various repressive measures and

Perón set out to make Argentina the military and financial power of Latin America. This was a tough task though since Perón had many oppositions. Perón used censorship and other violations of