This panel aims to open an interdisciplinary space for reflection on the multiple dimensions that memory work has taken on in Argentina. Half a century after the beginning of the National Reorganization Process, Argentina stands as a paradigmatic case due to the persistence of its social struggles and the development of public policies on memory, truth, and justice. The presentations that make up this panel will address different aspects of this process: the trials and their scope in the legal, historical, and memorial realms; material and symbolic reparation policies; the experiences of childhood victims; and representations of the memory of perpetrators’ relatives in documentary film. Through these contributions, the panel seeks to examine the advances and tensions surrounding the struggles over the meaning of the past, as well as to present the contributions made by various research lines of the Center for Genocide Studies at the National University of Tres de Febrero.
Ludmila Schneider, Center for Genocide Studies-National University of Tres de Febrero, "Scope and limitations of the economic reparation for genocide in Argentina"
Following the return to democracy in Argentina, a range of measures were implemented to address and repair the state crimes perpetrated during the last military dictatorship (1976–1983). Among these, economic reparation policies stand out for having been institutionally framed as Reparatory Laws, thereby symbolically inscribed by the state as legitimate forms of reparation. These indemnification practices—based on the granting of financial compensation to victims for the harms endured—have not only remained in force uninterruptedly, but have also expanded continuously throughout the post-dictatorship period.
This presentation seeks to trace a genealogy of indemnification practices in Argentina, examining their evolution over time by focusing on their key components as well as the ruptures and continuities that have characterized their formulation and implementation. In doing so, it situates economic reparations within broader reparatory constellations, in which different representations of both the repressive experience and its redress were constructed. Finally, the presentation will address the controversies surrounding money as a reparatory tool, which have tended to keep discussions about indemnifications confined to the victims’ private sphere and have contributed to the formation of a taboo surrounding this issue.
Natalia Crocco, Center for Genocide Studies-National University of Tres de Febrero - "The Press, the trials, and the memory of justice: newspaper coverage of Argentine state crimes trials. Two decades after the reopening"
The large-scale criminal trials against perpetrators of systematic human rights violations during Argentina's last military dictatorship, which began in earnest in 2006, mark a seminal moment in the justice process.
This presentation examines the narratives and representations of the trials in three major Argentine national newspapers: Clarín, La Nación, and Página/12, spanning the period from 2001 up today, to understand the formation and re-formation of social memory.Using a Foucaultian archaeological approach, the study focuses on three key discursive units that structure the media's engagement with the trials: the legitimacy of the judicial process, the end of impunity, and the strengthening of the justice process.
The analysis reveals that the legal discourse, by characterizing the crimes as crimes against humanity, had a distinctive weight in shaping other social discourses, effectively producing and legitimizing the trial's necessity and scope. The media coverage consistently frames the trials as an exceptional, nationally-led endeavor—the state judging the crimes it once committed—reinforcing the idea of an established judicial pathway for truth and accountability.
Crucially, the study traces the complex struggle over meaning, demonstrating that the affirmation of legitimacy and the narrative of the end of impunity are constantly negotiated in the press. While the discourse of crimes against humanity enabled the trials' continuity, it also facilitated discursive debates regarding the extent of state responsibility versus individual culpability. Ultimately, this paper contends that the journalistic representation of these core units—legitimacy, impunity, and justice—is integral to consolidating the historical memory of the genocide in Argentina.
Lior Zylberman, CONICET/Center for Genocide Studies-National University of Tres de Febrero - "The Shadow of the Perpetrator. On Three Latin American Documentaries"
Thispresentation is part of a broader research project I am conducting on the representation of genocide in documentary film.
The study of perpetrators has gained significant momentum in recent years, with growing interest in analyzing their memories as well as those of their descendants. In this context, some researchers have proposed examining these figures—the children and relatives of perpetrators—from the perspective of the implicated subject or postmemory. Here, however, I am interested in exploring a figure I have developed in previous work: that of the nonconformist. The nonconformist is someone who does not passively accept the norms, values, or structures established within their social, political, cultural, or family environment. It is someone who questions, challenges, or resists what they consider unjust or constraining. In other words, it is the one who interrogates family and social memory—not to deny it, but to seek deeper answers.
Within this framework, my presentation will address three documentaries that explore the figure of the nonconformist as well as that of the perpetrator from the perspective of their descendants: El hijo del cazador (Federico Robles and Germán Scelso, 2018), centered on the son of Argentine repressor Luis Quijano; Algo quema (Mauricio Ovando, 2018), about former Bolivian military president Alfredo Ovando; and Bastardo. La herencia de un genocida (Pepe Rovano, 2023), which focuses on the relationship between Rovano and his father, a former Carabinero convicted—and later amnestied—for the murder of several activists.
Each of these documentaries lies at the intersection of first-person cinema and the perpetrator turn, exploring family pacts of silence and the tensions between filial love and moral rejection.
20260729T110020260729T1230America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires1.13. Memory and Genocide in Argentina, 50 Years After the Coup d’ÉtatSV402 (ART)MSA Buenos Aires 2026buenosairesconference@memorystudiesassociation.org
