Hugo Vezzetti

“Trials with the members of a repressive apparatus continues until today; and now the trials with lieutenants began, who were very young during the junta government and participated in system operation, part of which became all the armed forces. There is a certain issue of a legal, political and ethical nature… Crimes committed by junta are considered crimes against humanity, and therefore are imprescriptible, yet not all the judged directly participated in torture and murdering. A former lieutenant can be indicted for keeping someone, who later disappeared; without any evidence that the lieutenant was actually responsible for the death of the lost one; in any case, he operated as a link in the chain of repression. He obeyed orders, didn’t give them. He was not innocent for sure, but can we judge him for just keeping someone? Does this behaviour correspond to crimes against humanity? Without any doubt, these are crimes, but ones committed 40 years ago. Law works with a character of a necessary participant, but where is the line of guilt in case of crimes, that under different circumstances, would be barred? To explain clearly; murder, as the most serious crime falls the period of limitation of 15 years, that means that after such period is over, the culprit cannot be judged or condemned. Intending to punish the culprits of the worst crimes, which are presented as imprescriptible, is well justified, if related to leaders, torturers and murderers. But what to do in case of lieutenants and petty officers, who played minor roles? There is a live debate about it today.”

“At the period of dictatorship the whole left wing suffered a crushing defeat, which forced us to revise certain current attitudes and certainties. Related to this kind of ideological revision it needs to be pointed out that the group focusing around the View kept in touch with Argentinian exile intellectuals in Mexico, Spain and other countries, which mediated us the issue of European polemics of Marxism crisis after 1968. As I already suggested, other key moment in the history of the magazine meant the war of Malvinas; when it seemed that all fell for the nationalistic craze, the View took a critical attitude, condemned war as absurd and found a way to join public debate, mainly at the period of crisis, which followed after the Argentinian capitulation. The first issue after the defeat was very important and practically showed that the dictatorship came to its end; the regime had no power over general opinion, and practically anything could be spoken out loud. Very soon after that I started to work on the issue of memories and began writing at the time, the trial with army junta took place (Juicio a las Juntas, 1985).”