As Argentina marks the 40th anniversary of the military coup that “disappeared” and imprisoned tens of thousands of people, President Barack Obama has promised to declassify and release secret files concerning the U.S. role in the country’s so-called “Dirty War.”
Obama—whose visit has been criticized for its timing due to the U.S.’s involvement in the military dictatorship and subsequent atrocities—made the announcement on Wednesday after talks with Argentine President Mauricio Macri.
According to Human Rights Watch:
Argentine authorities believe the new batch of documents might reveal details on the training of Argentine soldiers at what was then called the School of the Americas (now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), at Fort Benning, Georgia, as well as on Plan Condor, a coordinated effort among the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay to repress dissent through torture and assassinations. Argentinian authorities also hope the US documents will help in the search for the children of those who were disappeared during the dictatorship and in the continuing prosecution of human rights cases.
“On this anniversary and beyond, we are absolutely determined to do our part as Argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation,” Obama told reporters. “And I hope this gesture also helps to rebuild trust that may have been lost between our two countries.”
Indeed, ahead of the news, the U.S.-based Human Rights First said (pdf) declassification would “signal the United States’ commitment to human rights in Latin America, to mark a new era of cooperation between the United States and Argentina, and to provide real and meaningful relief for victims of human rights violations and their families.”
On Wednesday, Human Rights First president and CEO Elisa Massimino added: “Release of these documents is important not only for the people of Argentina, who continue to struggle to come to terms with a dark chapter in their history. It’s important for Americans, too.”
“We have to come to terms with the role our country played in the so-called Dirty War,” she explained. “We can’t close the gap between our actions and our ideals until we can measure how far we strayed. And we can’t learn the lessons of the past until we know the role of our own government in supporting the military dictatorship.”
But for some, the “gesture” is not enough to make up for the timing of Obama’s visit, and what it represents.