Repression and “warfare”: Argentine state terrorism on a comparative scale in the Southern Cone

Abstract

This article studies on the regional scale of the Southern Cone the link between repression and “war” based on the way in which State terrorism was planned and executed in Argentina. The numerous researches that will be our main input show that the military and/or constitutional governments of Argentina, but also of Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, carried out their repressive actions under a warlike paradigm. The text is divided into two sections: in the first part, the central elements of the historical cycle of repression and political violence in which the Argentine case is inserted are presented, in light of other local experiences. In the second part, the way in which the “war” became the conceptual framework from which in Argentina, and in the other countries studied, state terrorism was implemented is explored.