More files from Argentine "Dirty War"

The meticulous nature of the Cold War military regimes of Latin America continue to surprise. We've had boatloads of documents discovered in Guatemala and Brazil years after we would have thought that most or all had been destroyed. In El Salvador, there have been some documents discovered (yellow book) and there is hope that the military archives have a great deal more information that will shed light on the disappeared.

Cleaning crews in Argentina recently discovered 1,500 files and 280 documents related to blacklisted artists and journalists who threatened the regime in one way or another and what sounds like minutes or reports on the inner workings of the military junta that ruled between 1976 and 1983.

Among the disclosed information is an attempt to supress discussion of crimes allegedly carried out by the junta. In one document, military officials are instructed to avoid referring to anyone as “disappeared”, a term that became common currency during the period because of the military’s penchant for burning victims’ bodies or throwing drugged prisoners from aircraft into rivers so relatives would never find them. Instead, officials were told to talk of “requests about the whereabouts of a person”.

The documents also reveal that there were 280 meetings between the junta inner circle between 1976 and 1983, according to original records pulled out of the Condor Building.

Among the artists found in the documents are Mercedes Sosa, Federico Luppi, Hector Alterio, Julio Cortazar, and Norma Aleandro.

Who is @Pontifex Pope Francis panel discussion at @univofscranton featuring @CentAmPolMike pic.twitter.com/4O3YPbl1ZW
— Teresa Grettano (@tgrett) November 15, 2013

I think many of us are hoping that there are some reference in one way or another to Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio better known today as Pope Francis. Last night I participated in a panel discussion at the University of Scranton on Who is Pope Francis? It was more of a love-fest, actually. I started off by saying that I liked Pope Francis as well and have been pretty impressed with his first year as Pontiff. However, I was still confused and wondered where he had come from.

Questions remain as to what he did, or did not do, as Provincial of the Jesuits during the Dirty War. While we know some stories, I am looking forward to reading Bergoglio's List which is an account of the many ways in which Father Bergoglio protected those in harms' way.

The "list" of Bergoglio is a collection of highly diverse personal stories, which make for exhilarating reading, whose common characteristic is that the people in them were saved by him.

There is Alicia Oliveira, the first woman to become a judge in the criminal courts in Argentina and also the first to be dismissed after the military coup, non-Catholic and not even baptized, who went underground and was taken by Bergoglio, in the trunk of his car, to the college of San Miguel, to see her three children.

There are the three seminarians of the bishop of La Rioja, Enrique Angelelli, who was killed in 1976 by members of the military in a staged auto accident, after he had discovered who was truly responsible for numerous assassinations.

There is Alfredo Somoza, the scholar saved without his knowledge.

There are Sergio and Ana Gobulin, who worked in the slums and were married by Father Bergoglio, he arrested and she wanted, both saved and expatriated with the help of the Italian vice-consul in Argentina at the time, Enrico Calamai, another hero of the story.

Father Bergoglio's actions during the dictatorship look better today than they did months ago but I still don't know.