\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Buenos Aires Herald editorial (versi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol a continuaci\u00f3n)<\/p>\n
Fifty years after the 1976 coup that ushered in the most brutal dictatorship in the country\u2019s history, the Argentine press is still dealing with an uncomfortable question: what did it do while the dictatorship was disappearing people?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The answer contains three aspects that must be dealt with: what was published, what was silenced, and what remains to be said.<\/p>\n
The book Dec\u00edamos ayer \u2014 \u201cYesterday we said,\u201d a study by journalists Eduardo Blaustein and Mart\u00edn Zubieta on what major newspapers were publishing on their front pages during those years \u2014 offers an answer to the first front.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coverage centered around the military junta\u2019s political and economic reforms, with newspapers largely following its lead with no significant challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their program included opening the economy, cancelling collective bargaining agreements \u2014 salaries were set by decree \u2014 and, starting in 1977, implementing a new financial law that would permanently reshape Argentina\u2019s economic structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These decisions were not neutral, as they deliberately dismantled workers\u2019 ability to organize and hollowed out the Argentine industry, one of the key engines of the country\u2019s economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During those years, readers could find headlines on everything from debates over inflation to swings in the exchange rate. They could also learn of Mart\u00ednez de Hoz\u2019s plans and read officials\u2019 statements detailing their reasoning. There was coverage available to everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What that reader would not find were stories dealing with a far more sinister aspect of the reality: the silence that pertains to the second aspect of our original question.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Combing through the press of those years is revelatory not only because of what was not reported, but also due to the deliberate absence of any challenge to the official narrative. The systematic violation of human rights, the disappearances, the clandestine detention centers \u2014 there is no mention of any of this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was not purely due to omission or fear, though fear existed and was legitimate. In many cases, it entailed an active acceptance of the junta\u2019s framing. Namely, that they were carrying out a war against subversion that justified extraordinary means.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Publishing stories aligned with this framework meant validating a lie.<\/p>\n
The state was not fighting a war. It was illegally detaining, torturing, killing, and stealing babies born in captivity \u2014 a systematic plan carried out within the umbrella of a much broader scheme, in what became known as Operation Condor.<\/p>\n
The Buenos Aires Herald was pretty much the sole exception to this rule. Even before the coup, Andrew Graham-Yooll had been keeping a list of people who had died \u2014 killed either by the Triple A or due to guerrilla activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That practice of record-keeping, that journalistic habit of naming the dead, was what set the Herald apart when the Junta issued Communiqu\u00e9 No. 19 on the day of the coup, threatening anyone who published information contrary to its interests with a prison sentence of up to ten years.<\/p>\n
The Herald kept publishing. Its journalists understood that a commitment to journalism did not allow for exceptions negotiated with power. Robert Cox, its editor-in-chief at the time, recently wrote a letter published by Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo saying that \u201cthe dictatorship had the support of the press\u2019 shameful silence, as they simply did not report on what was happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That silence, Cox noted, allowed military commanders to convince themselves they were resisting communism \u2014 he had learned how they framed their thinking through the words of Jorge Rafael Videla himself and Interior Minister Albano Harguindeguy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey never realized they had become monsters. They would never acknowledge that they had committed abominable crimes,\u201d he wrote in his letter.<\/p>\n
Both Cox and Graham-Yooll were forced into exile because of death threats made against their families. The cost of reporting was, literally, one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
The third aspect of the initial question is related directly to the present, as there are stories that are still waiting to be reported on. Telling them is at the heart of what currently guides our work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is not merely about memory in a commemorative sense \u2014 the legitimate but insufficient act of remembering. It is about journalism dealing with unanswered questions and consequences that are yet to be addressed.<\/p>\n
For there to be justice, and for history not to repeat itself \u2014 neither as tragedy nor farce \u2014 investigations into the civilian responsibility of dictatorship crimes must continue. This includes businesspeople and judges, as well as civilians who were in positions of power and either benefited or looked the other way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crimes like the property thefts suffered by the disappeared and those illegally detained, from assets and businesses to houses, as well as the subsequent enrichment of their captors, must be prosecuted. Finding the 300 people stolen as babies and children who do not know their true identities remains a task of paramount importance.<\/p>\n
All these cases move slowly and are met with resistance, and thus require institutions that are willing to sustain them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Journalism can and must accompany this process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Argentina will march on Tuesday guided by an unambiguous rallying cry: tell us where they are. It is a demand that includes the bodies that have never been found, the identities that have never been revealed, and the perpetrators who have never spoken.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To the pact of silence \u2014 then and now \u2014 the Herald says: never again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nunca m\u00e1s.<\/p>\n
Romper el pacto de silencio sigue siendo la misi\u00f3n A 50 a\u00f1os del golpe de 1976, seguir haciendo preguntas que al d\u00eda de hoy contin\u00faan sin respuesta es un impulso central que gu\u00eda nuestro trabajo<\/p>\n
A cincuenta a\u00f1os del golpe de 1976, hay una pregunta que sigue siendo inc\u00f3moda: \u00bfqu\u00e9 hizo la prensa argentina mientras la dictadura desaparec\u00eda personas? La respuesta tiene tres dimensiones. La primera es lo que se publicaba. La segunda es lo que no se publicaba. La tercera es lo que todav\u00eda nos falta contar.<\/p>\n
Dec\u00edamos ayer \u2014 el libro de Eduardo Blaustein y Mart\u00edn Zubieta, que recorre las tapas de los grandes diarios del per\u00edodo \u2014 ofrece una respuesta a la primera pregunta, que es, en s\u00ed misma, un argumento.\u00a0<\/p>\n
La agenda de la prensa se ordenaba en torno a las reformas pol\u00edticas y econ\u00f3micas de la Junta, acompa\u00f1\u00e1ndolas sin mayor cuestionamiento. Entre ellas se cuentan la liberalizaci\u00f3n de la econom\u00eda, la cancelaci\u00f3n de las negociaciones paritarias \u2014 los salarios pasaron a fijarse por decreto \u2014 y, desde 1977, la implementaci\u00f3n de una nueva ley del sistema financiero que transformar\u00eda para siempre la estructura econ\u00f3mica del pa\u00eds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ese reordenamiento no era neutro: implicaba la destrucci\u00f3n deliberada de la capacidad de organizaci\u00f3n de los trabajadores y el desmantelamiento de la industria como uno de los motores clave de la econom\u00eda argentina. Un lector de aquellos a\u00f1os pod\u00eda seguir el debate sobre la inflaci\u00f3n, los vaivenes del tipo de cambio, los planes de Mart\u00ednez de Hoz, las declaraciones de los funcionarios.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hab\u00eda agenda, hab\u00eda cobertura, hab\u00eda titulares.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lo que no pod\u00eda leer era lo que tambi\u00e9n ocurr\u00eda simult\u00e1neamente en otro registro de la realidad. Porque la segunda dimensi\u00f3n de la pregunta remite al silencio. Lo que se ve al recorrer la prensa de esos a\u00f1os no es solo lo que falta, es la deliberada ausencia de desaf\u00edo a la narrativa oficial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
La violaci\u00f3n sistem\u00e1tica de los derechos humanos, las desapariciones, los centros clandestinos de detenci\u00f3n no encontraron espacio en la cobertura de los medios.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No se trat\u00f3 \u00fanicamente de omisi\u00f3n por miedo \u2014 aunque el miedo exist\u00eda y era leg\u00edtimo \u2014 sino de una aceptaci\u00f3n, en muchos casos activa, del marco interpretativo que la Junta impon\u00eda.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El de una guerra contra la subversi\u00f3n que justificaba m\u00e9todos extraordinarios. Publicar dentro de ese marco conceptual era validarlo, sobre todo porque era mentira.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El Estado no estaba librando una guerra; estaba deteniendo ilegalmente, torturando, matando y apropi\u00e1ndose de beb\u00e9s nacidos en cautiverio, todo de forma sistem\u00e1tica y hasta coordinado con otros pa\u00edses, en lo que se conoci\u00f3 como Operaci\u00f3n C\u00f3ndor.<\/p>\n
El Buenos Aires Herald fue, en ese contexto, una excepci\u00f3n casi solitaria. Ya antes del golpe, Andrew Graham-Yooll llevaba una lista de personas fallecidas \u2014 asesinadas por la Triple A o en el marco de la actividad de organizaciones guerrilleras.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Esa pr\u00e1ctica de registro, ese h\u00e1bito period\u00edstico de nombrar a los muertos, fue lo que distingui\u00f3 al Herald cuando lleg\u00f3 el 24 de marzo de 1976 y la Junta emiti\u00f3 el comunicado n\u00famero 19, que amenazaba con hasta diez a\u00f1os de prisi\u00f3n a quien difundiera informaci\u00f3n contraria a sus intereses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El Herald no dej\u00f3 de publicar. Sus periodistas entendieron que el compromiso con la pr\u00e1ctica period\u00edstica no admit\u00eda excepciones negociadas con el poder. Robert Cox, su director, escribi\u00f3 hace poco en una carta publicada por Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo que \u201cla dictadura tuvo el apoyo de un silencio vergonzoso por parte de la prensa que simplemente no inform\u00f3 sobre lo que estaba ocurriendo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ese silencio, se\u00f1al\u00f3 Cox, permiti\u00f3 a los l\u00edderes del golpe creer que resist\u00edan el comunismo: se inform\u00f3 de c\u00f3mo formulaban sus ideas a trav\u00e9s de las palabras del propio Jorge Rafael Videla y del ministro del interior Albano Harguindeguy. \u201cNunca se dieron cuenta que se transformaron en monstruos. Nunca reconocer\u00edan que hab\u00edan cometido cr\u00edmenes abominables.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tanto Cox como Graham-Yooll debieron exiliarse porque pesaban sobre ellos y sus familias amenazas de muerte. El costo de informar era, literalmente, la vida.<\/p>\n
La tercera reflexi\u00f3n es la que m\u00e1s nos interpela en el presente. Hay historias que todav\u00eda no est\u00e1n contadas lo suficiente y hacerlo es el coraz\u00f3n de lo que gu\u00eda nuestro trabajo hoy. No se trata solo de memoria en sentido conmemorativo \u2014 el ejercicio leg\u00edtimo pero insuficiente de recordar\u2014 sino de periodismo activo sobre consecuencias que siguen abiertas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Para que haya justicia y para que la historia no se repita \u2014 ni como tragedia ni como farsa \u2014 es necesario seguir investigando el involucramiento civil en los cr\u00edmenes cometidos durante esos a\u00f1os: empresarios, jueces, funcionarios que facilitaron, se beneficiaron o miraron hacia otro lado.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Es necesario juzgar los robos de patrimonio de los desaparecidos y de los detenidos ilegalmente \u2014 sus bienes, sus empresas, sus casas \u2014 as\u00ed como los enriquecimientos posteriores de sus captores. Son causas que avanzan con lentitud, que enfrentan resistencias, que requieren de instituciones dispuestas a sostenerlas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El periodismo puede y debe acompa\u00f1ar ese proceso. Es fundamental encontrar a las 300 personas que a\u00fan no conocen su identidad.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hoy, a cincuenta a\u00f1os del golpe, la Argentina marcha. El lema de este a\u00f1o lo dice con precisi\u00f3n: que digan d\u00f3nde est\u00e1n. Es una consigna sobre los cuerpos que nunca aparecieron, sobre las identidades que nunca se revelaron, sobre los responsables que nunca hablaron.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Al pacto de silencio \u2014 el de entonces y el de ahora \u2014 desde el Herald, decimos nunca m\u00e1s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Buenos Aires Herald editorial (versi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol a continuaci\u00f3n) Fifty years after the 1976 coup that ushered in the most brutal dictatorship in the country\u2019s history, the Argentine press is still dealing with an uncomfortable question: what did it do while the dictatorship was disappearing people?\u00a0 The answer contains three aspects that must be dealt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":45611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11784,11785,264,1481],"tags":[11782,11783,7002,1476],"class_list":["post-45610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-50th-anniversary-1976-coup","category-argentina-coup-50-years","category-editorial","category-op-ed","tag-50th-anniversary-1976-coup","tag-argentina-coup-50-years","tag-editorial","tag-op-ed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}