ARGENTINA/FILE: Argentina's defence ministry makes thousands of secret documents from Argentina's dictatorship-era that were uncovered last October open to the public

Record ID: 402477

  • Title: ARGENTINA/FILE: Argentina's defence ministry makes thousands of secret documents from Argentina's dictatorship-era that were uncovered last October open to the public
  • Date: 21st March 2014
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (MARCH 21, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF THE EXTERIOR OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE VARIOUS OF ARGENTINE DEFENCE MINISTER AGUSTIN ROSSI ENTERING BUILDING VARIOUS OF THE PUBLISHED ARCHIVES DATING BACK TO ARGENTINA'S MILITARY DICTATORSHIP (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARGENTINE DEFENCE MINISTER AGUSTIN ROSSI, SAYING: "What we tried to do is try to make, in differe
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: History,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA40G7MO3CITCBLK5LGCFOTY4VW
  • Story Text: Argentina opened a trove of detailed government archives dating back to the South American country's dictatorship years to the public on Friday (March 21).
    The documents were released by the Ministry of Defence and published on a website (www.archivosabiertos.com) so as to easily disseminate the information publicly.
    The files were unexpectedly discovered just last October in the basement of the headquarters of the Argentine Air Force during a cleaning and maintenance project.
    Defence Minster Agustin Rossi said the government wanted to quickly make the material accessible to the public in "its entirety."

    "What we tried to do is try to make, in different instances since all the documentation was found on October 31 of last year in the basement of the Condor building, so it could be made available in its entirety to all Argentines in the easiest and most accessible way," Rossi said.
    In a forward on the archives website Rossi says the stock of documents contain sensitive material from the dictatorship years between 1976 and 1983.
    Included are some 1,500 documents pulled from boxes, binders and folders that had been forgotten for more than 30 years.
    The documents include communications between the military government and its three military branches, the army, navy and air force, outlining the military government's ideology and long-term development plans.
    Also included were records of requests from citizens asking for information about people who had "disappeared" under the dictatorship as well as information about large Argentine companies and names of artists, journalists, intellectuals and others who had been blacklisted by the government.
    The military junta "disappeared" thousands of suspected leftists from 1976 to 1983.
    Rights groups say up to 30,000 people were "disappeared" - a euphemism for kidnapped and murdered - during the dictatorship, which began in March 1976 when the military junta's first president, Jorge Videla and two other military leaders staged a coup against President Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, the widow of former president Juan Domingo Peron.
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