Opposition and resistance attitudes in dictatorship: an approach to the origins of the human rights movement in Buenos Aires

Abstract

Based on various sources and specific research on the human rights movement that has focused on the local level, in this work we take an approach to the origins of this movement in some towns in the province of Buenos Aires. Certainly, it is a large, diverse, and complex territory, since it is one of the most extensive, ancient, populated, and politically significant provinces in Argentina. It is also where the largest number of clandestine detention and torture centers operated during the last dictatorship (1976–1983) and where the highest number of forced disappearances occurred. In this way, we will observe a series of experiences that, analyzed together, reveal the heterogeneity and complexity of the formation process of this collective agent. Thus, we will see that there were early, dynamic, and persistent developments, such as those that took place in La Plata, Mar del Plata, and Bahía Blanca, which differ from others that were slower, less visible, fragmented, ephemeral, and, in some cases, completely lacking in collective organization. This shows that adopting a public “non-consensual” attitude of opposition, denunciation, and resistance to the regime was conditioned by multiple factors and that, therefore, it was not “natural,” “logical,” “instinctive,” “automatic,” or linear to make that ethical-political decision, not even among those who suffered repression most directly, but rather it was a determined historical process.