UCLA

Using Argentine former political prisoners as a case study to contribute to the larger field of transitional justice studies, this research addresses three key debates: What is the end goal of transitional justice? Should post-conflict societies recall memories of past violence? Does human rights leave behind those previously involved in popular (and armed) struggles? To answer these questions, I explain the marginalized status of former political prisoners, investigate the impacts of social and economic discrimination caused by stigmas attached to imprisonment, and analyze the unique role political prisoners play in memorialization efforts.

This study is based on 21 months of fieldwork in 2006, 2008, and 2009, conducted in Buenos Aires and in Córdoba with members of the Asociación de Ex Presos Políticos de Córdoba (AEPPC), who were once disappeared and illegally imprisoned for belonging to labor unions, leftist movements, and guerrilla organizations during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983). My methods included: participant observation, 39 interviews with political prisoners, five expert interviews, and archival research.

I argue that in the case of Argentina former political prisoners, the goal of transitional justice is to receive financial compensation for being victimized by the state and to have a major role in the construction of collective memories of the past. Remembering the past is seen as an act of agency, rather than of reviving trauma. Finally, when families of the disappeared adopted a human rights framework, they also portrayed disappeared victims as apolitical--which effectively excluded political prisoners. Since the era of popular struggles and revolutions, political prisoners have also incorporated human rights into their revived political agendas.