Argentina's Dictatorship and the Post-Dictatorial Policies of Transitional Justice: The Looking Glass of El Diario del Juicio

This article aims to assess the impact of the 1976–83 dictatorship on the lifeworld of Argentine citizens, as reflected in testimonies and allegations during the oral phase of the 1985 trial of the military commanders responsible for masterminding policies of massive detention, torture and loss of life of thousands in Argentina. The text addresses the sequence of democratic breakdown, military rule, regime collapse and the transition to democracy, with a focus on one of the initial policies of post-transitional justice reported in El Diario del Juicio, a publication selling 250,000 weekly copies between May 1985 and January 1986. After years in which the public order imposed by the military government had been welcomed, tolerated, or ignored by majoritarian sectors, the testimonies and statements at the trial of the armed forces commanders certified the extent of abusive repression and allowed assessing the shifts many citizens experienced in their lifeworld and belated awakening from the narrative of the military government. In spite of the early closure of that initial stage of post-dictatorial justice, the trial managed to project the discourse of human rights onto the center of the public agenda in the transition to democracy.