Overview
- The anniversary highlights Dec. 9, 1985, when Argentina’s Federal Chamber convicted five ex-commanders after more than 500 hours of testimony from over 800 witnesses.
- Architects Carlos Nino and Jaime Malamud Goti advanced the plan in 1982, followed by President Raúl Alfonsín’s decrees and the creation of CONADEP that enabled the prosecutions.
- The ruling directed courts nationwide to pursue related cases, yielding roughly 400 accused or convicted by the end of Alfonsín’s term as prosecutors and judges worked under credible threats.
- Carapintada uprisings preceded Congress passing Punto Final and Obediencia Debida, which did not vacate the junta convictions, while President Carlos Menem’s pardons later freed many military leaders.
- To protect the record, appellate judges secretly duplicated 530 hours of hearings and stored them in Oslo, and subsequent reopenings during the Kirchner years drew criticism for politicization and for decades-long cases without final sentences.