The Supreme Court of Argentina has recently overruled the laws of amnesty benefiting military personnel involved in gross violations of human rights during the military dictatorship. The laws of Full Stop and Due Obedience had left unpunished the majority of military personnel involved in crimes against humanity. The judicial decision reverting the situation of impunity and warranting the right of the victim to truth and justice is a matter of major political importance, inasmuch as it admits the reopening of the previously closed lawsuits involving torture, kidnapping and murder. The verdict was cast in the course of a long process that Argentine society has had to face in order to deal with the heritage of its recent past. This article comments the most outstanding points of this historic decision and revisits the events that preceded it and contributed to make it possible.
Military dictatorship; Trials for truth; Torture; Supreme Court of Justice