After the military junta's disastrous war with Britain over the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas, according to Argentina), widespread popular discontent ultimately forced the leaders from power and democracy was restored and many prisoners were freed. But for thousands of Argentine families, the terror and anguish has lived on because they were unable to find out what had happened to their missing loved ones. In some cases, records were ill-kept; in others, those in power destroyed the records proving their crimes against the citizenry.
What we do know is truly horrifying. Besides the now familiar techniques of torture like waterboarding and electrical shocks, Argentina's rulers developed new cruelties. They stole the babies of "radical terrorist" mothers born during their incarceration, gave or sold them to powerful families of the economic and military elite, and murdered the mothers.
They disposed of prisoners tortured to death by dumping the bodies from helicopters and airplanes over the Rio de la Plata, the broad estuary flowing past Buenos Aires into the Atlantic Ocean, to ensure that the bodies would disappear at sea. In some cases, they didn't even wait for their victims to die, flinging the still living to certain death below. Some of those were pregnant women and nuns, an especially heinous act in a country whose constitution, in its second sentence, states "The Federal Government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion."
The Church and the State in those days had a mixed relationship. Some Catholic leaders were openly supportive of the dictatorship, believing it was a bulwark against the godless communists they feared might take over the country. Some even went so far as to cooperate with the authorities, informing on suspects and in the case of at least one priest, participating in the kidnappings, torture and murders.
Some bishops and priests were outspoken critics of the regime's violations of human rights during the "Dirty War" and a few even joined in with radicals (a small minority exaggerated to provide rationale for the coup d'etat) in perpetrating their own violent response. All in all, it was a confusing time within the Catholic church in Argentina and the passage of time has done little to clear the muddy waters.
Pope Francis is Argentine born and rose through the ranks to become head of the Jesuits in Argentina during the dictadura (dictatorship). After his election to the papacy, there was a claim that he collaborated with the military junta but it collapsed fairly quickly and he later forgave his accuser.
Now, Francis has agreed to open the files of the Vatican regarding those who were arrested and disappeared. As Maral Shafafy writes in The Bubble,
It is believed that many people turned to the Church and reported disappearances as a last resort for help throughout the dictatorship. These were all compiled in reports and it is now hoped will hold the key to answers as to the fate of many.With the Fernandez-Kirchner government's fact-finding truth commissions, the painstaking investigations of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo group, and now this aid from the Vatican, the families and friends of Argentina's desaparecidos may finally get answers about their fates.