Repetitions Towards an End: Judicial Accountability and the Vicissitudes of Justice

Abstract

In post-authoritarian regimes official judicial proceedings, specifically criminal trials of crimes against humanity, constitute both end-points and intensely desired goals. In the Argentine context, these proceedings are shaped by numerous repetitions. In this paper I explore the process of justice making, the repetitions of testimonies, of legal processes and of historical antecedents, and I query the different ends that these varied repetitions bring into view. Each of the three ends I describe are facets of Argentinian justice making-a desired and sought out goal in the long-aftermath of the last civil-military dictatorship (1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983). But, against what seem to be the key expectations of many in the field of transitional justice, these ends are not finite nor do they bring complete closure. Instead, they may be one version of justice, and perhaps the only one we can expect after many years of impunity.

Irreconciliation as practice: resisting impunity and closure in Argentina

“…While I recognize the social and ideological tensions both authors are depicting, and although I acknowledge that the position I put forth here is indebted to – but is also critical of – the popular narrative of HROs about the past in Argentina, my reading of the historical conditions and their present outcomes is quite different. My contention is not only with the comparison to the South African case or the claim that it is a worthy model to follow, 23 nor is it just with the claim that the use of the term ‘genocide’ has generated an inability to compromise (see Crenzel 2019; Vaisman 2021). Rather, my argument is that we need to reconsider whether reconciliation is the model to strive for 24 .…”

“…While engineering this end goal may take place through truth‐telling processes and judicial accountability measures, reconciliation is no more and no less than the facilitation of ‘an ongoing recuperation of a loss that is not recoupable’ (2002: 302). Borneman's definition thereby encompasses its own impossibility, much in the vein of Derrida's notions of forgiveness or justice (Derrida 1992; 2001; Vaisman 2017; 2021).…”

Deep ethnography

“…1 Various anthropologists have greatly contributed to our understanding of collective violence, trauma, survival, and activism in Argentina, yet they less openly acknowledge the everyday presence of psychoanalysis in their work (e.g., Park, 2014;Robben, 1996Robben, , 2005Vaisman, 2021). 2 Owing to the sensitivity of the violent stories, I used pseudonyms for the people I talked to and felt with during fieldwork in Argentina.…”

“…11Various anthropologists have greatly contributed to our understanding of collective violence, trauma, survival, and activism in Argentina, yet they less openly acknowledge the everyday presence of psychoanalysis in their work (e.g., Park, 2014; Robben, 1996, 2005; Vaisman, 2021). …”

Monumental Names

“…To repeat names of the dead in the absence of institutional judicial proceedings is to enact a claim of historical justice, again and again. Noa Vaisman notes that historical justice in post-junta Argentina is constituted through "sedimentation of innumerable repetitions" (Vaisman 2021: 2) that are not alike.…”