En torno a la palabra testimonial de los sobrevivientes testigos legitimados y denegados de los centros clandestinos de detención en Argentina

Testigos legitimados y denegados de los centros clandestinos de detención en Argentina

Abstract

This article discusses the diverse forms of testimony on the experience of forced disappearance during the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). It examines the criteria that have contributed to the fact that some survivors have been regarded as legitimate witnesses and other as denied. The paper focuses on the ways in which the testimonial trajectories are determined not only by legitimation dynamics that enable a public word and allow the victim to be heard and incorporated into the social sphere, but also by the dynamics of silencing and denial. Suspicions about survivors constituted some of the obstacles for them to became visible during the democratic transition and assume the role of witnesses in public space. The category of witnesses denied allows us to observe to which extent these barriers remain in place, as well as the effects of disappearing power, thirty years after the end of the dictatorship.