A Return to Life: The Right to Identity and the Right to Identify Argentina's Living Disappeared
![handle is hein.journals/hwlj27 and id is 239 raw text is: A RETURN TO LIFE:
THE RIGHT TO IDENTITY AND THE RIGHT TO
IDENTIFY ARGENTINA'S LIVING DISAPPEARED
LISA AVERY*
I. INTRODUCTION
There are billboards throughout the streets of Argentina bearing a
message hard to ignore: If you have doubts about your identity call the
Abuelas.' The telephone number connects callers to the Abuelas de Plaza
de Mayo (Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo) (Abuelas), who for the
past twenty-eight years have searched for their children and grandchil-
dren2 who disappeared during Argentina's bloodiest reign of state terror-
ism. While Argentina has been plagued with governmental corruption
and political instability for much of the past century, the March 24, 1976,
military coup on the Per6n government marked their culmination. The
subsequent seven-year period, termed the Dirty War,3 involved acts of
abduction, torture, mass murder, and the disappearence of tens of thou-
sands of people,4 all disguised as National Security.' After the coup, the
* J.D. Candidate, 2004, Whittier Law School. I am grateful to S. Kathleen Isbell for
her encouragement, insightful edits, and friendship. I remain awed and inspired by the
Abuelas' relentless labor of love. This Article is dedicated with love and honor to my
grandmothers, Gladys Hardy and Helen Mages, and to my daughter, Laurielle.
I See, e.g., Nmero Especial en Conmemoraci6n del 25 Aniversario de las Abuelas de
Plaza de Mayo, ABUELAS DE PLAZA DE MAYO. Oct. 22, 2002, at 8 (author's translation),
available at http:// www.abuelas.org.ar/images/Mensu/print.pdf (last visited Jan. 15, 2004).
2 RITA ARDITTI, SEARCHING FOR LIFE: THE GRANDMOTHERS OF THE PLAZA DE MAYO
AND THE DISAPPEARED CHILDREN OF ARGENTINA I (1999).
3In re Extradition of Suarez-Mason, 694 F. Supp. 676, 679 n.2 (N.D. Cal. 1988)
(defining Dirty War, or guerra sucia, as the military junta's own description of its war
against subversion).
4 U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, ARGEN-
TINA 2001 5 (2002) [hereinafter COUNTRY REPORTS, ARGENTINA 2001], available at
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/200I/wha/8278pf.htm (last visited Jan. 15, 2004).
United States estimates suggest that between 10,000 and 15,000 disappearances occurred;
some human rights groups believe the number is more than double that figure based on the
number of people still missing. Id.
5 See ARDITTI, supra note 2, at 11-21. The doctrine of National Security was used to
teach the military that Argentina was facing a threat from its own citizens-subversives
who intended to undermine the traditional values of Argentine society. Id. at 11. Conse-
quently, the Argentine government justified fighting an undeclared war on these internal
foes because they posed more of a threat to the country than any foreign enemies. Id. at 12.
The government used the doctrine of National Security to justify the kidnapping, torture,
and murder of thousands of people. Id. at 13-14.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hwlj27&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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A Return to Life: The Right to Identity and the Right to Identify Argentina's Living Disappeared
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