The construction of a transnational memory and truth: Honduras and Argentina
On February 23, Bertha Oliva, co-founder of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), received the 2022 Emilio Mignone International Human Rights Award in Argentina. The human rights organization COFADEH, which recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary, was founded by a group of twelve families who met while visiting the courts in Honduras in search of their disappeared relatives. They were present at the founding of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (FEDEFAM) in 1981 and have been tirelessly defending human rights ever since. The awarding of this prize is a symbolic act of reparation that carries profound significance.
In Honduras, despite the military's institutional hold on political power since 1963, state-sponsored terrorism emerged in the late 1970s and continued after the return of electoral democracy and civilian rule in 1982. Thanks to the invaluable work of COFADEH, the Honduran National Commissioner for the Protection of Human Rights was able to establish that between 1980 and 1993, a total of 179 enforced disappearances were recorded, although 30% occurred in 1981 and the remainder were distributed more or less evenly between 1982 and 1985. A crucial question that warrants investigation is that the majority of the disappeared were not Honduran, but rather Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Costa Ricans, Guatemalans, Venezuelans, and Argentinians. Was there supranational coordination of the repression? The Commissioner's report indicated Argentine responsibility, but failed to fully prove it. Doubts and inaccuracies regarding Argentina's role in Honduras led the Commissioner to continue the investigation and request information from the Argentine government about the alleged secret missions. However, according to the 1998 report, they received no response.
Motivated, in part, by these historical debts, some members of CLACSO Working Group on Violence in Central America These questions were addressed, and it has been clarified that Argentina collaborated in the “counterinsurgency struggle” in Honduras during the last Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983), that the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979 accelerated the previously established ties, and that financial, commercial, and scientific-technical cooperation agreements were signed. The investigation also revealed which Argentine military personnel traveled to Honduras to promote training courses and weapons and to provide intelligence; but above all, it demonstrated which institution, based in Honduras, brought together the Armed Forces from different backgrounds for intelligence and operational coordination, and identified the military advisors, the institution being advised in Honduras, and the date the advisory work began.
Awarding the prize to COFADEH is a way of reaffirming human rights, severing the ties between states forged in terror, and rejecting the denialism of the 1990s. In this way, it champions memory and truth, two pillars essential to the fight against impunity.
COFADEH has a radio program from 19 to 20 pm on Radio Globo in Honduras. Their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/cofadehonduras/
March 15th 2023
CLACSO Working Group
Violence in Central America
This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
