Pictures: Members of the Ejército Guerrillero
del Pueblo in Salta, 1964 | Revista El Sur
exile, and extermination during the dictatorship,
or “justice for no one,” which would undermine
the ongoing trials of perpetrators of state violence.
The analysis of that particular political moment
suggests that confessions on the left cannot achieve
the positive role of contributing to democracy and
human rights and might even cause setbacks in
those processes.
Yet, an earlier confessional moment had a
different outcome. They did not engage the right-
wing. There were no efforts to silence them. Instead,
contentious coexistence emerged among the left in
which different individuals, sometimes within the
same armed left group, took positions on the past
and openly – and sometimes harshly – engaged in
a dialogue about the violent past. This debate began
at the end of 2004 on the pages of the Córdoba
political left magazine (La Intemperie) and was
later published in part in a book called No Matar.
The dialogue began with an interview of the former
member of the Ejército Guerrillero del Pueblo (EGP),
Héctor Jouvé. Jouvé explains that he joined the
armed left due to an intellectual commitment to
end poverty and injustice, and his awareness that
mainstream political parties lacked the will to bring
about change. He expresses regrets about that past,
however. In particular, he has misgivings about
14
Observing Memories
ISSUE 2
“Another form of
silencing occurred with
the publication of the
book No Matar. The book
was meant to present
the full contours of the
debate triggered by
Jouvé’s and del Barco’s
confessions. Certain
positions in that debate
were excluded from the
publication, however.”