“New executions of Peronists, a few days of the massacre of La Plata. Beckerman, 19 years old, is dis-
missed by his colleagues from the Union of Secondary Students (UES) | Diario Noticias, Year I number
263. Buenos Aires, Saturday, August 24, 1974.
Monument to Colonel Don Argentino del Valle
Larrabure during a tribute ceremony | V. Salvi
the war discourse lost its social value, only victims the “victims of terrorism”. Nevertheless, it should
and perpetrators were left behind, and the violence be made clear that the figure of the “killed by their
perpetrated ended up being perceived socially as a subversion” is not new, it dates from the wakes and
deviation from all legal, moral and cultural codes. burials of the officers killed during the first half
In this context, it became widespread the so-
of the 1970s (Garaño and Pontoriero, 2018), from
called “theory of the two demons”, whose two- the propagandist activity in support of the military
fold rhetoric opposing and equating the violence regime (Lorenz, 2005), and especially from the
exercised by the armed organisations with the masses that FAMUS convened in connection with the
state terror carried out by the armed forces, and CONADEP investigation and the military court cases
this would also have implications for the future of the 1980s (Salvi, 2012). However, in those years,
reconfiguration of the military narrative. This the military victims were not the emblematic figure
interpretation of the facts was rejected by the from which to frame the memory and defend the
military forces, who did not agree to be equated “fight against subversion”.
with those they had fought against and defeated
Around 1995, two events occurred that were
(the “subversive criminals”), nor to have their markedly significant for the memories of the armed
commanders judged and their responsibilities forces and their cadres. In March, the lieutenant
equated with those of the guerrilla armed commander (R), Adolfo Scilingo, and the former
forces leaders. Notwithstanding this stance, the junior staff officer in the Army, Víctor Ibáñez,
bipolarization of violence and the equalization reported on television that the so-called “death
derived from it will permeate the military narrative, flights” were throwing into the sea alive people
attributing a new significance to the notion of war who were being held hostage in the clandestine
and giving it a new base for the fights for memory. detention centres of the Escuela de Mecánica de la
The figure of the “victors of the subversive
Armada (ESMA) and Campo de Mayo. A month later,
war” that defended the careers of the former in April 1995, the Army chief, General Martín Balza,
Commander of the Junta or the middle cadres who also gave a speech before the television cameras in
had participated in the repression was central to the which he admitted the torture and murder executed
military memories during the 1980s and the first by men from the Army without giving further
half of the 1990s. However, there were many reasons details about the responsibilities of the institution.
for the military memories to turn to the figure of
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