ABSTRACT
In the midst of deep political conflict and widespread political violence, a military coup took place in Argentina in March 1976. The military government, defining itself as leading a ‘Process of National Reorganization’, implemented a systematic policy of clandestine repression, including disappearances on a massive scale, as the basic policy to handle the political conflict and to wipe out the existing armed political groups. Estimates of disappearances vary, with figures of up to 30,000. Although the military dictatorship lasted from March 1976 until December 1983, repression was harshest during the initial years of the regime.
