ABSTRACT
In the early 1990s, Argentine society exhibits two odd and striking characteristics. The first one is the extremely fragmented views of the citizenry on what happened during the 1974-1983 period in which state-sponsored human rights violations took place. The second peculiarity is a clear inconsistency between the fervent popular support of those trials of human rights abuses and present indicators that the populace is ready to elect authoritarian rulers and acquiesce again to police brutality. The public outcry, largely kindled by the human rights organizations, was not targeted at the military takeover of 1976 itself. What triggered a widespread demand for justice was the systematic brutality deployed by the de facto regime. Brutality brings about a culture of fear and insecurity that pervades the community at large. The notion that almost everybody qualifies for state abuses penetrated most aspects of social life.
