Unbecoming veteranship: Convicted military offi cers in post-authoritarian Argentina

VAN ROEKEL, EVA; SALVI, VALENTINA

Conflict and Society

Berghahn Journals

Lugar: OXFORD; Año: 2019 vol. 5 p. 115 - 131

2164-4543

In post-authoritarian Argentina, veterans who participated in the brutal counterinsurgency of the last dictatorship (1976-1983) inhabit an extremely inconsistent citizenship, alternatively violating and respecting legal rights and entitlements. Th is article looks at how alternating transitional justice practices and the ever-changing moral discourses about warfare and accountability create highly unstable access to rights, resources, and entitlements for these veterans in Argentina. Th e recent shift toward re - tribution for crimes against humanity in Argentina has legally consolidated their moral downfall. From being untouchable and exemplary offi cers until the early 1980s, the now convicted military offi cers have been demoted twice by the state and the military institution. Based on long-term fi eldwork with the convicted offi cers and their kin, this article traces the contingent relation between the moral and legal practices that underlie this double downfall that constitutes a fl uctuating process of un/becoming veteranship for these veterans. Th eir veteranship, for that matter, depends on highly confl ictive and transformative sociopolitical processes that speak to broader moral dispositions surrounding legal rights, entitlements, and worthiness for veterans.