Table Of Content

CCllaauuddiiaa HHiillbb && PPhhiilliippppee--JJoosseepphh SSaallaazzaarr NN :: EEWW BBEEGGIINNNNIINNGGSS AARRGGEENNTTIINNAA && SSOOUUTTHH AAFFRRIICCAA (cid:73) NEW BEGINNINGS: ARGENTINA & SOUTH AFRICA (cid:73) (cid:73) THE ELEPHANT AND THE OBELISK, II a Special Series and an Imprint of the African Yearbook of Rhetoric (cid:73) (cid:73) NEW BEGINNINGS: ARGENTINA & SOUTH AFRICA (cid:73) Edited by Claudia Hilb & Philippe-Joseph Salazar AFRICARHETORIC PUBLISHING 2012 (cid:73) This volume is a book issue of the African Yearbook of Rhetoric, Vol. 3 No. 2, 2012 in the Special Series: The Elephant and the Obelisk, II The title of this book is: NEW BEGINNINGS: ARGENTINA & SOUTH AFRICA Original cover art “heads” by Toni Bico. www.tonibico.com Copyright © Toni Bico and AfricaRhetoric Publishing Copyright© held by AfricaRhetoric Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright holder. Copy-edited by: Brett Syndercombe. Printed by: The INCWADI Press PO Box 293, Newlands, 7725 Cape Town Republic of South Africa Publisher: AfricaRhetoric Publishing PO Box 677, Melkbosstrand, 7437 Cape Town Republic of South Africa [email protected] ISBN 978-0-9870334-0-6 ISSN 2220-2188 (cid:73) Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials (project UID 75930) are those of the authors and therefore the National Research Foundation of South Africa does not accept any liability in regard thereto. (cid:73) CONTENTS (cid:73) EDITORS’ FOREWORD Claudia Hilb & Philippe-Joseph Salazar 1 NOT ONE ANSWER? Martin Böhmer 3 REVOLUTIONARY WAR, HUMAN RIGHTS AND INCOMPLETE TRUTHS Vera Carnovale 15 USES AND LIMITS OF THE FIGURE OF “GENOCIDE” Hugo Vezzetti 29 JUSTICIA, RECONCILIACIÓN, PERDÓN Claudia Hilb 41 FROM JUDICIAL TRUTH TO HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PERSONS IN ARGENTINA Emilio Crenzel 53 ON INNOCENT VICTIMS AND DEMONS IN ARGENTINA (1983 – 1985) Lucas Martín 65 “MIERDA”, OR CONCERNING “EVIL” IN POLITICS. A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS Philippe-Joseph Salazar 77 NUEVO COMIENZO DEMOCRÁTICO EN URUGUAY: LA LEY DE CADUCIDAD EN QUERELLA Nicolás Abraham & Eugenia Mattei 95 EL JUICIO SEGÚN ARENDT: SU APORTE A LA REFLEXIÓN SOBRE PASADOS TRAUMÁTICOS Valeria Bosoer 107 FORGETTING RESPONSIBILITY: HANNAH ARENDT AND THE WORK OF (UNDOING) PSYCHIC RESISTANCE POST-APARTHEID Sergio Alloggio & Kylie Thomas 119 (cid:73) EDITORS’ FOREWORD Claudia Hilb & Philippe-Joseph Salazar (cid:73) T his volume marks the mid-point of a collaborative work by two groups of researchers in political rhetoric, at the University of Buenos Aires and at the University of Cape Town (funded by NRF, project UID 75930). Its theoretical import and civic object are to reflect on “new beginnings” ― how Argentina and South Africa conceived and received public arguments of justice or vengeance, in reconciliation or discord, with equanimity or trauma, in order to “begin anew” after dictatorship and apartheid. This volume is a “report” as it responds to a practical purpose: we needed to take stock of the work already done and, by reporting on what had been achieved, to prepare for the next stage of research. This is a “work in progress” in the best, perhaps only true sense of the expression. Put to good, collective and reflective use in a workshop held in Buenos Aires, this volume is indeed a blueprint for research on “new beginnings”. NEW BEGINNINGS: ARGENTINA & SOUTH AFRICA brings together some of the best political philosophers in Latin America, junior researchers in political discourse, and the expertise of the Centre for Rhetoric Studies, in Cape Town. In the multi-lingual tradition of AfricaRhetoric Publishing most chapters are in English but some are written in Spanish. NOT ONE ANSWER? By Martin Böhmer (cid:73) O ften discussions about massive human rights violations revolve around a single question: How should a country, any country, come to terms with a past event of radical evil? In this brief essay I argue that the question thus articulated is impossible to answer reasonably, i.e. providing enough details and nuances in order to organise an overall public policy response adequate for any country at any juncture of its history. PUNISHMENT FOR ALL? One such answer is pushed from the new institutions of international law such as the International Criminal Court: justice in the form of criminal punishment. In accordance with such institutions, if a country fails to redress an event of radical evil, the international community is bound to prosecute the wrongdoers and punish them. This answer has a long and venerable tradition starting with the Nuremberg trials and it seems the most natural one, “a crime has to be prosecuted, tried and punished”.1 Nevertheless, and even though since the Holocaust the universal conscience became more sensitive to events of radical evil and multiple international treaties and constitutions regulated generously and judges enforced strongly human rights rules to limit popular will, despite judicial review being extended to countries that had rejected it, thus bringing to an end years of legislative (or executive) supremacy, and regardless of the fact that massive human rights violations still happen, seldom was a perpetrator prosecuted, tried and punished.2 The situation is not surprising. Watching Eichmann, Hannah Arendt admitted the powerlessness produced by a banal perpetrator of radical 1 Diane Orentlicher, “Settling accounts: The duty to punish human rights violations of a prior regime”, The Yale Law Journal 100, 8 (1991): 2 537. 2 See Carlos Santiago Nino, Radical evil on trial (Yale University Press, 1996).