The 1970s remain a minefield in Argentina. Nothing underscores this more than the discussion about who is responsible for the cycle of political violence and the number of missing persons, a topic that recurs time and again, dividing those who openly hold denialist positions on the one hand and those who uphold the symbol of the 30,000 on the other. How can we emerge from the labyrinth from above, without fueling taboos that tend to return in the worst possible way, if not through serious work supported by data?

With a central question as a guide—what did society know about clandestine repression in the years following the coup d’état—and based on a review of archives, testimonies, and documents, Emilio Crenzel reconstructs how relatives of the disappeared, human rights organizations, exiles, and armed organizations gradually developed knowledge about the system of disappearances. And it analyzes the perspectives, often in tension with each other, on those responsible, the whereabouts of the victims, the strategies for counting them, and their final fate. It thus shows that even among the whistleblowers, there were divergent interpretations, in part because the magnitude of the horror made it difficult to grasp what was happening.

With a rigorous and deeply human approach, this essential book aims to tell us that thinking about the 30,000 implies recounting them in more than one sense: to explain where the number comes from, but above all, to confront the most uncomfortable questions with sound foundations. And to recognize what we still don’t know about the disappeared themselves, the survivors, and the perpetrators.

¿Cuántos son los desaparecidos y cuantas las víctimas de la desaparición forzada en la Argentina? Debates político-memoriales e investigación académica by Emilio Crenzel