Dirty War - Casualty Estimates

Casualty Estimates

The often quoted figure of 30,000 disappeared in Argentina first appeared in the Montreal Gazette, in an interview with Cecilia Guevara, sister of the slain guerrilla commander Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who stated in an interview in May 1980 that, in Argentina alone, more 30,000 people had disappeared and another 15,000 had been imprisoned. The New York Times reporter David Vidal wrote on 5 January 1979 that the number of disappeared in Latin America as a whole now numbered 30,000. The Christian Science Monitor and The Boston Globe soon followed suit with similar stories, claiming 30,000 people had disappeared under military dictatorships in Latin America and not only in Argentina. The Los Angeles Times repeated the claims of 30,000 Latin Americans and not just Argentines, disappeared in a new article published in October 1979 and November of that year.

The Nunca Más report issued by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) in 1984, made a list of 8,961 persons "disappeared" between 1976 and 1983, in a case by case verification, and another list of 1,300 victims seen alive in clandestine detention centers. The report explains that they are "open lists", because "we know also that many disappearings had not been denounced".

In 1977, General Albano Harguindeguy, Interior Minister, admitted that 5,618 people disappeared in the form of PEN detenidos-desaparecidos were being held in detention camps throughout Argentina. According to a secret cable from DINA (Chilean secret police) in Buenos Aires, an estimate by the Argentine 601st Intelligence Battalion in mid-July 1978, which started counting victims in 1975, gave the figure of 22,000 persons – this document was first published by John Dinges in 2004.

In 1979, US President Jimmy Carter offered to accept 3,000 disappeared in the form of PEN detainees, as long as they had no terrorist background. The total number of disappeared in the form of PEN prisoners was 8,625 and of these disappeared 157 were killed after being released from detention. According to the official count of the 1984 truth commission, between 1976 and 1979, 8,353 Argentinians were killed or "disappeared", and other 113 were killed or disappeared at the hands of the military regime between 1980 and 1983. Human Rights Groups in Argentina often cite a figure of 30,000 disappeared, Amnesty International estimates 20,000 while other observers think 12,000 is a more accurate figure. In 1988, the Asamblea por los Derechos Humanos (APDH or Assembly for Human Rights) published its findings on the disappearances and stated that 12,261 people were killed or disappeared during the Dirty War. The Montoneros admitted losing 5,000 guerrillas killed, and the ERP admitted 5,000 of their own guerrillas had been killed. By comparison, Argentine security forces cite 523 deaths of their own between 1969 and 1975 and 205 deaths between 1976 and 1978. There were 16,000 victims of left-wing terrorism in Argentina, including civilians and military personnel. There is no agreement on the actual number of detenidos-desaparecidos. In a 2009 interview with the Buenos Aires daily newspaper Clarín, Graciela Fernández Meijide, who formed part of the 1984 truth commission, claimed that the documented number of Argentines killed or disappeared was closer to 9,000. Between 1969 and 1979, left-wing guerrillas accounted for 3,249 kidnappings and murders and 5,215 bombings. CONADEP also recorded 458 assassinations (attributed to the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance) and about 600 forced disappearances during the period of democratic rule between 1973 and 1976.

In a final report televised on 28 April 1983 as the military prepared their departure, the ruling junta officially declared that the disappeared were all dead but declared to have saved the nation. Human Rights Group condemned the junta's final report and claimed at the time, that between 6,000 and 15,000 people had disappeared in Argentina between 1975 and 1979. Some 11,000 Argentines have since applied for and received up to US $200,000 each as monetary compensation for the loss of loved ones during the military dictatorship.