On December 9, 2025, 40 years Trial of the military juntasan unprecedented trial that marked a turning point in Argentina’s institutional history. This trial, which also included the criminal prosecution of the main leaders of the armed organizations ERP and Montoneros, was a political and legal decision that completed the consolidation of the democratic system restored in 1983.
Just three days after he took office as the nation’s president, on December 13, 1983, Raul Alfonsin signed three decrees that laid the foundation for the process. Decree 157/83 ordered the criminal trial of heads of armed organizations for crimes committed before the 1976 coup. Decree 158 ordered the criminal prosecution of Military juntas who ruled the country between 1976 and 1983 due to serious human rights violations. Finally, Decree 187 created this National Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CONADEP)responsible for investigating and collecting evidence on enforced disappearances of people.
The message was unmistakable: the democratic state would not only condemn the military, but also previous political violence. However, the path was anything but easy. Not the entire political spectrum supported the initiative. During the election campaign, the then candidate was the Judicialist Party had argued that the National Peace Actsanctioned by the dictatorship just a month before the 1983 elections, granting amnesty to military and guerrilla members.
Alfonsin issued these decrees in his capacity as head of the public prosecutors who had to act before the court Justicea power that was then part of the presidential powers. Days later, on December 22, 1983, the congress unanimously passed Law 23,040, which became the de facto Law 22,924, known as National Peace Act or self-amnesty.
This rule provided for the expungement of criminal acts for crimes committed between May 25, 1973 and June 17, 1982, including the authors, participants, instigators, accomplices and aiders in both ordinary and military crimes. Its repeal was crucial to the trial of the juntas in 1985.
The operation of the CONADEP. In the days before the inauguration of the democratic authorities, there were heated discussions within the radicalism on the scope of responsibilities for human rights violations. Added to this was the refusal of Peronist MPs and senators to join the commission, forcing it to move forward without full political support.
Nevertheless, it is CONADEP managed to document almost 9,000 specific cases of human rights violations. The report More It was presented on September 20, 1984 and presented to the President at an event that was accompanied by a massive mobilization of about 70,000 people. Its impact was profound: not only did it become the central evidence in the trial, but it also led to a lasting cultural change in Argentine society.
The legal process also encountered obstacles. On July 11, 1984, the Federal Chamber ordered the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to investigate whether there was a systematic method of violating human rights. In view of the lack of answers and the unjustified delay in the military justice system, the Chamber decided on October 4 of the same year to dissolve the military court and deal directly with the case.
The court that tried the military juntas consisted of Ricardo Gil Lavedra, Andrés D’Alessio, León Carlos Arslanián, Jorge Torlasco, Jorge Valerga Aráoz and Guillermo Ledesma, all appointed in accordance with the Constitutionwith the consent of senate.
The verdict was announced on December 9, 1985 and ran to more than 2,000 pages. The verdict found it proven that the juntas designed and implemented a criminal plan, rejected the validity of the self-amnesty law and established different responsibilities depending on the actions of each force.
One of the most abnormal crimes of state terrorism is the systematic appropriation of minors and the suppression of their identity. In 2012 the justice noted that it was a widespread and planned practice of military leadership. As of 2022, 130 people had regained their identities, although it is estimated that around 500 girls and boys were dispossessed.
The prosecution of all crimes has finally allowed us to calm this historical moment without distorting reality. The greatest punishment for those responsible was exposure to history: A democratic justice system condemned, based on the Constitution, what they had committed by systematically violating human rights.
He Trial against the committees It was a hinge. It cemented human rights as state policy and left a clear warning for the future: in the ArgentinaWhoever seeks to undermine the constitutional order, whether through a de facto government or through terrorism, knows that there are precedents of a democracy capable of judging and condemning the most serious crimes.
That was, in short, the day democracy stopped imposing itself.
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