Dynamics of Power and Retributive Justice

Credit: Giselle Bordoy WMAR - Own work

Argentina’s Dirty War has a pattern of people taking and exercising power and others resisting that power, eventually leading to the attainment of retributive justice. When Isabel Peron took office as President, her inexperience and weak political position led to the military rising to oppose and eventually depose her. The military made a show of its power by instituting the Process of National Reorganization. In this program, top bureaucracy positions were filled with military officials and Peronists were either driven into hiding or dismissed from office. Eventually General Roberto Viola replaced General Videla, but his power was opposed by another coup in which General Leopoldo Galtieri took control. Galtieri made a show of power by ordering the military into war in the Islas Malvinas. The outcome was a disaster, and led to the public opposing Galteiri’s power. The generals were pushed to announce presidential elections, and when the elections were held Raul Alfonsin was elected President. Later, in 1985, criminal proceedings were brought against nine military officers of the juntas that ruled during the Dirty War. Three were sentenced to imprisonment, thus achieving retributive justice. This is a kind of justice that focuses on punishing the perpetrator rather than redressing the harm done to the victims. The timeline below illustrates these events.

In The Secret in Their Eyes, there is also a pattern of gaining, resisting, and losing power. Isidoro Gomez, the murderer of Liliana Coloto, gains power over those who arrested him when he is released and hired to work for the government. Ricardo Morales, Liliana's husband, resists Gomez's power by kidnapping him, and eventually takes his power away by imprisoning him in a makeshift cell and denying him any human contact. In taking it upon himself to imprison Gomez when the justice system failed to do so, Morales also gains retributive justice for his wife's death.