Memories, anecdotes, reviews, political definitions. Horacio Jaunarena presented The house is in orderrepublished in digital format by Leamos, the digital publisher of Infobae, and available at BajaLibros. The event took place at the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI). The activity, organized by the Institute of International Security and Strategic Affairs (ISIAE) of CARI, was hybrid: there were readers in person and others connected via Zoom.
The house is in order
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They participated Francisco de Santibañes (President of CARI), Fabian Calle (ISIAE Director), Jesus Rodriguez (economist, party representative in the Socialist International), Matthew Hadad (director of BajaLibros) and Jaunarena himself. “There was resentment in radicalism due to the coup against Arturo Illia“, recalled who used to be the Minister of Defense of Raul Alfonsin and key figure in the return of democracy.
“The democratic transition is unprecedented,” he stressed, since “those that were experienced in the world always had an agreement between those who left and those who came. In the Argentine case, there was no contact between radicalism and the Armed Forces that left the government. We lived in special circumstances and enormous loneliness.”
The house is in order It is more than a testimony, it is a look from within power in the key years of the democratic transition in Argentina. A direct look and without cheap blows that narrates the challenges of subjecting the Armed Forces to civilian power, the trials for human rights violations and the institutional reconstruction after the dictatorship. It can be read for free at BajaLibros.
In its pages things like this appear: “Alfonsín had the moral authority to embody change in the course of that history and he could do so not only because of his principles, but also because of his active participation (…) Beyond the legitimate ethical claim, no one at that time thought that it was politically or materially possible to punish each and every one of those involved in the illegal repression. In that sense, what Alfonsín pursued with that distinction was to aim at the repair of the collective ethical conscience.”
In the presentation, self-criticism was present: “Surely we made mistakes, but the truth is that today, forty years ago, we are living democracy.” And he added an open reflection: “In the times of our past, the vast majority of us knew the name of the head of the Army, of the Armed Forces, of the Navy… I ask you a question: today, do you know the name of the heads of State of the Armed Forces? It is a topic to think about. Democracy has permeated our behavior.”
“We must read the complete history of Argentina. When we talk about military coups, let us not forget that there was also civil participation, which encouraged these situations, and also citizen indifference,” he said and concluded: “We made democracy together and we are going to have to maintain it together, because surely these new times are going to make us face new problems, and we must invent solutions.”
(Photos: Jaime Olivos)
