Radicals Tempt Argentina to Rely Again on Repression

Last week Argentines witnessed a strange reprise of the guerrilla violence that plunged their nation into chaos in the 1970s. The smoke has cleared from the burning barracks at La Tablada, revealing charred bodies but few answers. Is a new cycle of violence at hand?

The physical evidence of the Jan. 23-24 assault on the 3rd Infantry Regiment--Chinese and Soviet arms, the revolutionary screed left behind, the inclusion of women in their ranks--indicated that the attackers were left-wing radicals. Later they were identified as members of the Movement of All for the Fatherland--a group that had been unheard of until early last month, when it accused Peronist presidential candidate Carlos Menem of ties with right-wing, coup-mongering Army officers. Some of the dead assailants also were linked to the Revolutionary Army of the People--a Trotskyite group that was largely wiped out in the 1970s by security forces after it tried to take over Tucuman province in northwest Argentina. Yet the political parties most closely linked to the 1970s terrorists have denied any link to the attack.

The most important questions remain unanswered: Do other cadres lie in wait? Who are they? What do they want? What will they do to get it? Will more attacks follow? When?

Whatever the answers turn out to be, a few clear winners emerged from the bloody events that took 38 lives at La Tablada. The army showed that it could overwhelm an insurgent force (admittedly some hours after the insurgents overwhelmed a regiment). Cassandras of the right were vindicated for their ceaseless warnings in recent years of a “subversive resurgence.” And urban guerrillas put themselves back onto the political map.

The greatest victor was extremism itself. The political views of the attackers matter less than their decision to press those views through violence. Violence knows no creed, and its use on one side encourages it on the other.

Like a trauma victim after years of recovery, Argentina has had a flashback to the confusion and out-of-the-blue bloodletting that brought the country to its knees not so long ago. The greatest danger is that the country will return reflexively to the same response: lawless repression under the watchless eyes of a frightened public.

Memories are too fresh and democratic sentiment too strong to permit one isolated incident, however grave, to drive Argentina back to the policies that characterized its last struggle against subversion--torture, murder, “disappearance,” suspension of civil rights. But terrorism is a powerful solvent of constitutional scruples. If more deadly attacks follow, the pressure for vigilante responses will grow.

President Raul Alfonsin has attempted to head off these dangers by responding forcefully to the crisis at hand, but insisting that the response be carried out within the rule of law. He submitted the 14 surrendering attackers to civilian justice while establishing a national security council to develop policies and coordinate actions against subversive activities. “Make no mistake,” he told the nation, “our constant testament for the rights of man does not constitute weakness in the face of armed subversion.”

Brave words aside, the incident remains profoundly troubling. It raises the ghosts of a decade that still wounds the national soul, a decade in which Argentina gave the word desaparecido (disappeared one) to the world and brought itself great international shame. Although the subversive movement in Argentina was annihilated more than 10 years ago, no one can deny that the depressed socioeconomic conditions in Latin America today could support a terrorist resurgence. Peru and Colombia have been in the grips of terrorism for a decade, with no relief in sight.

Many Latin governments have been struggling to make democracy work--restoring political and civil rights, reopening courts and legislatures, peacefully handing over power to political opponents. Wracked by debt and recession, though, democratic governments have been unable to show their people a better life. A return to political violence would only worsen the region’s economic plight.

There is a new breeze blowing in Latin America, a chill wind of despair--of stagnant economies, inept politicians and recurrent violence. It is a breeze that, if it continues to blow, may snuff out Latin American hopes for a better tomorrow.