Never Again? The Institutionalization of Far-Right Negationism and Shrinking Space in Argentina: Impacts on Transitional Justice Trials and Memory Politics

Abstract

Transitional justice criminal trials and memory policies have been a major step forward in strengthening accountability for human rights violations, while providing recognition and reparation to victims of state crimes and institutionalizing the demand for non-recurrence in Argentina. However, in recent years they have become the focus of serious attacks. The rise of far-right forces, which came to power with the figure of Javier Milei at the end of 2023, has led to the institutionalization of negationist discourses and an increase in the shrinking of spaces for human rights actors along with a reversal of the politics of justice and memory, including the persecution and stigmatization of victims and human rights organizations. The use of defamatory publicity campaigns, one-sided accusations and, above all, the withholding of funding for human rights policies and institutions are seriously hampering the progress of judicial proceedings and other reparation measures. In this context, this article illustrates how, once negationist discourses are institutionalized, legitimized and disseminated in the public sphere, they tend to be translated into concrete consequences that undermine the functioning and scope of transitional justice and memory actors and spaces. In Argentina, the government’s anti-transitional justice stance has materialized in specific official measures aimed at undermining four key dimensions of transitional justice functioning and objectives: obstructing investigations, limiting access to information, reducing the public impact of transitional justice and weakening the activism and participation of human rights and victims’ organizations.