National Commission On The Disappearance of Persons - Creation of CONADEP

Creation of CONADEP

CONADEP was created by Raúl Alfonsín who was the candidate for the Unión Cívica Radical (Radical Civic Union) party and took office on December 10, 1983. He emphasized that to prosecute the guilty parties responsible for the disappearances that three categories of people would have to be distinguished: those who planned and issued the orders, those who acted beyond the orders and those who carried out the orders strictly to the letter.

Alfonsín proposed to take away the “self-amnesty” law that had been implemented by the military regime and ordered for the prosecution of seven guerilla leaders and the first three military juntas of the dictatorship. But, Alfonsín wanted to hold the trials in military court, with the possibility of an appeal in a civilian court. Human rights groups disagreed with this and though that the military courts would refuse to impose any legal sanctions on the prosecuted and believed that the only way to see justice was to have a “bicameral commission”. This way, the commission could manage an inquiry and then deliver a sentence and be able to subpoena testimony. Alfonsín denied the idea of a “bicameral commission” because of concern that legislators would compete among themselves to give the harshest punishments. Alfonsín also wanted to integrate the military into the democratic party to prevent further military coups so he wanted to be slightly more conciliatory.

Ernesto Sábato, Eduardo Rabossi, Gregorio Klimovsky, Hilario Fernández Long, Marshall Meyer, Ricardo Colombres, Monsignor Jaime de Nevares, Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazú, René Favaloro, and Carlos Gattinoni were all invited to join the Commission. CONADEP was created on December 15, 1983 by a presidential decree and was to report to both the executive branch and the legislators from both chambers. It was allotted 6 months time to collect reports about the disappearances, look to see if they could discover what happened to the “disappeared”, find abducted children, find evidence of attempts to conceal crimes and destroy evidence, after which they would refer this information to the court and issue a final report.

Although the decree was passed, only three Radical Party Congressmen and only one human rights group, APDH, participated in CONADEP because human rights groups did not think that CONADEP would be successful. They felt that only a bicameral commission had the power of coercion necessary to subpoena the military and political offenders. After the military failed to make a "good faith" effort with the prosecution, the trials were then transferred to a civilian court.