ABSTRACT
How significant is the causal connection between the abuses inherent in repression and torture and the subsequent demise of such regimes? Do repression and torture diminish and curtail confrontations, or actually incite and facilitate more bloodshed? Do repression and torture work as a functional policy to strengthen regimes, or generate more popular support for adversaries, and thereby help the opposition recruit more activists? Does torture elicit reliable information for counter-terrorism, or trigger false confessions? Does torture actually deter future perpetrators or is this practice self-destructive for the perpetrators? While moral answers seem intuitively self-explanatory, historical and recent evidence from Argentina demonstrates the futility and hugely negative consequences of repression and torture. This chapter focuses on the Argentinian experience of the use of “Dirty War” and repression to crush internal threats and dissent.
