«Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America

Transitional Justice Outcomes Table

One of the critical questions for countries that have emerged from violent authoritarian regimes is whether they have done an adequate job of accounting for the past. As we will see when we read Mendez, in order to respect victims' right to justice, a country must attempt at least to meet four obligations:

1. Do justice (what does this mean?)
2. Grant victims the right to know the truth (how?)
3. Grant reparations (how do we measure the harm?)
4. Do not allow violators to continue to serve on law-enforcement or security forces (how do we maintain the balance between a purge that causes social dislocation, and mere tokenism or scapegoating?)

Download and save a copy of this table. As we go through the reading for this unit and the three readings from the next unit, start filling in the table, with a brief summary of how well each country has satisfied each of the following victims' rights. When you are done, use the last row to rank the countries from 1 to 4, in terms of the results of their transitional justice efforts.