Latin American Dictatorship in Erich Hackl's Novel Sara und Simón and Miguel Asturias's El Señor Presidente

Abstract

When Austrian writer Erich Hackl's novel Sara und Simon was published in 1995, the truth about the military dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983 was not widely known. The majority ofthe Argentine military had notyet admitted that approximately thirty thousand people had been made to disappear, among them children as well as adults. In order to understand Hackl's intention in writing this novel it is important to know that, until that time, the majority ofArgentines continued to support the military's declaration that the reports ofthese disappearances were pure fiction: Den Aussagen der uberlebenden Opfer hatte die Mehrheit der Argentinier kaumBeachtung geschenkt.Die Mutterund Grosmuttervon Verschwundenen, die jeden Donnerstag vor dem Prasidentensitz auf der Plaza de Mayo fur die Herausgabe ihrer Kinder demonstrieren, nannten viele nur 'locas,' Verruckte. (Mein Gefangnis 200). The majority ofArgentines hardly paid attention to the statements ofsurviving victims. The mothers and grandmothers ofthe vanished were called crazy, because they were demonstrating every Thursday in front of the Presidential Place for the return oftheir children.1 Once the dictatorship came to an end, the failure of the courts to prosecute military officials intensified the people's reluctance to accept what had happened under their rule. After military tribunals in 1985 rejected the cases against the generals, the civil courts took them over. Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky has described the trial: The members of the military juntas who had made the entire society tremble untiljust a few years before rose respectfully to their feet on the order ofa young clerk each time the members ofthe federal chamber that was judging them returned to the courtroom. But all nine denied having ordered the use ofmethods that were injurious to human rights. They did not acknowledge the facts and accused the concentration camp survivors of fabricating their testimony about a descent into hell. They even suggested mat theirjudges were also part ofa sinister conspiracy against the virtuous guardians ofthe nation. Ifany mistake had been made, it was the responsibility oftheir subordinates. (97) Nevertheless, between April and September of that year, nine highranking military officials were forced to resign. Moreover, after listening to the testimonies of the victims, the civil judges condemned the two highest-ranking generals of the army, Videla and Massera,2 to life in