Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America : A Janus-Faced Paradigm?

Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America presents a nuanced and evidence-based discussion of both the acceptance and co-optation of the transitional justice framework and its potential abuses in the context of the struggle to keep the memory of the past alive and hold perpetrators accountable within Latin America and beyond. The contributors argue that "transitional justice"--understood as both a conceptual framework shaping discourses and a set of political practices--is a Janus-faced paradigm. Historically it has not always advanced but often hindered attempts to achieve historical memory and seek truth and justice. This raises the vital question: what other theoretical frameworks can best capture legacies of human rights crimes? Providing a historical view of current developments in Latin America's reckoning processes, Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America reflects on the meaning of the paradigm's reception: what are the broader political and social consequences of supporting, appropriating, or rejecting the transitional justice paradigm?--Kimberly Theidon, Tufts University "Hispanic American Historical Review" "Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America presents a nuanced and evidence-based discussion of both the acceptance and co-optation of the transitional justice framework and its potential abuses in the context of the struggle to keep the memory of the past alive and hold perpetrators accountable within Latin America and beyond. The contributors argue that 'transitional justice' - understood as both a conceptual framework shaping discourses and a set of political practices - is a Janus-faced paradigm. Historically it has not always advanced but often hindered attempts to achieve historical memory and seek truth and justice. This raises the vital question: What other theoretical frameworks can best capture legacies of human rights crimes? Providing a historical view of current developments in Latin America's reckoning processes, Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America reflects on the meaning of the paradigm's reception: What are the broader political and social consequences of supporting, appropriating, or rejecting the transitional justice paradigm?"--Unedited summary from book cover Contents......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction......Page 13 Part I: Argentina......Page 31 1 “What Do You Mean By Transitional Justice?”......Page 33 Part II: Brazil......Page 47 2 Scopes and Limits to the Transitional Justice Discourse in Brazil......Page 49 3 Transitional Justice from the Margins......Page 67 Part III: El Salvador......Page 103 4 Toward Reconsidering the Root Causes of Violence......Page 105 Part IV: Peru......Page 119 5 First Empowerment, Then Disillusion......Page 121 6 How Transitional Is Justice?......Page 139 Part V: Uruguay......Page 163 7 Uruguay and the Reconceptualization of Transitional Justice......Page 165 Part VI: Latin America......Page 185 8 Concluding Reflections......Page 187 Useful Online Resources......Page 197 Index......Page 201 About the Contributors......Page 213 Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America deconstructs the myth of unanimous support for the transitional justice paradigm across Latin America and conceptualizes transitional justice as a Janus-faced paradigm, as historically it has often hindered rather than advanced the quest for memory, truth, and justice. Based on local empirical evidence and including valuable voices from the Latin American Global South, this edited collection contradicts dominant assumptions in the much-cited international transitional justice literature