Well written, terse, and drawing on a significant secondary literature, this book is the first to go down this complicated, binational path. Thomas C. Wright asks how accused human rights abusers in Argentina and Chile evaded judicial reckoning for so long and then explains how impunity came crashing down. Chapters 1 and 2 cover worn ground on state terror in the two countries and the origins of impunity. Impunity came in Argentina in the context of the 1980s democratic government conceding ground to truculent military officers and in Chile through the military's bullish prescience in negotiating immunity for itself before the end of military rule. A third chapter documents the emergence of Chilean and Argentine human rights groups in the 1970s. Chapter 4 follows the legal pretexts for the 1990s entrenchment of impunity in both countries as well as post-1995 reform that opened the door to prosecutions. “Precipitating Events” is...

You do not currently have access to this content.