When Healers Became Torturers in Argentina's Dirty War
"The electric prod touched skin, but the shockwaves tore through the very soul of medical ethics."
When a medical student asked his surgical instructor about the petechial lesions on a prisoner's scrotum, the casual explanation—"Oh, yes, the police make them all go through 'the machine'"—revealed a terrifying reality. The "picana eléctrica," a device for delivering electric shocks to genitals and other sensitive areas, was not just a tool of police brutality but part of a medical nightmare where healers became accomplices to torture 1 .
During Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983), an estimated 30,000 people were disappeared by the military regime 5 . Behind the walls of clandestine detention centers, the medical profession faced its ultimate moral test—and for many, tragically failed. This is the story of how medical complicity with torture became systematized, and why the silence in medical education about these atrocities continues to haunt healthcare ethics today.
Estimated disappeared during Argentina's Dirty War
Clandestine detention centers operated by the regime
Years before Raul Premat's remains were identified
The systematic nature of Argentina's state terrorism relied on specialized clandestine detention centers where torture was standardized. According to historical documentation, over 520 such facilities operated across the country during this period 4 . Within these centers, medical professionals played various roles that violated the most fundamental principles of their vocation.
Argentina's detention centers were categorized by the military into "Definitive Places" with stable organization for housing large numbers of detainees, and "Temporary Places" with precarious infrastructure for initial detention 4 . Five major centers formed the backbone of this system: the ESMA and Club Atlético in Buenos Aires; El Campito and El Vesubio in Greater Buenos Aires; and Perla in Córdoba 4 .
| Center Name | Location | Estimated Victims | Notorious Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESMA | Buenos Aires | 5,000+ | Death flights, clandestine maternity |
| Club Atlético | Buenos Aires | 1,500+ | Temporary processing center |
| El Campito | Campo de Mayo | 3,000+ | One of the first centers established |
| La Perla | Córdoba | 2,000+ | Largest center outside Buenos Aires |
| Automotores Orletti | Buenos Aires | 300+ | Operation Condor international operations |
Medical professionals in these centers performed several functions that directly enabled torture:
Doctors determined if prisoners could withstand interrogation sessions without dying 1 .
Medical personnel monitored vital signs during torture sessions to ensure prisoners remained at the edge of death but didn't cross over 3 .
Doctors patched up prisoners between sessions so torture could continue 3 .
Official causes of death were fabricated to conceal torture 1 .
The case of Sergio Gustavo Durán, a 17-year-old with no criminal involvement, illustrates this medical betrayal. After being arrested by police in 1992, he was found dead the next day. The official police autopsy described puncture wounds as "scratching lesions," while a subsequent independent autopsy revealed intra-alveolar hemorrhages typical of the "dry submarine" torture method involving suffocation with a plastic bag 1 .
Despite the overwhelming evidence of medical complicity in state terrorism, Argentina's medical establishment maintained what one observer called a "continuing passivity" that proved "difficult to understand in a democracy" 1 .
Thirty years after the return of democracy, the author of a 2003 BMJ article noted that human rights still wasn't a standard subject in Argentine medical schools, even in bioethics courses 1 . National academies remained largely silent on the issue after the dictatorship ended in 1983 1 .
This institutional silence reached the highest levels. In 2001, most members of Argentina's National Commission of Biomedical Ethics resigned to protest the appointment of Alberto Rodríguez Varela, a former justice minister under the military dictatorship 1 . The fact that such an appointment was even possible revealed how deep the institutional complicity ran.
This medical silence may have stemmed from what the same observer identified as a socioeconomic divide: "The social and economic status of doctors places them closer to the well off and influential than to the poorer sectors of society," while "almost all current victims of police brutality and torture practices in Argentina are poor and so are relatively defenceless" 1 .
The medical profession's high social prestige in Argentina potentially created a barrier to speaking out against atrocities committed against society's most vulnerable members 1 .
Based on analysis of medical education in Argentina 30 years after return to democracy 1
While no traditional laboratory experiment could capture the full horror of Argentina's torture system, the country's pioneering forensic anthropology efforts and recent declassification projects have served as a powerful "experimental method" for uncovering truth.
The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team developed a meticulous methodology for investigating human rights abuses:
Location and excavation of suspected mass graves using witness testimony and geographical analysis
Systematic documentation of all findings with photographic and written records
Bone-by-bone recovery and analysis using archaeological techniques
Identification through multiple methods including dental records, personal effects, and DNA analysis
Determination of cause of death through analysis of skeletal trauma
The power of this methodology is illustrated in the case of Raul Horacio Premat, a leftist publicist disappeared on April 29, 1976 2 . For 33 years, he was among the disappeared until his remains were located in a common grave and identified by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team 2 .
Survivor Mercedes Naveiro Bender had previously identified Premat as a fellow prisoner at the clandestine detention center on Bacacay Street, where she heard "Mr. Premat begging for a medical doctor" 2 . The forensic identification provided physical confirmation of survivors' testimonies and exposed the official narrative as fraudulent.
Just as laboratory science requires specific tools, the investigation of state terrorism and medical complicity relies on specialized methodological approaches.
| Tool | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Forensic Anthropology | Physical evidence of crimes | Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identifying remains |
| Declassification Projects | Access to official records | U.S. Argentina Declassification Project revealing CIA knowledge of torture sites 2 |
| Survivor Testimony | Firsthand accounts of abuses | Mercedes Naveiro Bender's detailed description of Bacacay facility 2 |
| Ethical Analysis | Examining professional complicity | Investigations into medical participation in torture 1 |
| Historical Reconstruction | Contextualizing events | Documentation of Operation Condor international coordination |
Argentina's journey toward accountability has been lengthy and fraught with obstacles. Initially, after the return to civilian rule in 1983, prosecutions began but were halted by 1986 amnesty laws that protected the military 5 . Many argued this amnesty would foster a democracy "without bitterness," but as Juan Mendez, a torture survivor who became UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, noted: "The most important argument about the Argentine experience of today is that these things don't go away" 5 .
In 2007, the amnesty law was overturned, and trials began again in earnest 5 . The legal proceedings have been methodical and extensive. The ESMA "Mega-case" alone investigated crimes against 789 people and resulted in verdicts for 54 defendants . These trials have had overwhelming public backing, with more than 80% of Argentines supporting them in opinion polls 5 .
| Form of Complicity | Description | Case Example |
|---|---|---|
| Direct Participation | Administering or monitoring torture | Doctor checking Fátima Cabrera during electrical torture 3 |
| Fitness Assessments | Determining if prisoners can withstand torture | Medical evaluations before interrogation sessions 1 |
| False Documentation | Fabricating medical records and death certificates | Police doctor describing torture wounds as "scratching lesions" 1 |
| Psychological Manipulation | Using medical knowledge to break prisoners | Medication administration to facilitate interrogation 3 |
| Institutional Silence | Professional bodies failing to condemn abuses | Medical academies remaining silent post-dictatorship 1 |
Dirty War: Military dictatorship with systematic human rights abuses
Return to democracy; initial prosecutions begin
Amnesty laws halt prosecutions of military officials
Amnesty laws overturned; trials resume
The wounds of Argentina's Dirty War remain open, and the medical profession's complicity in state terrorism stands as a stark warning to healthcare systems worldwide. As Edmund Pellegrino noted, "If medicine becomes, as Nazi medicine did, the handmaiden of economics, politics, or any force other than one that promotes the good of the patient, it loses its soul and becomes an instrument that justifies oppression and the violation of human rights" 1 .
The reconstruction of medical ethics requires making human rights central to medical teaching, ensuring students learn that "to be complicit with torture is despicable" 1 . It demands acknowledging that torture didn't end with the return to democracy—police brutality and torture practices continue, predominantly targeting poor and defenseless populations 1 .
As countries worldwide grapple with their own challenges in medical ethics and human rights, Argentina's experience offers a painful but essential lesson: without a serious commitment to reconstruct a values system based on people's intrinsic dignity, the medical profession risks becoming an instrument of oppression rather than healing 1 . The struggle continues, not just in Argentina but wherever medicine faces the temptation to serve power rather than people.
Medical ethics must be central to medical education to prevent complicity in human rights abuses.
Torture and police brutality continue, disproportionately affecting poor and vulnerable populations.