Arrests, control, and surveillance in Tierra del Fuego during the last military dictatorship

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the repressive methods and mechanisms of control over Tierra del Fuego's society implemented during the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). While the operation of clandestine detention centers has not yet been verified in the current province of Tierra del Fuego —still a National Territory in the 1970s— and repression was not deployed with the scope and scale it had in other regions of the country, the presence of the Navy and other forces in those years meant a constant militarization and social control. This meant that at the beginning of the dictatorship, politically motivated arrests were carried out. In some cases, they were held at the Ushuaia police station under the repressive laws of the time; in others, when they were transferred off the island, they were held clandestinely in other regions of the country.

Our aim is to shed light on a little-explored period in Tierra del Fuego's recent history by analyzing the role of the Territorial Police in controlling and monitoring Tierra del Fuego's society during the last Argentine dictatorship, challenging the narrative that maintains that the island was not affected by the repression carried out by the military government.