US release of its Latin American Cold War files
An interesting read by Peter Kornbluh on Why the Obama administration is giving old state secrets to Latin American allies in the Washington Post.
Anyway, the Clinton and Obama administrations have been pretty good about releasing state secrets that detail what we knew (did?) during the 1970s and 1980s in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, and Guatemala. According to Kornbluh, Clinton's release of records seems to have responded more to embarrassing revelations of US activities in Latin America during the Cold War. Clinton released thousands of records from El Salvador and Guatemala following the release of their truth commissions that implicated the US. It began a review process of Chilean records following Augusto Pinochet's arrest in London.
However, the Obama administration has used the declassification process as another tool in its statecraft arsenal, releasing information from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. I'm not sure the distinction holds up that well. Records on Brazil were to be released one year after that country's 2012 truth commission. The Argentine records were to be released following the US' misstep to schedule a presidential visit on that country's forty year anniversary of the coup that ushered in even greater repression than had occurred in the last years of "democratic" rule. US releases have very much responded to scandal and pressure during Obama's term, an administration not that highly characterized as transparent.
In August, members of Congress called on the Obama administration to release documents related to the disappeared in El Salvador's civil war. I remember adding my name to a similar petition this summer. Hopefully, the US will move to release those records and not just because I want to see the FMLN complain that releasing such records would be part of a right-wing effort to destabilize their government.
Alongside the traditional instruments of statecraft, the Obama administration has developed an entirely new tool: declassifying decades-old secrets of state to share with other governments and their societies. President Obama has used this declassification diplomacy to mend fences with other countries, advance the cause of human rights and even redress the dark history of Washington’s support for repression abroad. Allies are grateful and historians are delighted. And given the depth and range of still-secret U.S. Cold War records, declassified diplomacy has the potential to go much, much further.I wonder if this could have been entitled "Why Democratic administrations don't mind releasing Cold War secrets that make Republicans look bad"?
Anyway, the Clinton and Obama administrations have been pretty good about releasing state secrets that detail what we knew (did?) during the 1970s and 1980s in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, and Guatemala. According to Kornbluh, Clinton's release of records seems to have responded more to embarrassing revelations of US activities in Latin America during the Cold War. Clinton released thousands of records from El Salvador and Guatemala following the release of their truth commissions that implicated the US. It began a review process of Chilean records following Augusto Pinochet's arrest in London.
However, the Obama administration has used the declassification process as another tool in its statecraft arsenal, releasing information from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. I'm not sure the distinction holds up that well. Records on Brazil were to be released one year after that country's 2012 truth commission. The Argentine records were to be released following the US' misstep to schedule a presidential visit on that country's forty year anniversary of the coup that ushered in even greater repression than had occurred in the last years of "democratic" rule. US releases have very much responded to scandal and pressure during Obama's term, an administration not that highly characterized as transparent.
In August, members of Congress called on the Obama administration to release documents related to the disappeared in El Salvador's civil war. I remember adding my name to a similar petition this summer. Hopefully, the US will move to release those records and not just because I want to see the FMLN complain that releasing such records would be part of a right-wing effort to destabilize their government.
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