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Prelude to Repression: From Democracy to Dictatorship In March 1976, Argentina’s armed forces overthrew President Isabel Perón in a coup that inaugurated one of the darkest chapters in Latin American history. The new regime, calling itself the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (National Reorganization Process), promised to restore “order” and “Western Christian civilization.” In practice, it unleashed a campaign of terror against its own citizens—a Dirty War that killed or disappeared as many as 30,000 people. Argentina’s descent into authoritarianism had deep roots. By the mid-1970s, the country was wracked by economic crisis, political polarization, and escalating violence between leftist guerrillas—such…