Dictatorship and Chaos

Dictatorship and Chaos

Dictatorship and Chaos

In the official report titled “Nunca Mas” by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons, there are many themes can one can extract by listening to the accounts of victims. Two themes that I have noticed in Nunca Mas that go hand in hand are those of chaos and dictatorship. Throughout the article we see that the atmosphere a dictatorship creates is best described as chaotic.

The first story that is told in “Never Again” shows us how there is no protection or feeling of peace during a dictatorship. Antionio Horacio tells us that he was abducted from his workplace and taken to a police station. Instead of there being a proper procedure that was followed and executed, the police officers did whatever they felt like. They questioned him in reference to things he didn’t know about and when he didn’t reply out of confusion, they “persuaded” him. “Three or four people surrounded me, and blows and kicks started raining down all over my body…resorted to rubber sticks and truncheons” (Never Again 442). There is also no sense of structure or order to the questionings and detaining. Antonio tells us that a year later he finally found out what some of the phrases they used meant, but still received intense punishments. The interrogators would try to beat the confession out of the victims instead of looking for