Argentina, 1978

June 11, 2014 2:07 AM

While the World Watched At the same time Argentina hosted the 1978 World Cup, the nation's dictators were waging their "Dirty War" of repression, kidnappings and torture. As the tournament again draws near, ghastly memories are flooding back.
posted by modernnomad (22 comments total)

The dictators fixed the final too. Alberto Tarantini, Argentina's hard-working midfielder, was doped with amphetamines for the final. Despite covering every blade of grass (as they say) during the game, after the whistle he was still so charged up he spent four hours running round the changing room.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 2:50 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I wonder who sold them all those instruments of torture and taught them how to use them.
posted by marienbad at 3:31 AM on June 11, 2014 [3 favorites]

It wasn't the Fuller Brush Man.
posted by Pudhoho at 3:34 AM on June 11, 2014

I don't know, marienbad. But I know who taught Brazil's generals their techniques of torture.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 3:34 AM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

So America had no involvement with the juntas of South America then? You can try to pin the blame on the UK if you like, but it was the US's involvement there that made things way worse, both via Chicago School Economics, and funding and assisting the right-wing military juntas that sprang up. There is even a school where these guys are trained!
posted by marienbad at 3:47 AM on June 11, 2014

Mod note: Hey, maybe jumping directly into "COUNTRY X SUX / COUNTRY Z SUX MORE" (of which neither country is even mentioned in the FA) isn't the best possible discussion kickoff we can have here?
posted by taz (staff) at 3:59 AM on June 11, 2014 [13 favorites]

I think it's relevant that the rest of the world didn't merely 'watch'. The leftist terrorist groups and right wing militias, and the military dictatorship were all aided and abetted by outside countries. Latin America has been a battleground for the 'great powers' for a long, long time.
posted by empath at 4:04 AM on June 11, 2014 [3 favorites]

When organizations, like FIFA, make arrangements with corrupt or questionable governments we all become somewhat complicit in the atrocities of that country or region. I liked John Oliver’s take on this year’s World Cup event
posted by AMValen at 4:37 AM on June 11, 2014 [4 favorites]

He stared into the 18-inch screen and imagined it as a window into a world going on without him. A packed stadium didn't know he'd been kidnapped. He would live and die, and nobody would ever acknowledge his existence, much less his death

This. This is why the circus is free.

Also why Oliver's segment is valuable and timely.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 7:02 AM on June 11, 2014

" Latin America has been a battleground for the 'great powers' for a long, long time." and South America has been a battle ground for conflicts between and with in South American countries/civilizations for even longer--and they had some of the great world powers then.
posted by rmhsinc at 7:08 AM on June 11, 2014

Sorry, if you are talking about precolumbian civilizations, the Inca Empire was founded just as much on peaceful absorption of nearby citystates as it was on outright conquest.

everything after that was the fault of colonialism byeee
posted by elizardbits at 7:44 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke :
Too much democracy can be a hindrance when organising a World Cup.
Fifa is more like a mob outfit than a soccer federation
Brazilian authorities are already arresting people ahead of the event. (Portuguese)
posted by adamvasco at 8:00 AM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

elizarbits--the history of precolumbian south America is as rife with conflict, intimidation, conquest and submission as in other parts of the world. Picking and choosing points in history to highlight the European Colonialism makes good rhetoric but not good history. Acknowledging the history of warfare and conquests on the Caribbean Coast, the Pacific rim and in the areas of the Amazon basis does nothing to minimize the cultural and human destruction of Colonialism but it does highlight the nature of human history.
posted by rmhsinc at 8:40 AM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

Wow, thanks for this. And also AMValen, thanks for the link to Oliver. Hits me right in my cognitive dissonance.
posted by ElGuapo at 10:08 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yo adamvasco, thanks! (I came here to post just that)

John Oliver's segment is trending like crazy in Brazil right now. We love it.

VICE has some context on the anti cup protests.
posted by Tom-B at 10:18 AM on June 11, 2014

" Latin America has been a battleground for the 'great powers' for a long, long time." and South America has been a battle ground for conflicts between and with in South American countries/civilizations for even longer--and they had some of the great world powers then.

Sure, but the context of the line is clearly about European/American/general foreign meddling in the continent's affairs, not the affairs of the continent before the Europeans showed up. I don't think empath meant to say "and everything before that was hunky-dory," so, to my eye, your comment doesn't seem to add much to the conversation. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, though.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 11:22 AM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

Rustic Etruscan--it is possible it does not add more to the conversation--I was responding to what I periodically, if not regularly, see as "gratuitous" (my interpretation) comments about European or American colonialism/imperialism as unique to European civilizations--in this case empaths comment. On closer inspection I take your point because empath did refer to Latin America and not South America. Point taken and apology offered
posted by rmhsinc at 1:31 PM on June 11, 2014

How the World Cup Made Brazil Hate Its Own National Team.
posted by adamvasco at 6:50 AM on June 14, 2014

Bless your heart for standing up for the beleaguered reputation of the colonial powers.
posted by empath at 7:11 AM on June 14, 2014 [4 favorites]

Rio de Janeiro says NO to the World Cup FIFA English subtitles.
posted by adamvasco at 3:43 PM on June 14, 2014

Rustic Etruscan--it is possible it does not add more to the conversation--I was responding to what I periodically, if not regularly, see as "gratuitous" (my interpretation) comments about European or American colonialism/imperialism as unique to European civilizations--in this case empaths comment. On closer inspection I take your point because empath did refer to Latin America and not South America. Point taken and apology offered

empath would have been right to say South America too.

(Rule of thumb: Whenever a leader starts talking about nationalizing industry and ends up assassinated and/or overthrown by a coup and is replaced by a brutal military dictatorship, that assassination, and that coup, and that brutal military dictatorship were all backed by the United States of America.)
posted by Sys Rq at 7:00 PM on June 14, 2014 [3 favorites]

For a nation with a president, Dilma Rousseff, who was tortured in her youth fighting a dictatorship, the police acted in a manner that connects more with the dark past than its future.
Join the sports editor for The Nation,David Zirin getting tear gassed in Rio last Sunday.
posted by adamvasco at 5:25 AM on June 19, 2014