IC ON THE RECORD

Argentina Declassification Project

April 27, 2017

This morning, President Donald J. Trump presented Argentine President Mauricio Macri with a disk containing 932 declassified documents totaling approximately 3,300 pages related to human rights abuses committed in Argentina during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.  These documents serve as another demonstration of the importance the United States places on its bilateral relations with Argentina. 

The release today is the largest to date.  The U.S. Government previously released 1,057 pages in August 2016 and 550 pages in December 2016.  Today’s release comes in two parts.  The first being a re-review of 813 State Department documents previously withheld in their entirety or in part from the first Argentina Declassification Project carried out by the Department of State in 2002.  The Department of State led and coordinated the interagency re-review of these documents to determine if additional information could be declassified.  They were reviewed in accordance with Executive Order 13526, “Classified National Security Information,” and public access procedures agreed to by departments and agencies for this project.  As a result, the Department of State determined that the majority of documents could be released without redactions or with precise word-by-word redactions.  These documents, totaling approximately 2,700 pages, primarily consist of cables to and from its Embassies, but they also include newly declassified reports and assessments, as well as internal State Department memoranda.  They are available at https://foia.state.gov/search/collections.aspx .  This site includes an updated introduction to the document collection, a comprehensive searchable database, and all the documents declassified and released today and in 2002. 

The second part consists of 119 documents selected by Department of State historians for inclusion in the Argentina and Latin American Region chapters of the Foreign Relations of the United States volume on South America, 1977-1981.  Historians conducted research in several archival repositories, including the National Archives and Records Administration, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Departments of Defense and State, and selected those evaluated as the most illustrative in developing and implementing U.S. policies.  The Historian’s Office created an informational summary of the documents released today as part of this project.  The summary and the documents, totaling 574 pages, are available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/270391.pdf. 

The Argentina Declassification Project is led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence with support from the White House.  This release is part of an 18-month comprehensive project involving 14 Executive branch departments and agencies.  This project is on-going as they continue their searches and conduct a word-by-word review of relevant documents.  Additional documents will be released in the Fall and Winter of 2017, including documents from intelligence and law enforcement archives, as well as archival repositories at the Departments of Defense and State.

To learn more about previously-released documents, visit earlier IC on the Record posts from August 8, 2016 and December 12, 2016.