Forms of judicialization of the participation of corporate business actors in repression during the dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil and Chile

Abstract

This article analyzes national efforts and transnational articulations to hold companies and businessmen accountable for their participation in crimes against humanity during the last dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil and Chile during the Cold War, identifying similarities and peculiarities in the three cases. It studies how these efforts, some of them very recent and still incipient, and which involved the participation of various organisations and social subjects, have led to judicial processes and/or agreements or reparation measures. It also aims to show the limits and shortcomings of public policies in this area and to point out the need to invest more in democratic values and human rights, to listen to and take into account different groups of victims and to include them in historical perspectives. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the fields of study on dictatorships in South America during the Cold War, the processes of Memory, Truth and Justice in the region, the field of human rights and business and studies on transitional justice, as well as to strengthen initiatives for the accountability of companies and businessmen for their involvement in human rights violations.