The World Cup Should Never Have Been Played

by Lucy Georgiou

In 1978, the Argentine junta hosted the FIFA World Cup. This was two years after the military coup of 1976, when a junta led by General Rafael Videla deposed then-president, Isabel Peron. The junta attempted to use the World Cup to conceal the ‘Dirty War’ of 1976-1983. The ‘Dirty War’ was an ongoing campaign of state terrorism, aiming to wipe out left-wing opponents. During this period, those affiliated with the left of the political spectrum were exposed to extreme violence and countless human rights abuses. Contrastingly, the World Cup helped the junta gain popular support from the people and prolong its rule, however, it simultaneously brought unintended international attention to the human rights abuses occurring in Argentina.

‘Vamos, Vamos Argentina, Vamos, Vamos a ganar’

It has been claimed the 1978 World Cup was the biggest manipulation of sports as a political tool since the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. The junta ensured victory through a series of gamesmanship tactics such as match stalling, playing their games in the evening so they would know the scores, playing on the best pitches and leaving other teams to play in awful conditions. Most famously was the alleged match fixing between Argentina and Peru whereby Argentina needed a 4-0 win to progress to the finals over Brazil. Argentina won the game 6-0 progressing to play the Netherlands in the final. After the game with Peru, Argentina signed a food aid deal with the country, while General Videla awarded decorations to several Peruvian generals. Argentina went on to beat the Netherlands in the final by 3-1 during extra-time.

Links

Links is a journal produced and edited by Third World First, based in Oxford. Links was a national organisation working mainly with students, and this single-country issue focuses on the human and democratic rights abuses in Argentina prior to the 1978 World Cup. Links claims the junta could not have achieved their economic and social order without international direction and assistance. This corroborates with the fact foreign powers, namely the United States, maintained predominantly covert relations with Argentina through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The largest was Operation Condor; a secret intelligence program supported by the United States in which South American military regimes coordinated intelligence information to locate, torture, and execute political opponents. The operation involved Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia, and explains the similarities between their human rights abuses.

The Terrorist Government

The front cover of this Links pamphlet cleverly ties together two of the most notorious dictators of the 20th century; General Jorge Videla (right) and General Augusto Pinochet (left), then leader of the Chilean government. The image seems to show Pinochet manipulating two of the foosball table rods whilst Videla is perhaps nodding in acceptance. This alludes to the two dictators’ regimes, which were aligned in their tactics of repression and often colluded to stamp out communist ‘subversion’ and ‘terrorism’. Any kind of left-wing activism in opposition to the junta more broadly was deemed ‘terrorist’ action. This presents a case of immense juxtaposition whereby a ‘terrorist’ government was trying to eradicate what it perceived to be a ‘terrorist’ threat to Argentina.

Chilean Human Rights Abuses

In Chile 1973, Pinochet staged a coup d’état overthrowing democratically elected President Salvador Allende and his socialist government. With the support of the US, Pinochet persecuted socialists, political critics, and leftists. The Chilean secret police, the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (National Intelligence Directorate), and the Chilean Army would torture political prisoners almost in broad daylight in centres such as the National Stadium and Villa Grimaldi. Prisoners were executed during helicopter flights known as the ‘Caravan of Death’, becoming known as 'desaparecidos' (disappeared persons) because no traces of them were found.

Argentine Human Rights Abuses

The 1978 World Cup in Argentina began to expose these systematic, grotesque human rights violations. The Argentine junta attempted to eradicate any opposition using torture and subsequently forced disappearance. The infamous ‘death flights’ of Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’, commenced primarily between 1977-1978. During these flights, the junta would drop tortured prisoners into the Rio de la Plata or Atlantic Ocean. Political prisoners were tortured in football stadiums, the Navy Mechanics’ School (ESMA), and Villa Devoto. Testimonies of detainees from ESMA claim that they could hear the cheers from the Estadio de River Plate it was so close.

Pinochet x Videla

The Argentine junta had many authoritarian regimes it could draw lessons from, learning different ways to deal with ‘left-wing terrorist’ activism. Pinochet and Videla came into power by orchestrating coups. However, in Chile, Pinochet marked the beginning of a ‘war on terrorism’ that other Southern Cone countries came to use as an example to eradicate ‘terrorist’ and ‘subversive’ groups. Many of the same human rights abuses that occurred in Chile also took place in Argentina, and both were facilitated by Operation Condor. While cases of torture and desaparecidos occurred in Chile from 1973, it would not be until a few years later that these tactics would appear more systematically in Argentina, representing one of the many ways the regimes learned from each other.

‘Fútbol sí, Tortura no’

(Yes to Football, No to Torture)

The World Cup exposed Argentina to more investigations on human rights, torture, and the desaparecidos. Activists throughout the world promoted debates on these topics and on the abuse of sports for political purposes. Amnesty International’s West German section launched a campaign adopting this slogan to bring attention to these human rights violations. This was an attempt to appeal to the players and those attending the ’78 World Cup. The campaign demonstrated how the dictatorship's plans to gain respect and create a new ‘cleansed’ image for international audiences had backfired. There were symbols throughout the games such as black bands around the goalposts that were painted in secret to remember the desaparecidos. Based in Paris, the Committee for the Boycott of Argentina’s Organisation of the World Cup (COBA) created a centre of solidarity for victims of the Argentine junta. In France, more than 200 centres were established, involving thousands of people in the campaign. This led to calls from Le Monde newspaper in France in 1977 for a boycott of the World Cup as well as from the Netherlands, West Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Although a boycott of the games failed, it succeeded in bringing international attention to the grotesque crimes the Argentine junta were committing. .