View source for Full stop law

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
[[File:No al Punto Final.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A poster calling for a demonstration against the passing of the law]]
{{Operation Condor}}
The '''Full stop law''', '''''Ley de Punto Final''''', was passed by the [[Argentine National Congress|National Congress]] of [[Argentina]] in 1986, three years after the end of the military dictatorship of the [[Proceso de Reorganización Nacional]] (1976 to 1983) and restoration of democracy. Formally, this law is referred to by number (Law No. 23492), like all others in Argentine legislation, but ''Ley de Punto Final'' is the designation in common use, even in official speeches.<ref>[https://www.nuncamas.org/document/nacional/ley23492.htm Law 23492] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120530140552/http://www.nuncamas.org/document/nacional/ley23492.htm |date=2012-05-30 }} – Full text of the ''Ley de Punto Final''.</ref>

==History==
It was passed after the government in 1985 had prosecuted men at the top of the military hierarchies in the [[Juicio a las Juntas|Trial of the Juntas]] for crimes committed during the [[Dirty War]] against political dissidents. Several officers were convicted and sentenced; the government's security and military forces had "[[Forced disappearance|disappeared]]" and killed an estimated 15,000-30,000 people.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/world/americas/jorge-rafael-videla-argentina-military-leader-in-dirty-war-dies-at-87.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 ELIAS E. LOPEZ, "Jorge Rafael Videla, Jailed Argentine Military Leader, Dies at 87"], ''The New York Times'', 17 May 2013, accessed 9 June 2013</ref>

The law mandated the end of investigation and prosecution of people accused of political violence during the dictatorship and up to the restoration of democratic rule on 10 December 1983. It was passed on 24 December 1986, after only a 3-week debate. Its text is very short; it has seven articles.  Article No. 5 excepts from the application of the law the cases of identity forgery and [[forced disappearance]] of minors.{{fact|date=January 2023}}

The Ley de Punto Final was extremely controversial in its time and afterward.<ref>Sandrine Lefranc, Mariana Stein, ''Las políticas del perdón y de la reconciliación. Los gobiernos democráticos y el ajuste de cuentas con el legado del autoritarismo'', Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 45, No. 178 (Jul. - Sep., 2005), pp. 163-186; Valentina Salvi, Luis Alberto Hernández, ''"We're All Victims": Changes in the Narrative of "National Reconciliation" in Argentina'', Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 42, No. 3, THE RESURGENCE OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY, TRUTH, AND JUSTICE MOBILIZATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA (May 2015), pp. 39-51.</ref> Under pressure from the military, the law was proposed by the [[Radical Civic Union|Radical]] administration of President [[Raúl Alfonsín]] as a means to stop prosecution of additional suspects among military and security officers after General Jorge Videla, Admiral Emilio Massera, General Roberto Viola,  Admiral Armando Lambruschini, and General Orlando Agosti had been prosecuted. Alfonsín was initially opposed to this law, but under threat of a ''coup d'état'', he accepted the legislation. In the [[Argentine Chamber of Deputies|Chamber of Deputies]], 114 deputies voted for the law, 17 against, and two abstained; in the [[Argentine Senate|Senate]], 25 senators voted for, and 10 against.{{fact|date=January 2023}}

This law had a complement in the ''[[Law of Due Obedience]]'', passed in 1987, which exempted subordinates from prosecution when they were carrying out orders. Both laws were repealed by the National Congress in 2003.<ref>BBC News, 13 August 2003. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3146379.stm "Argentina overturns amnesty laws"].</ref><ref>BBC News, 21 August 2003. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3169297.stm "Argentina scraps amnesty laws"].</ref> The [[Supreme Court of Argentina|Supreme Court of Justice]] ruled both laws were unconstitutional on 14 June 2005. 

The government re-opened prosecution of cases for [[crime against humanity|crimes against humanity]]. The first of such cases, against the former [[Buenos Aires Provincial Police]] second-in-command [[Miguel Etchecolatz]], ended in September 2006 with his conviction on several counts of kidnapping, torture and murder.<ref name="condenaron"/> In sentencing him to life imprisonment, the tribunal said that the dictatorship's [[state terrorism]] against political dissidents was a form of [[genocide]].<ref name="condenaron">[https://archive.today/20120912063425/http://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/nota.asp?nota_id=841762 "Condenaron a Etchecolatz a reclusión perpetua"] ("Etchecolatz sentenced to life imprisonment"), ''La Nación'', 19 September 2006 {{in lang|es}}</ref> It was the first time in the Argentine trials that genocide had been applied to the assaults against the class of political dissidents.<ref name="condenaron"/>

==See also==
*[[Amnesty law]]
*[[Trial of the Juntas]]
*[[Law of Due Obedience]]
*[[Carapintada]]s
*[[Impunity laws (Argentina)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Raúl Alfonsín}}

[[Category:Presidency of Raúl Alfonsín]]
[[Category:Repealed Argentine legislation]]
[[Category:Dirty War]]
[[Category:1986 in Argentina]]
[[Category:1986 in law]]