#junta

Edit: since everyone is enjoying this so much, i'm giving everyone the possibility to build their own government

Mercedes Carazo: Survivor who faced enforced Stockholm syndrome 

Mercedes Carazo was abducted and taken to ESMA detention centre in 1976. Her case became emblematic for the perverse system of "recovery" applied by the Navy – she was obliged to work for her captors while maintaining a forced relationship with one of the officers in a bid to demonstrate that they could "convert" the militants into collaborators via extreme psychological pressure.

Carazo explained in court: "Survival at ESMA was not a free choice, it was a daily negotiation with horror where they even took away the notion of who you were." Her narrative permitted an understanding of the deeper psychological layers of torture seeking the total disintegration of the personality of the captive before their physical elimination or release. 

Silvia Labayru: Giving birth among sailors

Silvia Labayru was abducted in 1976 while pregnant. She gave birth at the ESMA Navy Mechanics School in a room guarded by officers who later grabbed her daughter to hand her over to her own family – a rare "privilege" in that context since it was not snatched for forced adoption. 

Labayru was later obliged by the naval officer Alfredo Astiz to accompany him posing as his sister to deceive and infiltrate the Madres de Plaza de Mayo.

At her trial, Labayru detailed how cold and calculating the “repressors” were: "Astiz used me as a shield and familiar face to gain confidence among the Mothers while he marked out those to be snatched." Her testimony was vital in convicting Astiz for the disappearance of the Santa Cruz group, exposing the Navy’s methodology of infiltration and deceit.

Pilar Calveiro: Intellectual who analysed camps from inside 

Political scientist Pilar Calveiro was seized in 1977 and sent to ESMA, the Quinta de Funes and a detention centre in Rosario. Her survival was not only physical but also intellectual – she used her experience to write one of the deepest analyses of the logic of the clandestine centres. Her outlook permitted an understanding of these camps as not an excess but as a central piece in the social reorganisation of Argentina.

In her book Poder y desaparición, Calveiro points out: "The missing person is a silent place produced by the state to terrorise the rest of society." Her testimony in the trials contributed a structural dimension for understanding how the network of clandestine centres operated as an integrated system of social and political control.

Graciela Daleo: Woman who was taken out to dinner by her torturers

ESMA survivor Graciela Daleo had one of the strangest experiences under the repressive machinery: being obliged by her abductors to go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant while legally figuring as missing. This strategy of "recovery" sought to break down the detained morally, showing them a fictitious normality while their comrades were dying in the basement of the Officers’ Canteen.

MiMi Aye article, 2022:

“I’ve tried hard not to compare the reactions to Ukraine and Myanmar, but when U2 performed Walk On in Kyiv – a song they wrote about Suu Kyi when it had been trendy to care about Myanmar – but said nothing about current events, it nearly broke me. Suu Kyi is once more behind bars, on spurious charges, along with other members of Myanmar’s rightful National Unity Government. But despite this, there are still women trying to bring change – here are five in desperate need of your support.”

1. Me Me Khant
 of Students for Free Burma

Poet and activist Khant has led global rallies promoting Myanmar’s fight for freedom as executive director and co-founder of Students for Free Burma, which advises US policymakers on key legislation, such as the Burma Act 2021, and produces campaigns to help others understand how they can help.

2. Thinzar Shunlei Yi
 of Sisters 2 Sisters
 and People’s Goal

One of Myanmar’s most prominent activists, Yi works with the democracy groups ACDD and GSC, and co-founded Sisters 2 Sisters, promoting solidarity among women fighting systemic oppression and military violence, and People’s Goal, which supports military defectors. Yi says, “It is human to feel guilty about the oppressed. But that guilt should drive us to defend democracy at home, in the community and in the world.”

3. Wai Wai Nu
 of Women’s Peace Network

Founder and executive director of Women’s Peace Network, Nu is a Rohingya woman, and a former political prisoner dedicated to building peace and understanding between ethnic communities and advocating for marginalised women in Myanmar.

4. Nandar
 of Purple Feminists Group

An activist from Shan State, Myanmar, Nandar founded the Purple Feminists Group to promote gender equity and hosts the bilingual podcast Feminist Talks
. She also co-produced and directed a four-year run of The Vagina Monologues in Myanmar.

5. Jan Jan
 of Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy

Hailing from Kachin State, Myanmar, Jan Jan is Burma policy lead for Action Corps and co-founder and executive director of GM4MD. She says, “The world needs to care about Myanmar because it is a global issue encompassing human rights, freedom, democracy, climate justice, corporate accountability and so much more.”

Concerted Global Action Needed to Reverse Human Rights, Humanitarian Catastrophe

(Tokyo) – Myanmar’s military junta has committed widespread repression and abuse in every facet of life in the country since seizing power on February 1, 2021, Amnesty International, Fortify Rights, and Human Rights Watch said today. The military’s atrocities since the coup, which include war crimes and crimes against humanity, escalated over the past year as the junta sought to entrench its rule through abusive military operations and stage-managed elections.

United Nations Security Council members, governments in the region, and other concerned states should better support Myanmar’s people and act to hold the junta accountable for its crimes. The heavily controlled elections, held in three phases between December 28, 2025, and January 25, 2026, have been widely dismissed as fraudulent and organized to ensure the military-backed party’s electoral victory.

Athens Polytechnic uprising against US supported military Junta, 17 Nov 1973 (archive: Vasilis Karageorgos)