What Happened After the Ban
THE ban against Jehovah’s Witnesses went into effect at the beginning of September 1976. At dawn on September 7, the federal police, acting on orders from the Ministry of the Interior, arrived at the branch headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Buenos Aires.
The police sealed off the printery, office, shipping and storage areas. Police guards were posted. And on that same day, about 600 Kingdom Halls of the Witnesses were systematically closed down in all of Argentina.
freedom disappears
Since the ban, religious intolerance has flamed up in some 38 cities and towns from the far northern provinces of Misiones, Formosa and Salta to the southern provinces of Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz. To date, over 320 persons have been arrested, many of them elderly men and women, and small children. Other people have been detained merely because of being relatives or friends of the Witnesses.
Do these actions befit a nation that professes to champion freedom? A courageous answer was given by the Buenos Aires Herald in its editorial “Religious persecution.” It said: “These reports [of arrests of Jehovah’s Witnesses] suggest that Argentina is now in the midst of the biggest outbreak of religious persecution in its history as an independent nation. This is deplorable in itself and will do nothing whatever to enhance Argentina’s reputation in the outside world.”
The newspaper’s editorial also stated that the government’s actions were “treating the world to the loathsome spectacle of armed police breaking up prayer meetings, the sort of thing one might accept as normal in Soviet Russia but which should have no place at all in pluralist Argentina.”
But this “loathsome spectacle” has taken place. Following are but a few of the cases that will help you to determine for yourself the reality of religious intolerance in Argentina.
the facts speak
“30 Witnesses Captured.” So read a news account on March 29, 1978, from Andalgalá (Catamarca province). Ramón Alvarez, members of his family and invited guests were arrested following the closing prayer of the annual Christian celebration of the Lord’s Supper. They were detained six days. Men and women alike passed the first night in the open-air patio of the police station. Their personal copies of the Bible and Bible literature were confiscated.
At the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, a group of 19 adults and three minors were studying the Bible. Suddenly, some 15 policemen stormed in and ordered all to leave with their hands above their heads. Hector Mariño and other adults were held for 45 hours. When four other Witnesses came with food and clothing for their friends, they too were arrested! One man, though not a Witness, declared: “I am proud that my father is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” For saying this, he was arrested also.
A notorious case took place in Puerto Rico (Misiones province). There 16 adults, parents of students expelled over the flag-salute issue, were jailed. They were kept for 55 days in the company of every sort of lawbreaker. Those who were fathers were thus deprived of working for the support of their families. The jailed mothers were forced to leave their small children in the care of other Christian families!
In another locality of the same province, soldiers searched the homes of Witnesses and confiscated their literature, including non-Witness translations of the Bible. The police arrested 15 persons, one of whom was not a Witness but merely had their literature. Other homes nearby were visited by soldiers who threatened to arrest anyone who did not burn the Witness literature that they may have had.
The chief of police in Pirané (Formosa) picked up Witness Mosconi at his home, took him to the edge of town, and warned him that he would go to prison if he dared to return to his own home. In the same province, armed soldiers invaded a private home, resorting to blows and foul language, and arrested the seven members of the family, holding them for three days.
In Villa Constitución (Santa Fe), a private home was searched. Literature was confiscated, including Bibles printed by other religions. All present were ordered to appear at the police station. They were warned that it could mean 10 years in prison if they were again found with literature of the Witnesses.
In Córdoba a Witness was jailed for 13 days. He was questioned at great length, many times blindfolded so that he would not recognize his interrogators.
Señora Luisa Moretti and a woman companion were held in custody by the police of Bahía Blanca for 10 days. Their crime? Talking to other persons about the Bible!
To the far south, in Pico Truncado (Santa Cruz), the home of a Witness was searched. His Bible literature was confiscated. After that he was held in isolation for five days.
In Las Catitas (Mendoza) a Witness was taken from his place of work for questioning by the police. When his answers did not satisfy the police, he was hit in the face until he bled.
no subversive elements
What evidence did the police find when they raided private homes or closed the branch office and meeting places of the Witnesses throughout Argentina? NOT ONE WEAPON WAS FOUND, NOT ONE PIECE OF SUBVERSIVE LITERATURE!
In addition, none of the Witnesses offered resistance. Nor did they evidence any lack of respect toward the police and other authorities.
Among the 33,000 active Jehovah’s Witnesses in Argentina there has yet to be found EVEN ONE SUBVERSIVE!
But this is not surprising to anyone who is familiar with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their lives have been patterned after the Christian principles set forth in the Bible, the basic textbook of the Witnesses in all countries of the world. Living by Bible principles certainly is not subversive. Yet, to study and talk to others about this Sacred Book is now considered a crime in Argentina!
loss of employment
Dozens of Witnesses have been dismissed from their jobs since the ban. Public-school authorities were instructed to suspend immediately any member of the teaching staff who did not participate in ceremonies such as the flag salute.
In the province of Buenos Aires, Señora Enriqueta Domínguez, an auxiliary third-grade teacher, was suspended on a 48-hour notice. In another school, Señora Elsida DaCosta was relieved of her position as vice-principal.
Señora Beatriz Muñoz was a kindergarten principal with 24 years of seniority as a teacher in the western province of Mendoza. She is a widow with two children. Yet, she was dismissed on the spot when she inserted a conditional clause in a patriotic oath she signed.
Señora Mercedes D’Alesandro was dismissed from her job at the national telephone company. Witnesses Román and Fernández lost their employment in the municipality of Buenos Aires. Ernesto Navarro and Jorge Brun, civilian employees in the provincial penitentiary of Tucumán, were likewise suspended, without any compensation for their many years of service. And to this list many more cases could be added.
deprived of schooling
Over 300 children have been expelled from or simply denied admittance to public and private schools. However, in some localities federal judges have condemned this notorious discrimination and have ordered the reinstatement of the Witness children. And recently the Supreme Court ruled illegal the expelling of a student on the mere grounds of religious affiliation.
Legal briefs filed in defense of Witness youths have included this most interesting citation from an eminent Argentine authority on constitutional law: “If each person has the right to express himself, he has the corresponding [right] to abstain from an expression that does not answer to his convictions or desires . . . At times the requiring of the mere presence of a person in an act can mean an arbitrary compelling of the person to participate, even though passively, in a ceremony or circumstance that is not to his liking; this violates the freedom to not express oneself. To impose the obligation of an oath that violates religious convictions and the conscience of the person results in the same and is an arbitrary principle.”—Manual de Derecho Constitutional (Manual of Constitutional Law), pages 220/221:355.
After their expulsion, some Witness students hoped to take their final examinations before a special board. But this right also was denied them, because a note from the General Council of Education, Misiones province, declared: “Such examination is not authorized if the pupils profess the religion of ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses.’”
Ironically, public schools across the nation carry the motto: “DIOS, PATRIA, Y HOGAR” (“GOD, COUNTRY, AND HOME”). Yet, Witness children are denied schooling because they DO put God in first place as the slogan states!
more severe punishment
Most democratic nations include provisions in their laws to exempt conscientious objectors from military training.
But on February 17, 1977, Argentina incorporated a new article into its military code. In addition to the existing penalty for refusing to bear arms (Witnesses usually receive a sentence of three and a half years in prison), such objectors may now be subject to permanent disqualification from holding government and public employment, as well as to the loss of all civil rights, including Argentine citizenship.
This means that the punishment is greater for a person who does not want to learn to kill than for common criminals who kill, destroy property and commit other heinous crimes!
“crime of apology”
In May 1977, Charles Eisenhower, resident of Argentina since 1948 and branch coordinator for the Watch Tower Society, and Argentine-born Lucio Antonuccio, an elder of Jehovah’s Witnesses, were summoned to appear before Military Judge Alberto Martínez. The judge questioned them about a young Witness who refused military training. Later they were summoned before a Federal Court to make statements concerning the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
As a result of these hearings, they were found guilty of the “Crime of Apology,” and could be sentenced to a term of from three months to three years in prison. And an appeals court upheld the decision.
What is this “Crime of Apology”? Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines “apology” as: “Something said or written in defense or justification of what appears to others to be wrong.”—Italics ours.
Thus, in Argentina, it appears to have become a crime to defend one’s Bible-based beliefs in a court of justice!
It must be noted that Charles Eisenhower had never met the Witness objector until the day he met him at the military camp. Lucio Antonuccio, cousin of the prisoner, had studied the Bible with him, but had never counseled him about military service.
In view of all the evidence, can there be any doubt that Jehovah’s Witnesses in Argentina are victims of intense, vicious religious intolerance?
What can be done about it? Indeed, what can YOU do about it?
[Map on page 13]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
●1
●2
●3
4●
5●
●6
●7
8●
9●
10●
11●
12●
13●
14●
15●
Argentina
CITIES (AND PROVINCES) MENTIONED WHERE ARRESTS HAVE TAKEN PLACE
1. Salta (Salta)
2. Pirané (Formosa)
3. Puerto Rico (Misiones)
4. Tucumán (Tucumán)
5. Andalgalá (Catamarca)
6. Santiago (Santiago del Estero)
7. Córdoba (Córdoba)
8. Concordia (Entre Ríos)
9. Villaguay (Entre Ríos)
10. Villa Constitución (Santa Fe)
11. Las Catitas (Mendoza)
12. Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires)
13. Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires)
14. Pico Truncado (Santa Cruz)
15. Buenos Aires, Capital