Human rights activism and violence: notes on the history of FEDEFAM and the current state of the enforced disappearance of people

Abstract

This article traces the early years in the history of FEDEFAM (Latin American Federation of the Associations of the Relatives of Detained-Disappeared People). It examines the contributions and procedures adopted by the Federation to denounce the crime of enforced disappearance of people during civic-military dictatorships in the continent. It employs two conceptual pillars of analysis: 1) the relation among networks and social movements to understand the strategies that drove FEDEFAM’s work in local and transnational environments; 2) the notion of “extreme violence” according to Étienne Balibar, who highlights how the crime of enforced disappearance represents the threshold to normalized violence. Besides this process of reflection, this article proposes, in conclusive terms, to ponder upon the current state and permanence of enforced disappearance crimes in social frameworks of everyday violence.