Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and the Search for Justice: A Comparative Study of Chile, Argentina and Guatemala

During the mid to late 1900s many Latin American countries found themselves under the rule of violent military regimes and in civil war. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the atrocities committed in the late 20th century throughout Latin America and to discuss the ways in which these societies, affected by state violence, were able to overcome the past. In this paper, I will look at the purpose of truth and reconciliation commissions and their outcomes in Chile, Argentina, and Guatemala in order to find some similarities and compare and contrast the successes and failures of the different commissions in their respective settings