HIJOS, Argentine organization founded in 1995 to represent the children of persons who had been murdered, disappeared, or exiled by the country’s military dictatorship as part of its Dirty War (1976–83) against leftist activists, politicians, and intellectuals. Its main objectives are to explain to the world what happened in Argentina during the Dirty War; to demand justice for the victims and punishment of those guilty of murder, genocide, and torture; and to help recover the “stolen” identities of children of the disappeared who were kidnapped by the military and given to other families.
One of the organization’s most-innovative protest activities was the so-called escrache, a typically colourful demonstration conducted in front of the home or workplace of a person who had committed human rights violations during the Dirty War but had not been punished. (The term is derived from the lunfardo word escrachar, whose many meanings include revealing something previously hidden or denouncing someone publicly.) Escraches may involve singing, dancing, and humorous theatrical performances in addition to chanting and marching. The aim of the demonstration is to expose the perpetrator’s crimes and to encourage his neighbours and the public at large to shun him.