Truth-telling has become a widespread practice in settling accounts with past repressive regimes in Latin America. It has also assumed a variety of forms: from government-mandated truth commissions, to non-governmental-organization-sponsored historical memory projects, to individual testimonials. In nearly all of these instances, victims of repression have seized an opportunity to break the silence imposed on them by authoritarian regimes, or, as Ariel Dorfman writes, to “rebel against the false and immaculate tranquility of the official versions” of the past (1991: 189). The recent debate over Rigoberta Menchú’s testimonial illustrates the complications inherent in establishing new truths through victims’ accounts. But this chapter examines an even thornier sort of truth-telling: perpetrators’ confessions.

This chapter begins with a discussion of the potential value of perpetrators’ confessions to truth and reconciliation in countries emerging from authoritarian rule. The second section then tests this potential by examining four Argentine confessions. Drawing on the case studies, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the conditions under which con- fessions advance the process of truth, justice, and reconciliation.