The Dirty War refers to the state-sponsored violence against Argentine citizenry from roughly 1976 to 1983 carried out primarily by Jorge Rafael Videla's military government.

The exact chronology of the repression is still debated, as trade unionists had been targeted for assassination as early as 1973; Isabel Martínez de Perón's "annihilation decrees" of 1975, during Operativo Independencia, have also been suggested as the origin of The Dirty War.In 1973, as Juan Perón returned from exile, the Ezeiza massacre had marked the end of the alliance between left- and right-wing factions of Peronism.

Several guerrilla groups have emerged, the largest and most active of which is the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP).

After Perón's death in 1974, the government is left in the hands of his widow, Isabel Martínez de Perón, who signs a number of decrees empowering the military and the police to "annihilate" left-wing subversion.

Martínez de Perón is ousted in 1976.

Starting that year, the juntas led by Videla until 1981, and then by Roberto Viola and Leopoldo Galtieri, are responsible for the illegal arrest, torture, killing or forced disappearance of thousands of people, primarily trade-unionists, students and activists.

Videla's dictatorship refera to its systematized persecution of the Argentine citizenry as the "National Reorganization Process".Up to 30,000 people "disappear" during this time.

Argentine security forces and death squads work hand in hand with other South American dictatorships in the frame of Operation Condor.

An Argentine court will later condemn the government's crimes as crimes against humanity and "genocide".