Originally founded by the children of Argentina's disappeared, HIJOS today includes many young Argentines, committed to the continued pursuit of truth and justice for their country and their relatives. We met Agustin Centrangolo in the Argentine Congressional building, where he is an aide to Congresswoman Victoria Donda. Our last interview in South America, the conversation ran in a number of different directions.

Agustin has been a member of HIJOS for six years. He joined because his father, a member of the Montoneros was disappeared in 1978 in San Cristobal. Agustin knows that his father was held in Olimpo and ESMA (the latter for perhaps 15 days) and then likely thrown into the sea. His mother was also imprisoned in ESMA, also for around two weeks, but was subsequently released.

HIJOS's motto is "No forgiveness, no forgetting, no reconciliation." Why? Agustin explains that they don't forget because they do not want these things to repeat. It is critical to remember. They don't forgive because it is not their place to do it; they would be forgiving on behalf of their parents. They don't reconcile because they don't know with whom they should be reconciling, or exactly what should be reconciled. "Where are the desaparecidos? Where are the babies? We need to know where everyone is." Truth and justice are the two necessary precursors to reconciliation and they still have neither. Nothing useful has come out of the trials.

Given that the approach taken by Argentina has produced neither truth nor justice, would it be worth considering a different approach? Why not consider what South Africa did, I ask? While they had to sacrifice punishment of criminals in many cases, they did it in exchange for truth which afforded many South Africans a measure of closure and peace of mind. If amnesty was offered in Argentina, couldn't they find out now where those children are, and more of what happened in the detention centers?

Agustin disagrees. "Our goal is justice," he says. "We understand that a system of impunity is going to repeat." The fight for justice is one of conquering impunity. He acknowledges that they will never have all of the truth, but he insists that truth will come out of justice and that it is never a good thing to trade truth for justice. "We can't resign the road to justice."

At this point, we move on to the three major, lingering questions we have as we prepare to leave Argentina:

1) How can it be that, 26 years after the military dictatorship came to end, the silencio mafioso is still preserved? How can there be no perpetrators, haunted by a guilty conscience, stepping forward to admit their wrongs?

First, Agustin notes that some people, rare as they might be, have come forward. He mentions Carlos Febres, who we learned about at ESMA, Victor Ibanez from the Campo de Mayo, and former navy captain Adolfo Scilingo. However, he also reiterates what we were previously told about the dictatorship's psychological tactics - that a pact of impunity was formed by dirtying everyone's hands. Beyond that, the threat to personal safety is clear; all who have come forward or even given the appearance of coming forward have been targeted.

2) After having previously visited Guatemala and Chile this year, where the Catholic Church played a critical part in challenging abusive governments, I've had a hard time reconciling the Argentine Church's failure to denounce the military dictatorship and, far more damning, its support for the tyrants. How did this happen?

Again, Agustin starts by drawing an important distinction. Part of the Church, he explains, was committed to the poor. The Movement of the Priests for the Third World worked resolutely for the victims, and a number of those priests were disappeared. That said, he does acknowledge that the Church has a great deal of complicity in the coup and subsequent abuses. Historically, the Church has shared the same interests in Argentina as the military and big business, and the military consistently has worked to benefit the Church. As such, most priests didn't denounce the government's efforts and actually blessed the weapons and torturers. Christian Von Wernich, the first priest to be sentenced for his role in the conflict, epitomizes the Argentine Church at its worst - taking confessions from prisoners and then handing them over to the military. To this day, the Church has not apologized for its role in the dictatorship.

3) Part of what brought us to Argentina and Chile was a recognition of the role played by our country, the US, in the terrible events that took place here. What, in your opinion, has the US represented in Argentina over the last 40 years?

We can't talk about the US as a singular thing, responds Agustin. There is a huge population, many different representative, and even more special interests. The economic model it created was imposed on Argentina and is designed to support those special interests. The School of the Americas taught the Argentine military methods of oppression and genocide.

However, he doesn't blame the US for what took place in Argentina, as he prefers to look within Argentina for that. But, the US does have some responsibility for what occurred and the magnitude of the tragedy. Agustin's primary point, though, is that the flaws reside in the ideologies, not the countries. "The fight is not one country versus another country - it's the pursuit of justice everywhere."