In 1978, Argentina staged a World Cup beneath the shadow of a military dictatorship. Just beyond the cameras and ticker tape, the regime was disappearing thousands of dissenters, and the spectacle of the tournament was engineered to launder power: a triumphant nation on TV, a silenced nation offscreen. On this episode of Pitch and Power, we unpack how the 1978 World Cup became the junta’s stage. We hear from reporters, academics and witnesses about a victory tainted by terror, how regimes weaponize joy and pageantry, and the uneasy afterlife of glory when a country must reckon with trauma.
In 1978, Argentina staged a World Cup beneath the shadow of a military dictatorship. Just beyond the cameras and ticker tape, the regime was disappearing thousands of dissenters, and the spectacle of the tournament was engineered to launder power: a triumphant nation on TV, a silenced nation offscreen.
On this episode of Pitch and Power, we unpack how the 1978 World Cup became the junta’s stage. We hear from reporters, academics and witnesses about a victory tainted by terror, how regimes weaponize joy and pageantry, and the uneasy afterlife of glory when a country must reckon with trauma.