| Summary: | This paper, based on a review of the literature on paramilitarism (limited to certain Latin American cases) and some sources (reports of truth and memory commissions; perpetrators’ testimonies; verdicts in trials against perpetrators), proposes a different terminology to designate the units that directly implemented the campaign of clandestine repression that took place in Argentina between 1975 and 1983. The hypothesis is as follows: journalistic and court investigations have reliably shown the mixed composition (i.e., composed of military, police, personnel from other security forces - staff from the Penitentiary Service; Naval Prefecture - and civilians - such as medics, accountants and lawyers) of the units that carried out the clandestine repression. These units were created especially to be in charge of the clandestine repression, or else they were exempted from their usual functions in order to join in this repression. Based on this information (mixed composition and ad hoc creation or designation to carry out clandestine repression), this article proposes a generic and different terminology to name the units that the literature on the Argentine case designates as "task forces", "paramilitary groups" or "death squads": "special joint units". These specificities have not been sufficiently considered in academic research. This study is accompanied by a review of the literature on paramilitarism and death squads in Latin America, mainly in the 1980s and 1990s
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