after democracy was restored, the government held a national commission to collect testimony from survivors about desaparacedos and treatment at the hands of military and security forces. in 1985, the government tried the top former officers of the military in the trial of the juntas. investigations had been made of hundreds of other officers. under threat of a military coup, the congress passed legislation known as the "pardon laws" in 1986 and 1987, ending prosecution and establishing a kind of amnesty for acts on both sides during the dirty war.