2023-09-05 03:52:02
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Human rights activists surrounded the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires on Monday to demonstrate against an event honoring the victims of armed leftist groups during the 1970s, when Argentina was mired in political violence.
The tribute was organized by Victoria Villarruel, the running mate of right-wing presidential candidate Javier Milei. Protesters said it was an attempt to change the narrative around crimes against humanity perpetrated by the country’s last military dictatorship.
Villarruel, a lawmaker, has long defended military officers found guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the bloody 1976-1983 dictatorship.
“For 40 years, the victims of terrorism have disappeared from memory, they have been swept under the rug of history,” Villarruel declared at the event, in which there was strict entry control.
Police put up barriers around the Legislature to contain the hundreds of protesters, who said the event was intended to reinstate the idea that the military dictatorship committed its crimes as part of a civil war against leftist guerrillas.
The event came weeks after Milei rocked Argentina’s political landscape by receiving the most votes in national primary elections, positioning him as one of the frontrunners for next month’s presidential election.
Among the protesters was Cecilia de Vincenti, whose mother, Azucena Villaflor, founded the group Madres de la Plaza de Mayo to demand information about the people who disappeared during the dictatorship, and was arrested and killed.
“I think that with the votes that Milei got in the primaries, and that Villarruel is her second, it makes them feel empowered and believe that the people are going to put up with these things. I personally think not,” declared De Vincenti.
The event included short speeches by three people with relatives who were killed by leftist guerrillas in the 1970s, before the 1976 military coup.
The military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 is widely considered the deadliest of the dictatorships that ruled much of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. It detained, tortured and killed people suspected of opposing the regime. Human rights activist groups estimate that 30,000 people were killed, many of them disappeared without trace.
Argentina has done more than any other country in the region to bring military officers to justice. It has carried out 296 trials related to crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship since 2006, after the amnesty laws were repealed. In them, 1,115 people have been found guilty, according to the Public Ministry.
But some Argentines, including relatives of former military officers, argue that not enough has been done to punish crimes committed by armed leftist groups in the 1970s.
“There are victims on both sides, that must be recognized,” declared Claudia Ippolito, one of the attendees.
The organizers of the event emphasized that they do not defend the crimes committed by the dictatorship.
“We are not vindicating the dictatorship or the tragic consequences of this violation of the democratic pact. What’s more, our space repudiates it clearly and forcefully,” said Lucía Montenegro, a legislator from the city of Buenos Aires, who hosted the event together with Villarruel and who is also a member of La Libertad Avanza, Milei’s party.
But Alan Iud, a human rights lawyer who has participated in trials related to dictatorship-era crimes, said it was clear the event was “more than just a tribute act.”
Jud said there is concern among human rights activists that a victory for Milei in the election could lead to a change in the way dictatorship-era crimes are prosecuted.
“They seek to achieve a symmetrical response to the one against the crimes of State terrorism. And that cannot be validated”, Jud declared, arguing that the crimes committed by the State cannot be compared with those carried out by individual groups.
Villarruel said the protest illustrates how some want to keep part of Argentina’s history hidden.
“Those who prevent our pain from being remembered are those who, in the name of human rights, only want democracy for themselves and exclusive human rights for themselves,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Natacha Pisarenko contributed to this report.
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