Massive mobilization in Argentina for the memory of the dictatorship, objected to by Milei
Under the motto “today more than ever, never again,” tens of thousands of Argentines marched this Sunday on the anniversary of the military coup that 48 years ago left thousands dead and missing and in repudiation of the government of Javier Milei, which objects to the treatment. historical event that has been given to the dictatorship. It is the first demonstration of the Day of Remembrance since the inauguration of the far-right president, whose speech is considered by representatives of human rights organizations as “denier” of the events that occurred during the military regime in Argentina (1976-1983).
“We are living a moment of remembrance and memory for ‘never again’ so that this does not happen again to any Argentine, but regretting having a government that does not understand us, does not defend us; on the contrary, it threat,” Estela de Carlotto, president of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, a group that for decades has dedicated itself to recovering the children of the disappeared, told AFP.
In the center of Buenos Aires, the epicenter of the call led by the organizations of Mothers and Grandmothers, there were signs such as “memory yes, fear no” and “everything is kept in memory.” The march, the most massive in years, “is the cry of rebellion of a people against a fascist government that wants to destroy the country,” Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1980, told AFP.
“This is defended now and always,” said María Gabriela Chávez, a 46-year-old teacher who attended with her husband and two-year-old children. and ten years. Pointing to the little boy, he added: “His godmother is a recovered granddaughter. They have to grow up with the idea that this can never happen again.”
At noon, time of the call, the government released a 13-minute documentary video titled “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice. Complete,” which begins with an interview with a victim of a left-wing guerrilla movement (ERP) in the 1970s. The narrator of the short, the writer Juan Bautista Yofre, affirms there that history, as it is remembered, was designed in response to the economic interests of human rights organizations and subsequent democratic governments.
Former guerrilla Luis Labraña, kidnapped by the military government, recounts in the government video that the number of disappeared from the dictatorship was a lie to obtain funds. “30,000 was false, I put the number,” he says.
In the march in Plaza de Mayo, the crowd carried signs such as “30,000 reasons to defend the country” and “30,000 truly.” “It is necessary In this context, with all the violence that the current government is exercising, let people accompany these mothers and grandmothers who once fought. Today more than ever we have to remember and go out into the streets,” Mariana Gianni, a 31-year-old communicator, said at the march.
In an unprecedented event, this year the country’s main union centers joined the call, in a context of severe economic crisis, with 276% year-on-year inflation and more than half of the 46 million Argentines below the poverty line.
The mobilization takes place days after HIJOS, an organization formed by children of kidnapped and disappeared people, denounced the brutal attack on one of its members by two individuals who identified themselves with Javier Milei’s slogan: “Long live freedom, damn it.” In the same week, the daughter of a key witness in the trial of the military denounced repeated threats and an editorial specialized in human rights was the target of online attacks.
48 years after the coup, 1,173 people have been convicted of crimes against humanity in 316 sentences handed down throughout the country.