From executioners to victims? | The Press

(Buenos Aires) March 24 marks the anniversary of the coup d’état which in 1976 propelled a military junta to the helm of Argentina determined to purge the country of all “subversive” elements.

As tradition dictates, huge crowds converged on this occasion towards the Plaza de Mayo, near the seat of government, to demand memory and justice for the victims of the dictatorship.

Many people held up posters showing photos of the “disappeared” or t-shirts castigating the military. Large puppets representing the famous grandmothers who have been demonstrating for years to demand the return of grandchildren kidnapped by the military figured prominently.

The wave of kidnappings, torture and assassinations that followed the military’s rise to power was subsequently described by human rights organizations as a form of “state terrorism” aimed at suppressing all democratic demand.

The dictatorship nevertheless finds favor in the eyes of the new president, Javier Milei, and his entourage who seek to put on an equal footing the limited violent actions of far-left guerrillas of the time and the all-out repression that followed .

The occupant of the Casa Rosada added salt to the wound by broadcasting a video on the very day of this year’s demonstration in which speakers contested the number of “disappeared”, estimated at nearly 30,000.

The document argued for “complete” justice by suggesting, from a quote from Milan Kundera, that the army’s critics were knowingly seeking to falsify history.

Vice-President Victoria Villarruel, daughter of a colonel who defended many soldiers in court, published a video along the same lines.

“It’s a government of Holocaust deniers. They want to make people believe that state terrorists are the victims,” said one of the demonstrators, Vanesa Paludi, who lost a cousin during the repression.

“He was a labor lawyer. He was kidnapped and we never saw him again,” noted the 52-year-old woman, who is outraged by the fact that the soldiers wanted to “remove the identity” of their victims’ children.

Pregnant women were often kept alive for months to carry their pregnancies to term before being mercilessly killed, sometimes by being thrown out of the air from an airplane. A device used for this purpose is prominently displayed in a former military school in the capital that has been transformed into a museum.

Claudia Poblete also does not appreciate the government’s efforts to minimize the military’s abuses and considers their speech dangerous.

She cites as proof the recent attack on a woman campaigning for the reunification of kidnapped children with their biological family. The individuals behind the attack wrote an acronym on the wall referring to the new president’s favorite political slogan: “Long live freedom, shit!” » (Viva la libertad carajo!).

M^me Poblete herself was kidnapped at a young age. A police officer took her from her mother, apparently promising to return her to her grandparents, but instead gave her to a lieutenant colonel and his wife.

“They raised me as their biological daughter,” notes Argentina, who agreed to take a DNA test at the age of 22 after being informed that an investigation was underway into her case.

The result made it possible to confirm beyond any doubt that she was the daughter of killed militants, notes M^me Poblete, who went through a period of great confusion followed by enormous anger.

The soldier who adopted her, whom she now refers to as her “abductor”, was sentenced to nine years in detention. His wife got five years.

“They never expressed remorse. My mother even asked me why it was important to me that they apologize. They pose as victims,” notes M^me Poblete, who has not spoken to them for more than 10 years.

“I was the victim of a huge crime that lasted 22 years. They lied every day,” says the 46-year-old woman, who still does not know exactly how her biological parents died.

She noticed by looking at her 15-year-old daughter’s exchanges with her friends that many Argentinians of the new generation “don’t know the history” and don’t care about it.

They risk being manipulated, notes the activist, who is alarmed to note that President Milei is drawing inspiration from past practices by today brandishing a largely imaginary “communist” threat.

“They are seeking to create an internal enemy, like at the time of the dictatorship, to justify what they do,” notes M^me Poblete.

The observation is not likely to disturb Javier Milei, who delivered a new plea in favor of the army on April 2 on the occasion of the commemoration day of the Falklands War, another significant event of the history of the country.

According to Agence France-Presse, he indicated that “politics”, in reference to the Peronist elected officials, had wanted to “persecute and humiliate” the soldiers to make them forget the esteem from which they previously enjoyed.

“That time is over. You are a source of pride for our nation, and in this new Argentina, you will have the respect that has been largely denied to you,” he noted.

Forty years of research

The dictatorship ended in 1983, but victims of the repression continue to be identified 40 years later. The organization of grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which defied the military to demand the return of children taken from arrested activists, announced a few weeks ago the reunification of a 137^e Argentinian with his biological family. A good part of these files are now being processed thanks to a genetic bank in which DNA samples are kept from families seeking to find a loved one allegedly kidnapped and adopted by the military. The director of the institution, Mariana Herrera Piñera, notes that each person identified as a potential kidnapped child during an investigation is offered to give a DNA sample. If she refuses, she may be forced to do so by order of a court. “A lot of people have no memory of being adopted. They were raised by loving families and it’s hard for them to accept that they were lied to. Over time, they understand that it is a crime,” emphasizes M.^me Herrera Pinera.