MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine says not just military was behind the dictatorship

Argentina's president told his compatriots Friday that not only the military was responsible for the coup 30 years ago that ushered in nightmarish years of abduction, torture and murder, but that significant parts of the citizenry, the church, the press and political parties must also shoulder a portion of the blame.

"The dictatorship cannot be reduced to a phenomenon carried out by the armed forces, and not everyone has recognized his or her responsibility," Nestor Kirchner said in a speech marking the anniversary of the start of the brutal seven-year dictatorship.

Quashing rumors that he would use his executive authority to revoke pardons granted to the Junta leaders in 1990, Kirchner said it is the judiciary that must decide the legitimacy of the decree issued by then-President Carlos Menem, which freed the officers who had been tried, convicted and jailed after the return of democracy.

The head of state defined the years between 1976 and '83 as "the cruelest of the anti-democratic experiences" in Argentina, warning that "the nation that does not contemplate its past runs the risk of repeating it, hence it is indispensable to understand and remember (the past) as a valuable mechanism of resistance." Kirchner called on "sectors of the press, the church, the political class and the country's citizenry" to acknowledge and deal with the fact that they provided support for the rebellion that ousted Isabel Peron from the presidency.

Many Argentines openly welcomed the coup, which came after nearly two years of extreme instability and rising violence.

"Some propose closing the book on this period, arguing that the absence of memory facilitates reconciliation. Quite the opposite: memory is an ethical and political duty and necessity for society," the president told hundreds at the Argentine military academy, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Surrounded by Cabinet ministers, provincial governors and other notables, Kirchner told the gathering that "the true owners of that model (the military regime) have suffered no punishment whatsoever," and he urged the courts to void the pardons granted by Menem.

He went on to identify the man who was economy minister under the juntas, Alfredo Jose Martinez de Hoz, as the architect of policies that resulted in "exclusion, poverty, indebtedness and capital flight." "The economic and social model did not end with the dictatorship, but continued until the end of the '90s, generating the most acute social crisis in Argentine history, with terrible consequences that we still face," Kirchner said, alluding to the 1998-2002 downturn that led to soaring unemployment and poverty.

The president said that the Day of Memory, as the commemoration of the coup is known, "is a period of mourning and homage to the victims and serves for critical reflection on this great Argentine tragedy." "Notwithstanding the victims who lost their lives in the dictatorship, society was the principal intended recipient of the message of generalized terror imposed" during the military regime, which, depending on the source, killed between 13,000 and 30,000 real or imagined opponents. "During the dictatorship, thousands of people were subjected to kidnappings, tortures, death, and they were turned into missing persons," the president said.

Kirchner spoke after he and Defense Minister Nilda Garre together unveiled a plaque with the inscription: "Never Again, coups and state terrorism. For Ever, respect for the national constitution, truth and justice. 1976-March 24-2006. Ministry of Defense."

Alongside the official ceremony, Argentina was the scene Friday of marches and rallies to mark the passage of three decades since the military takeover.

State-run news agency Telam said that 100,000 people gathered at the Plaza de Mayo square in front of Government House to repudiate the seven-year regime that human rights groups. .

Elsewhere, a protest by leftists and jobless militants outside the residence of dictatorship-era Economy Minister Martinez de Hoz turned violent, as demonstrators burned the former official in effigy and hurled sticks and stones at his apartment building in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Retiro.

Police intervened, and the incident ended with seven officers injured and several protesters in custody, authorities said.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who began silent protests in the square during the dictatorship to demand information on sons and daughters seized by the military, held an all-night vigil on the eve of the coup anniversary, which has also been the subject of books, exhibitions and other events in recent weeks.