MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei's running mate, linked to last military dictatorship, pays tribute to “victims of terrorism”

Villarruel insisted that human rights groups were monopolizing memory by banning the relatives of those killed by terrorist groups from mourning their dead

Libertarian Congresswoman and vice-presidential candidate Victoria Villarruel Monday paid a tribute to the victims of acts of terrorism committed by guerrilla groups such as Montoneros and ERP in Argentina in the 1970s. Villarruel is the daughter of a former commander of the war in the Falkland Islands, imprisoned for his participation in crimes during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983).

The event took place at the Buenos Aires City Legislature while human rights groups and leftwing militants opposing her initiative marched in the adjacent streets. In a tense atmosphere, the ceremony began at around 6 pm, one hour later than scheduled.

Read also: Argentina: There is no stopping Milei, poll shows

“I want to thank those present and those who could not be present due to authoritarianism outside. Some had a difficult time entering; they were afraid, but they are here with us,” Villarruel opened her speech.

“Those who oppose this homage are the ones whose hands are stained with the blood of our loved ones, they are the ones who monopolize the memory because in the name of Montoneros and the ERP, they do not even let us remember our loved ones,” she went on.

“Every August 21 is commemorated all over the world the International Day of the Victims of Terrorism and here we are making a tribute because, in the Argentine Republic, thousands of Argentines and foreigners were attacked by armed organizations that carried out terrorist acts. And the official memory does not remember them. The victims of terrorism suffered the most unspeakable pain, which is to be denied by your own country,” she added while underscoring that “17 armed organizations caused thousands of victims: civilians, uniformed, Peronists, radicals, poor, rich, Catholics, Protestants, children, elderly,” Javier Milei's running mate insisted.

“All the Argentine people were attacked by the Montoneros and the ERP, who tried to create a State within the State. They kidnapped, bombed, killed...they did not care about thousands of citizens,” the founder of the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism and its Victims (CELTYV) went on.

“During these 40 years, the victims of terrorism were scorned from memory, swept under the carpet of history, they were denied their right to truth and reparation,” Villarruel also said while blaming the State for guaranteeing “the impunity of some violent people who enjoy the freedom and guarantees that our democracy gives them.”

“Who could oppose a tribute if one is not an accomplice of those who planted bombs and shed the blood of these innocents?”, Villarruel wondered. “I don't care anything about what they say about me, only the victims of terrorism who will be remembered are important.”

In addition to Villarruel, also speaking at the gathering were relatives of people killed either by Montoneros or ERP in the 1970s.

Human rights groups and leftwing organizations outside the building in downtown Buenos Aires tried to break in and have the event canceled under the slogans “Denialism is fascism” and “It was genocide, not war.”

The ruling Unión por la Patria (UP) issued a statement repudiating “energetically any expression of negationism”.

“It is unacceptable that a fundamental institution of the democratic system such as the Buenos Aires Legislature be a space where the dictatorship is vindicated and actions are carried out that seek to install once again the theory of the two demons, relativizing the genocide perpetrated by the Argentine State from 1976 to 1983,” it read.