MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Human rights groups and opposition criticize Milei's denialist stance regarding the country's genocide in the late 1970s

“Enough of denialism and apology of the genocide,” the groups underlined (Pic AFP)

Argentine human rights organizations gathered Monday at Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo to deliver a speech marking the 49th anniversary of the Military Junta's uprising against María Estela Martínez de Perón. During the National Memory, Truth, and Justice Holiday, they once again addressed the disappearances and tortures during the dictatorship while blaming President Javier Milei and Vice-President Victoria Villarruel for their “denialist” approach to the issue.

Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo President Estela de Carlotto underlined the ongoing fight to restore the identities of hundreds of babies stolen during the abductions of their parents, noting that 139 cases have been resolved but many are still pending. She urged society to help find these “grandchildren” and stressed that appropriation is a form of enforced disappearance that persists until identities are recovered.

“We fight to restore the identity of the hundreds of babies stolen by the dictatorship. Appropriation is forced disappearance and until the true identity is not known, it continues to be committed,” Carlotto stressed.

“We ask those who have doubts about their identity to come forward. We also ask those who have information to share it. We need all of society to find them. It is never too late,” she added. “Almost 48 years ago we fought to restore the identity of the hundreds of babies stolen by the dictatorship. The appropriation is a forced disappearance and until the true identity is known, it continues to be committed,” she also pointed out.

The declaration, read out by Carlotto, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Taty Almeida, Elia Espen, and 1980 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, condemned the current Libertarian government for allegedly perpetuating an economic model benefiting the same groups that profited from the dictatorship’s atrocities through genocidal practices.

Specifically, they targeted Milei's Emergency Decree 70/23, the so-called Bases Law, and the ongoing negotiations to further borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On the other hand, they celebrated the government's announcement that confidential intelligence files from the dictatorship were to be declassified shortly. “Enough of denialism and apology of the genocide perpetrated by the national government, armed and orchestrated by Villarruel!” they further mentioned while denouncing “the social situation of poverty in which more and more families live, the closure or emptying of assistance policies for the most vulnerable.”

Buenos Aires Governor and opposition leader Axel Kicillof further stressed the importance of not forgetting those who perished and suffered between 1976 and 1983. “Speeches of hate, complicity, and oblivion have no place in the people of Buenos Aires.”