Under the demand ‘Tell us where they are!’, hundreds of thousands of people mobilized this Tuesday in Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina to demand justice for the missing people left behind by the last civil-military dictatorship.
“There are 30,000 missing! It was and is genocide. We do not forget, we do not forgive and we do not reconcile!” exclaimed during the main event in the Argentine capital for the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, which included strong criticism of the government of the president, who has tried since the beginning of his mandate to change the official discourse on that period.
The cry “Milei, garbage, you are the dictatorship” emerged at different times from the mouths of the protesters who peacefully toured the streets of Buenos Aires with banners and t-shirts with messages referring to the date.
“Milei, trash, you are the dictatorship”
This new march on March 24 once again went beyond the exercise of memory to function as a point of confluence of different demands from the political and social opposition to the far-right Government: “La Libertad Avanza (Milei’s party) deepens the dependence on Trump and North American imperialism,” stated the official document read from the stage.
Different top-level figures were part of the massive Tuesday: Sergio Massa, former Peronist presidential candidate defeated by Milei in 2023; Axel Kicillof, current governor of Buenos Aires and opposition leader; Lali Espósito, Argentine pop star; and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1980.
Human rights organizations also protested against the marked reduction of state resources directed to the different official mechanisms for searching and identifying missing persons and children taken by the military during the bloody repression of the 1970s.
State revisionism
Early on Tuesday, the Government had released an institutional video in which it minimized the crimes committed by the military and raised the need to “review” what happened in that period in search of a “complete memory”, alluding to acts of violence perpetrated by guerrilla groups of the time.
“Today there is a Government that is not only denialist, but that vindicates State terrorism and genocide,” stated the Mothers and Grandmothers during the event in the Plaza de Mayo.
On the structure of the stage, located steps from the Government House, the slogan ‘Tell us where they are!’ was read in large black letters, a demand addressed to the military who, even condemned by the Argentine Justice, maintain silence about the whereabouts of the remains of the detained and missing people.
The contrast between the power of the slogans and the tranquility of the street atmosphere set the tone today in Buenos Aires: from early on, around the square various artists performed interventions, small dramatic numbers, dances and musical performances, barely interrupted by the shouting of vendors of crafts, handkerchiefs, pins and stickers with slogans against the dictatorship.
A girl participates in the demonstration for the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, on the 50th anniversary of the Argentine dictatorship, in Buenos Aires.
Memory exercise
A large number of children and adolescents were present with their families, in a tradition that is maintained and seeks to transmit the memory exercise from generation to generation.
Jerónimo Laurenzi, 36, attended on Tuesday afternoon with his son Francisco, just five.
“It is very important in these 50 years to come to the square to remember what happened in a world that is going to waste, when horrible ideas return,” Laurenzi told EFE. In his opinion, Argentine society learned a lot since the end of the dictatorial government, but he believes not enough.
“Collective memory is very strong, but it must be highlighted every year, because sometimes the polls do not say the same thing,” he commented in reference to Milei’s good electoral performance since his foray into politics.
Darío Altobelli, 52, explained to EFE that what he saw in the streets during this Memorial Day moved him because of “the mobilization of people with their families, with their children,” and described the day as “very important to keep alive the memory of what was a black time in history.”
Thinking about the future, Altobelli considered that it is necessary to educate new generations about what happened and warned: “The lights that caused us so much damage are not completely turned off.”
