The government of Javier Milei is attacking the process of truth and justice in Argentina. By decree, it has dismantled the Special Investigation Unit of the National Commission for the Right to Identity (Conadi) that was searching for children stolen during the dictatorship. This measure was taken in the midst of the scandal caused by the visit of six pro-government deputies to the genocidaires of the dictatorship, incarcerated in the Ezeiza prison. One of the visitors, Lourdes Arrieta, seen in the controversial photo, wearing an orange jacket, highlighted a plan by her party colleagues to free the repressors.
In the current negationist context, on July 11, six deputies from President Javier Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, went to the Ezeiza prison to visit Alfredo Astiz, Raúl Guglielminetti and Adolfo Donda, among other repressors imprisoned for crimes against humanity. The photo shocked the country. In addition to Arrieta, there were deputies Beltrán Benedit, Guillermo Montenegro, Alida Ferreyra Ugalde, María Fernanda Araujo and Rocío Bonacci. In this image, Astiz, an emblem of state terrorism in Argentina, can be seen behind him.
Former sailor Astiz worked at the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA, where a clandestine detention and torture center operated) and is responsible for infiltrating the human rights movement. He pointed the finger at the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Azucena Villaflor, Mary Ponce de Bianco and Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, the French nuns Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet and seven other activists gathered in the Church of Santa Cruz, who were kidnapped, tortured and thrown alive into the sea in the death flights. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Donda became head of intelligence for the ESMA task force. He faces two life sentences and a 15-year prison sentence for participating in the appropriation of his niece, Victoria Donda Pérez.
Congresswoman Lourdes Arrieta apologized saying she was born in 1993 and did not know Astiz, she said she did not know who they were going to see and took the case to court. Arrieta just turned on the fan: he leaked a series of conversations between libertarian deputies and priest Javier Olivera Ravasi, with bills and a presidential decree that they wanted to sign in Milei and whose objective was to obtain the release of the repressors. Father Olivera Ravasi is the son of the repressor Jorge Olivera and it was he who organized the visit to Ezeiza: he was expelled from his diocese. In addition, Pope Francis was the opposite of Olivera Ravisi: in early August he met with Anita Fernández, granddaughter of Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, a victim of Astiz.
The national legislator, who will probably be expelled from La Libertad Avanza in the coming hours, presented a draft decree that, as such, should bear the president’s signature, which aims to promote the freedom of genocidaires detained after exceeding a period of 25 years from the commission of the crime. On the other hand, the bill disclosed by the deputy and called “Reasonable Time” also argues in the same sense as the decree regarding the maximum duration of a criminal procedure. But the proposed duration is 20 years and not 25.
The national deputy of the Socialist Party of Santa Fe, Esteban Paulón, tells elDiario.es that the hidden plot of the visit to the repressors is becoming known. “The texts disseminated by Arrieta are true, from drafts that were circulating in the discussions of his libertarian colleagues, and they show the hidden plot of the visit to Ezeiza,” says Paulón.
“The projects propose to cap the length of detention to include those found guilty of crimes against humanity. And they open the door for a judge to be tried for prevarication. Any judge tells you that he will not sign Astiz’s release because he burns down the courthouse. There is a consensus in society that genocidaires rot in prison, as happened with Videla,” he adds.
On the other hand, Paulón maintains that what was published by Arrieta adds to the debate open in Congress. “There was preferential treatment for this visit to the prison. The Ministry of Security, so attached to the protocols of repression in the streets, did not properly control the entry of the deputies. We must also investigate the role of the Ministry of Defense,” he says.
Defense and Security, in the spotlight
The legislators’ visit to the genocidaires was not an isolated event. The Defense Ministry sent two senior officials to the penitentiary unit that operates within Campo de Mayo, the country’s main military garrison located in the province of Buenos Aires. The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, publicly called for house arrest for people over 70 years old detained for crimes of the dictatorship. It was the same minister who withdrew the financial rewards that the government offered to those who could provide information on fugitives accused of crimes against humanity.
Despite all this, President Milei has distanced himself from the visit to the repressors. Asked about the possible involvement of Vice President Victoria Villarruel in this event, the far-right president replied: “I don’t know if she has anything to do with it. We’ll have to see.”
The vice president has been active for more than 20 years in organizations that claim responsibility for the actions of the military in the 1970s and has participated in marches demanding the release of the dictatorship’s criminals.
The far-right government is targeting an internationally recognized human rights movement. By decree, Milei closed a key investigative unit within the National Commission for the Right to Identity (Conadi), a unit created in 2004 by President Néstor Kirchner, a center-left Peronist. Conadi was born in 1992 under the government of Carlos Menem (a conservative Peronist), at the request of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, the organization that since 1977 has been searching for suitable boys and girls during the years of state terrorism.
The grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have restored 137 identities since its creation. According to the agency’s estimates, 500 boys and girls were stolen during the dictatorship (1976-1983). Similarly, the Milei administration eliminated the policy of transmitting files to help investigate crimes against humanity.
In closing Conadi’s special investigation unit, Milei argued that the executive branch is not empowered to conduct investigations and that this is a matter for the public prosecutor.
“The national government has decided to eliminate by decree the research area of the National Commission for the Right to Identity. A fundamental area to search for the grandchildren and grandchildren we still miss. Faced with this new attack, we will redouble our commitment to the grandmothers’ struggle. Always by their side,” said Victoria Montenegro, daughter of disappeared persons, adopted by an army colonel and now president of the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament of the city of Buenos Aires, on the social network.
