Just 6 months in, Milei is dismantling Argentina's memory policy

[Judi Lynn]

Mothers of Plaza de Mayo never thought they would ‘have to prove there was a genocide in Argentina all over again,’ says Taty Almeida



MARTINA JAUREGUY
JUNE 10, 2024

Even before becoming president, Javier Milei has insulted Argentina’s memory policies, which aim to commemorate and seek justice for victims of the country’s last dictatorship. But after six months in office, comments once dismissed as outlandish broadsides have quickly become state policy.

Now, human rights organizations are warning that a state policy of firing experts, disseminating denialist discourse, and flouting international commitments is endangering Argentina’s pioneering work bringing the perpetrators of atrocities to justice.

“Javier Milei’s government has completely or partially dismantled policies that are key to the memory, truth and justice process,” reads a report by human rights nonprofit, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS by its Spanish acronym), which was founded during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

This has been done largely by firing most of the people working in memory programs, failing to appoint directors — therefore leaving them adrift — and even refusing to comply with laws and international commitments on the reparation of rights violations. These include decisions by the Justice and Defense Ministries to temporarily suspend reparations payments to victims and close a special team created to investigate dictatorship-era crimes, respectively. These policies have also been affected by the cuts applied to the entire national budget, CELS added.

These cuts have gone hand-in-hand with “revisionist and denialist stances regarding crimes against humanity committed by the armed forces during the last dictatorship,” according to CELS.

More:
https://buenosairesherald.com/human-rights/just-6-months-in-milei-is-dismantling-argentinas-memory-policy

(This seems somehow very familiar, doesn't it?)

[slightlv]

1. Seems the one thing these dictators

can't stand is Truth -- and they'll do any and everything in an attempt to destroy it. Rewriting history, book bans, anti-speech laws. They're all the same. Wonder what would happen if we could gather all of them up and put them all on deserted island with each other.