Today over 100 human rights, student, cultural and labour organisations, marched along Avenida de Mayo to Plaza de Mayo to commemorate ‘El Día de la Memoria’, a day of memory to remember the 30,000 people who ‘disappeared’ under the military dictatorship in Argentina that began 34 years ago in 1976. The march was led by the Abuelas and Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
Estela de Carlotto, from the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, was the first to speak at the rally and was accompanied by a 500 metre banner that contained the faces of thousands of the missing. The banner carried the slogan ‘For a bicentenary without impunity: Trial and punishment now’: referring to the need to bring those responsible for the deaths and torture committed during the dictatorship to trial. She spoke about the need for justice and criticised a number of private companies such as Ford and Mercedes Benz, the head of Buenos Aires government, Mauricio Macri, and the metropolitan police. She said, “The accomplices of hunger are the same as 30 years ago.” Other groups at the rally were protesting and remembering those who have ‘disappeared’ since the military dictatorship, under democracy.
President Cristina Kirchner held a rally at ESMA, the former naval mechanic school which was a detention centre of political prisoners during the dictatorship and is now an ‘Espacio para la Memoria’ (a space for memory). Cristina called for a “rebuilding of the country” and stated that she would resort to international courts if justice couldn’t be achieved in Argentina. She said, “Our past should not be judged, those who committed crimes indeed should be [judged].”
Members of the left-wing and anti-government group, Quebracho, led by Fernando Esteche, demonstrated at the Argentine Industrial Union headquarters. They covered their faces with scarves and carried wooden sticks and stones.
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