Argentina will tomorrow commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the 1976 coup d’état that led to a brutal eight-year military dictatorship.
Human rights groups, survivors and political activists will march in the traditional procession from Congress to Plaza de Mayo where they will recall the horrors of the 1976-83 dictatorship and demand a number of measures aimed at fortifying or improving policies surrounding human rights.
The anniversary, the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, finds a number of the country’s main human rights organisations united around a shared opposition to the Mauricio Macri administration.
This follows years of infighting and division about the inception of party politics in the human rights movement, specifically former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kichner’s perceived influence over leading figures like the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Tomorrow’s march is expected to have a sharp anti-Macri sentiment. Some human rights figures have labelled the current government a continuation of the military dictatorship because of its perceived connections with the business and media elite whose management at the time had supported or benefited from the 1976 coup. Others have dismissed that claim as outrageous.
A number of recent incidents have also sparked tensions between historic rights groups and the government, including the prospect of high-profile human rights violators like Alfredo Astiz being released from prison.
-TIMES
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