“Wherever they go, we will find them”
The first reaction of Mauricio Macri’s government regarding the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice was expressed by Claudio Avruj, Secretary of Human Rights, who said: “I agree with the Court’s 2×1 Ruling if it is adjusted to the law”. Hours later, he contradicted himself saying that the Government “unanimously questioned the implementation of the 2×1 in crimes against humanity; in this, we have an unequivocal conviction”. Days later, Maria Eugenia Vidal also made statements against the ruling.
By PSTU Argentina.
What happened? What made Avruj change his mind so quickly? What is the reason for Vidal’s statement?
We are convinced that this government’s step back has an explanation in the enormous repudiation of workers and people to the 2×1[1], to the genocides, because we do not forget, we do not forgive, we do not reconcile and we keep our guard high to defend imprisonment of genocides and to confront any attempt of impunity. This conclusion is fundamental. The strength of the mobilized workers is greater than any Court’s ruling, any law or any government’s policy.
The law voted in Congress is a product of despair of Macrism and the opposition to delegitimate the mobilization, and to direct the anger towards the October elections. This does not mean any change of the government’s policy about human rights, though.
Voted by almost all the blocks, this law establishes that the 2×1 can be implemented to prisoners without a final sentence between 1994 and 2001, but could not be implemented to any genocide because during those years the Law of Due Obedience and the Final Point Law applied.
The struggle against impunity is still a pending task, to judge the past as a part of facing the current attacks on workers.
Terror Summaries
-Luis Muiña
The first beneficiary. He was part of the internal paramilitary command of the Posadas Hospital, sentenced for the torture of at least five people.
-Christian Von Wernich
He was a priest of the Catholic Church and chaplain of the Investigations Division of the Buenos Aires Police. He received a life sentence for being found guilty of 42 cases of illegitimate deprivation of liberty, 31 cases of torture and 7 charges of homicide.
-Jorge “Tigre” Acosta
He was responsible for the death and torture in the Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy [generally known as ESMA]. Among other crimes, he was responsible for throwing the French nuns Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon, and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Azucena Villaflor, Esther Ballestrino and María Ponce, into the river.
-Miguel Etchecolatz
Former commissioner sentenced in four separate trials for the disappearance, torture, and appropriation of babies in hundreds of cases. In addition, he is involved in the second disappearance of Jorge Julio López.
-Alfredo Astiz
A spy infiltrated in Human Rights organizations. He was part of the Task Group 3.3.2 which operated in the ESMA. He was responsible for the kidnapping and disappearance of the French nuns previously mentioned, among many other cases.
What is Macri’s Policy for Human Rights?
A few months ago, President Macri said that he did not know how many missing persons were. He is trying to reestablish the “theory of the two demons”, saying that what happened was not a genocidal dictatorship that disappeared more than 30 thousand workers and activists but a “dirty war” between two sides.
In addition, according to the Prosecution of Crimes against Humanity, during 2016 there were only nine judgments. The government cut the Human Rights’ budget; he wanted to remove March 24[2] from the calendar, and he brought Obama, former president of the US, to Argentina on March 24 of last year. He took the “cara pintada”[3] Aldo Rico to the act on July 9,[4] whee he also took the army to parade through the streets next to the King of Spain. He keeps Milagro Sala[5] imprisoned for protesting publically; he repressed the teachers who mounted the Itinerant Tent[6] and repressed the workers and political and union activists who made and active stoppage on April 6 General Strike. The house arrest of more than 50 genocides is not just an issue of the Judiciary; it is a government’s policy, such as Claudio Avruj made it clear when he said: “I believe that the matter of releasing people over 70 or 80 years-old has to be equal for all.”
The ruling of the Supreme Court is part of this policy. Two of the three judges who voted in favor were put in charge by Mauricio Macri, and the third one, Elena Ines Highton, was put by Nestor Kirchner in 2004.
Already in 2014, Macri said that “the Human Rights curros [scams] are going to end,” that “we must deal with Human Rights of the 21st century. We must take care of what is happening today,” and that “Argentina has to close the <stage of human rights>.” In these words, we hear the echoes of the dictatorship in the voice of a President whose family made their fortune during the genocide military dictatorship period.
Therefore, to advance against impunity, for the truth to be known and justice to be done, to face the repression that we are suffering in the present for struggling to defend our salary and employment, we must continue mobilized against the adjustment plan and misery imposed by the government. And if the government does not change its plan, we will have to change the government; not for Cristina [Kirchner] to come back, but for us, the workers and people, to rule.
Did Kirchnerism go all the way against Impunity?
We want to debate with Kirchnerist workers because the conclusions we draw from the government of Nestor and Cristina are vital to what we have to do now.
For example: if Cristina returns, will all the genocides go to jail? We do not think so, and we do not believe that electing more Kirchnerist deputies or senators will solve the problem. And we want to debate these with facts and numbers, because no matter which party are organized in, we are interested in workers facing Macri’s government together on the streets, where we will truly get justice to change history and not repeat the same old mistakes of the past.
In this regard, and respectfully, we want to debate with Mrs. Hebe de Bonafini, who declared that the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are no longer a Human Rights’ Organization but an internal current of the Front for the Victory[7].
In this subtitle, we ask if Nestor and Cristina did everything they could during their governments to advance with Judgment and Punishment [Juicio y castigo]. We do not think so, because a government that really wants to go all the way against genocides cannot name a genocide like Milani to be in charge of the army, for example. And the figure of Milani is only the tip of the iceberg in which all genocide soldiers –who still walk around the State offices– float.
Since the return to democracy, no government advanced against the repressive apparatus, but they used it to spy on, infiltrate among and repress workers and the people. Examples of this are Project X[8], by Kirchnerism, and the repression against the bus drivers of line 60[9] in the Pan-American highway.
In 2006, Julio López declared against the genocidal Etchecolatz and within a few hours, they made him disappear, making clear that those monsters from the dictatorship still live in our present. Julio López is a missing person in democracy during the Néstor Kirchner’s government and, in 9 years of government, they did nothing to make him appear alive.
To this, we must add a categorical number: according to the Memory, Truth and Justice Encounter, there are only 737 sentenced genocides, exposing the level of impunity if we take into account that, in Argentina, there were more than 600 clandestine detention centers.
This is as far as Kirchnerism’s policy for Human Rights came. And we cannot forget to mention the 7 thousand workers prosecuted for struggling, as well as the Las Heras oil workers sentenced to a life imprisonment.
A substantial solution against impunity
In 1982, the Armed Forces abandoned the power with the greatest discredit and crisis. The tool that the great Argentine bosses and their multinational partners used repeatedly to carry military coups appeared before the population’s eyes as a murderous machine against its own people, and as a coward before the British enemy. Since then on, the hate of the population has done nothing but grow.
This represents a huge problem that the Argentine capitalist class has not overcome yet. If they needed the armed forces to strike again to defend the big companies and banks, as well as the big agrarian bosses, it would be very difficult for them to do so while the genocides, who did that work in the past, are still in prison. That is why they have tried repeatedly to reverse such situation.
However, as long as the State’s repressive apparatus remains intact, the Never Again! is a utopia; the danger remains.
It is necessary to reopen the debate about a program for the complete dismantling of the entire apparatus. This includes the Armed and Security Forces and the Intelligence agencies.
We must repeal the 2×1. But we must go all the way to the end: to judge and sentence all genocides, as well as all businessmen who financed them, who were blessed by the pulpits; the politicians of different bosses’ parties who collaborated with the dictatorship -hundreds of Radicals, dozens of Peronists- and the accomplices unionists like José Rodriguez, from SMATA, and Gerardo Martínez, from the UOCRA.
To this end, the principle of Inversion of Proof must be established, sending to jail all the officers -retired and active- of any rank that participated on the dictatorship, and if someone is innocent this must be proved. In other words, unlike the legal principle that we are all innocent until proven guilty, all of them must be considered guilty until proven innocent. This has a precedent in the Nuremberg trials, which sentenced the Nazis. Our current has been proposing this measure since the fall of the dictatorship, and if it had been implemented there would be thousands of sentenced soldiers, and the complicity of other sectors would be much clearer by now.
In addition, the Armed Forces, the intelligence agencies and the Church’s archives must be opened, so the data of all the genocides and their allies can be known.
We must end the house arrest for genocides, force life imprisonment for Milani; and repeal all anti-terrorist laws and the resolution 154 of the Ministry of Defense, which opens the door to the internal espionage by the military.
Through these measures and the designation of an Investigating Committee with full powers and all necessary resources, led by figures such as Nora Cortiñas[10] and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel,[11] it would be possible to clarify the truth of these facts and the ones responsible, so they can all be sentenced and prevent the risk of measures like this despicable 2×1 from happening again. This way, the Never Again! would have more chances to become effective.
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Translation: Misty M.
Notes:
[1] The 2×1 was a decision of the Supreme Court that considers the time already spent in prison by militaries sentenced for crimes against humanity, making one of them pay for the sentence of two. In other words, of the 500 militaries currently in prison, about half of them would be released.
[2] Anniversary of the military dictatorship, on March 24, 1976. Defined as a holiday, it has been the most important mobilization day in the country for over 30, mobilizing millions of people all over the country.
[3] “Cara Pintada” is the denomination of an extreme-right nationalist faction of the military, which in 1987, 5 years after restoring democracy in the country, attempted a coup against the president. One of the main leaders was Aldo Rico.
[4] July 9 is Argentine Independence Day.
[5] Milagro Sala is an indigenous, social and political activist, leader of the Neighborhood Organization Túpac Amaru, arrested in a camping protest in 2016 against big corporations. Her detention was considered, nationally and internationally, as a political detention.
[6] Open Public School in Plaza Congreso which is both a school for those with no access to education and a protest against the government and in defense of public education. It was made in honor to the White Tent, mounted by teachers in 1997 against the Menem administration, which lasted for 2 years (1997-1999), and was one of the largest and most extended protests during the 90s.
[7] Kirchnerist political organization, founded in 2003.
[8] Proyecto X was a special unity of the National Gendarmerie with the task of identifying the leaders of all kind of social and political protests –through illegal methods like infiltrating in social and political groups and phone tapping, among others- to create a database of those leaders. It was created in 2002 and updated in 2006 until it was made public and dismantled after a great mobilization process.
[9] Line 60 is a very combative bus line, always at the vanguard of mobilization and with a high level or workers’ organization.
[10] Co-founder of Mothers of May Square [Madres de Plaza de Mayo].
[11] Argentine Human Rights’ activist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his struggle against dictatorship.
2×1: the Government had to Step Back
