Argentina’s Dictatorship: 50 Years On, History Revisionism Sparks Protests
Tens of thousands of Argentinians are expected to fill the central squares of cities across the country on Tuesday, , to commemorate the “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice.” The date marks the anniversary of the military dictatorship that seized power in Argentina , launching one of the most brutal regimes in Latin American history.
However, this year’s commemoration carries a heightened sense of urgency, fueled by concerns over what activists describe as a disturbing revision of history under the current administration. “This year, we are not only remembering the victims of the dictatorship, but also protesting against the terrible historical revisionism of the current government,” Miriam Lewin told the APA news agency. “That’s why it’s more important than ever that as many people as possible approach.”
Lewin herself is a survivor of the dictatorship and has become one of the country’s most prominent human rights activists. She has documented the crimes of the regime through reporting, books, and documentaries, and testified during the historic 1985 trial of the military junta.
Argentina had previously been lauded internationally for its efforts to confront the legacy of its dictatorship. “Argentina was previously considered internationally as a model for moral and criminal accountability for that time,” said Emilio Crenzel, a sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1983, a state commission tasked with establishing the truth released the “Nunca Más” (“Never Again”) report, detailing the atrocities committed during the dictatorship.
Nearly 1,200 military personnel were convicted as a result. Former torture centers were transformed into memorials, and victims received compensation. The 1985 trial of the military junta was a landmark event, and former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla died in prison in after serving a life sentence.
That progress is now under threat, according to Crenzel, with the rise of libertarian President Javier Milei, who assumed office in . Milei has downplayed the torture and murder of tens of thousands of people as “excesses.” He has referred to the estimated 30,000 victims and prisoners of the military dictatorship as a “lie” and “propaganda” from the left.
Milei’s Vice President, Victoria Villarruel, whose family has ties to the military, has advocated for the pardon of convicted military officers. Milei has abolished the Secretariat of Human Rights, cut state funding for victims’ organizations, and for memorials such as the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA). “Under Milei, even the memory policy has fallen under its chainsaw policy,” said Mayki Gorosito, referring to Milei’s austerity measures. She described significant staff reductions and the withholding of necessary funds to maintain and operate Argentina’s dictatorship memorials.
In , the government dismissed Gorosito as director of the ESMA memorial. She had refused to emphasize the violence perpetrated by leftist guerrilla groups in exhibitions and to remove videos about the convictions of military personnel. The ESMA was the largest torture center operated by the dictatorship, where more than 5,000 people were held captive, with fewer than 300 surviving.
Miriam Lewin also survived her captivity in the ESMA. She was when she was abducted from a street in Buenos Aires on . She was a member of a leftist student movement. She was first taken to the Virrey Cevallos detention center, one of over 800 secret torture facilities operated throughout the country, often within military or police buildings. For weeks, she was held naked, bound, and with a sack over her head, subjected to beatings.
Her captors sought information about the whereabouts of a friend involved in a leftist resistance group. Daily beatings were administered. Guards placed plastic bags over her head until she nearly suffocated – a method they called “Submarino seco” (dry submarine). Electric shocks were applied to her vagina and breasts. When it became clear she could provide no further intelligence, she was transferred to the ESMA after ten months. She remained there for another year, but her life was spared. As a journalist fluent in several languages, she was used by the military to translate foreign press coverage of the regime during the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina.
Hearing Milei suggest that it was primarily leftist guerrilla groups, such as the Montoneros and the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP), who were “killing and planting bombs” and that the state was merely responding to “terrorists,” enrages Lewin. “The justification of the crimes of the dictatorship and their glorification has always existed in certain circles. But now, for the first time, they are being socially legitimized by a head of government and are already spreading among young people.”
It was not necessary to be involved in armed resistance to become a target of the dictatorship. Tens of thousands of non-violent opponents of the regime disappeared: communist politicians, trade unionists, critical intellectuals, and students engaged in left-wing politics, like Miriam Lewin.
Visiting the “Park of Remembrance” on the banks of the Río de la Plata in Buenos Aires, with its memorial to the victims of the military dictatorship, provides a stark illustration of the scale of the atrocities. The names of tens of thousands of victims are engraved on a several-hundred-meter-long stone wall. Lewin’s name could easily have been among them. The park overlooks the airport from which the military launched its infamous “death flights,” throwing dissidents alive from planes into the sea.
“The state terrorism of the military unleashed a period of massive human rights violations. The enforced disappearance of opponents was a systematic method used to spread terror throughout society,” explains Crenzel.
For Miriam Lewin, it is therefore all the more important that the commemoration on Tuesday is larger than ever. “We must confront Milei’s historical revisionism, which endangers the previous political and social consensus of ‘Nunca Más’,” she says.