Javier Milei, the presidential candidate of the Argentine far-right, has turned upside down the consensus that has kept democracy afloat in the country for 40 years. He intends to end public education and health care, defund universities, and opposes abortion and marriage equality laws. Part of this “cultural war,” as he calls it, involves a condescending reinterpretation of the last dictatorship (1976-1983) and state terrorism. At the forefront of this denialism is his candidate for vice president, Victoria Villarruel, a granddaughter, daughter and niece of soldiers who calls for a “complete memory” that includes the victims of the guerrillas of the seventies and puts an end to the open cases for crimes of It hurts humanity. Her speech, however, does not have the expected status in the barracks. The new generations of soldiers, some already born in democracy and all educated in it, consider that putting the issue of repression on the agenda undermines years of efforts to clean up their image.
The Armed Forces controlled Argentine politics for more than 50 years. In 1930, with the first coup d’état, they began a long series that attempted to repress, first, the first mass party in Latin America, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), and then, starting in 1955, Peronism. When they handed over power in 1983, they had forcibly removed five democratic governments from the Casa Rosada, not counting the changes of command in the palace. The president of the transition, the radical Raúl Alfonsín, tried the leaders of the dictatorship in 1985. In 1991, a Peronist, Carlos Menem, pardoned them. With Menemism, however, a process of defunding the Armed Forces and the withdrawal of troops to barracks also began. Today the Argentine military does not want to know anything about politics. And the democratic consensus around “never again” neutralized any attempt to rewrite history or political glorification of state terrorism. Until now.
When Javier Milei was questioned about the dictatorship in the first candidate debate, he repeated the words of Admiral Emilio Massera during the trial of the Juntas. He said that in the seventies there was “a war” in which “excesses” were committed, but never a systematic extermination plan. He was the first candidate for the Casa Rosada who dared to do so much and the first who did not lose votes because of it. Villarruel goes further. It aims to end the trials for crimes against humanity, convert the Museum of Memory that operates in the largest detention and torture center of the dictatorship, the Esma, into a school “for the enjoyment of all” and purge the pension program that victims receive. During this week, he publicly defended a soldier who celebrated on social networks that the trunk of a green Ford Falcon, like the ones used to kidnap militants, could fit seven people “although a little uncomfortable.” He also says that the missing were not 30,000, as human rights organizations maintain, but “only” the 8,961 registered by the truth commission, Conadep, which Alfonsín installed at the beginning of his Government.
Villarruel’s speech resonates with retired military personnel, with charges during the dictatorship and many of them convicted or with open proceedings for crimes against humanity. But not in the current ones, already trained in democracy. “We are another generation and we are upset,” clarifies a source from the Navy in strict confidence because they are prevented by regulations from expressing any political opinion. “Those who were there at that time [la dictadura] They already paid, they were convicted. Why go back with a speech that continues to work against you after 40 years?
Argentine political scientist Victoria Murillo, director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University, asks the same question. “Parties like the National Front in France [de Marine Le Pen] They initially sought to influence the public policy agenda. Once the public policy agenda changes, it is easier for them to accumulate votes. When an issue becomes normal, the extreme party becomes less extreme,” he explains.
Villarruel, in fact, has crossed several red lines, such as proposing that the Argentine Armed Forces join in internal security tasks, on a par with the police or the gendarmerie. Today it is prohibited by an Alfonsín law that guaranteed the submission of the military to civil power. “The Forces, after the dictatorship, do not want to get involved in that game, which made us lose credibility, funds, properties,” says the same Navy source. The Government also considers that the current military does not want to have anything to do with getting involved in the fight against drug trafficking or common crime. “There is a lot of renewal, with generations of young professionals. Nobody wants to get involved in national security issues, because they consider it a problem and they know that they are not prepared for that,” says an official source familiar with the sector. For Villarruel, the reluctance makes sense, because in the cases in which the army has gotten involved in internal security “corruption grew.”
And who are the soldiers who publicly support Villarruel? “They are retired early and do not receive benefits for their retirement, individual cases with little internal ascendancy,” the Government responds. All these reluctance does not prevent many of them from finally voting for Milei. The candidate for vice president has promised them a significant increase in the budget if she reaches the Casa Rosada. It remains to be seen if that will be enough to gain support in the barracks.
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