Activists and members of civil society criticized Argentina’s conservative president Mauricio Macri on Sunday for refusing to personally address the human rights situation in the country.
The leaders of the human rights groups Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Linea Fundadora, Estela de Carlotto and Taty Almeida, said that the president sent them a letter saying he did not have time to attend the Jan. 8 meeting and sent his chief of staff instead.
“We are living very tough, worrying, times,” said Carlotto, referring to the dismissal Wednesday of Horacio Pietragalla, head of the National Archives of Memory, a former lawmaker, and one of the sons of a disappeared activist under the dictatorship whom Carlotto's organization helped.
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The National Archive of Memory stores important information on human rights violations, mostly handled by victims of the dictatorship. Its work and commitment to memorialize has become a model abroad in transitional peace processes.
“We observe many aggressive policies that are being incorporated to our daily lives. Each of them leaves us with a terrible authoritarian taste that disregards the people,” she added.
If Macri continues to rebuff the Grandmothers, it would be the first time the organization has not spoken directly with a president in 30 years of democratic rule.
During his presidential campaign, Macri was also one one of the few candidates who ignored the organizations’ demand to outline a human rights program.
As for Almeida, she blamed the president for “having time to meet many people but us.”
“He has not found the moment to tell us what his administration's policy on human rights is going to be, it seems he does not have a clear idea of it.”
On Wednesday, Macri's administration approved the dismissal of 500 more public servants, including employees from the Justice and Truth Program.
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, known as the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Spanish, is an Argentine human rights organisation formed to help reunite children with their families after many were stolen and illegally adopted during the dictatorship.
Between 9,300 and 30,000 political prisoners were taken during the “bloody war,” during the Argentine military junta led by right-wing President Gen. Jorge Rafael Videl, who described those who were abducted by the government as "neither dead nor alive, they are disaparecidos (missing)."
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