00:00Let's stay on topic as Argentines continue to mark this important day with different activities throughout the week.
00:05And especially yesterday, we saw a massive gathering in Buenos Aires, in the capital, in the square of Plaza de
00:11Mayo,
00:11an emblematic square where people reaffirmed their commitment to the struggle of memory and truth and justice.
00:17And for that, we are in line with our correspondent, Belén de los Santos, who is in Argentina,
00:21for all the information that has to do with everything taking place in the South American country.
00:25Welcome, Belén.
00:27Hello, Luis. A pleasure to meet you here from Buenos Aires.
00:31As you were saying, a massive protest last day, yesterday, March 24th.
00:37It was expected to be a great mobilization, and it was like that.
00:42We saw a Mayo square that was completely filled with people.
00:48Many could not even get to the square.
00:51This recalled of the most relevant mobilizations in Buenos Aires.
00:56Yes, of course, because the year was so important, the 50th anniversary,
01:01and a moment to recall not only what happened in that civic military dictatorship
01:07and all the violence that it entailed,
01:10but also because the claims for truth, memory, and justice continue to be very much present right now
01:18and very important in the political context that Argentina is undergoing right now.
01:24So a little bit about that mobilization yesterday with which we were there.
01:29We had the images.
01:30We talked to the people.
01:31Well, it was a truly important moment.
01:34We saw a lot of families, and that was, it's typical of the demonstration every year in Argentina.
01:41But of course, being so important in a moment in which in Argentina,
01:46repressive moments by the police forces, for example, in other demonstrations,
01:51has been moving forward more and more.
01:54The Malay government is betting on repression in order to avoid mobilizations.
01:58So an act of a massive demonstration that stands for these struggles
02:04and the continuation of what those people in the 70s were fighting for,
02:10a mobilization that continues to stand for the values of searching for a more fair world order,
02:17a more fair order here in Argentina.
02:19That dictatorship tried to put an end to those hopes and dreams in the worst way possible
02:26with the disappearance of 30,000 comrades.
02:30And of course, coming out to the streets to say that those 30,000 comrades are present then
02:36and always is one of the most symbolic gestures of Argentine mobilization.
02:41And the fact that in this context, that mobilization was so massive,
02:46the organizations, the human rights organizations that read the most important documents,
02:52the Center Act of Demobilization yesterday in Mayo Square.
02:56It's talking about 1 million people present in Buenos Aires.
02:59And that's just the Center, the Capital Act alone.
03:03But you also had, of course, activities across the country joining efforts.
03:07So we are talking about a massive mobilization in a context in which the main political objective of that march,
03:16besides just asking and continuing the demand for memory, truth, and justice,
03:21was also signaling that the policies of Javier Millet continue the path of those neoliberal policies
03:30that the dictatorship in the 70s implemented, starting a period in the country of foreign indebtedness,
03:38of relying on foreign currencies, of different structural dependencies on the international market
03:45that affected the population and the working class in particular,
03:49then and continue to affect it today.
03:51And Millet is a continuation of those policies.
03:55That is why, again, this mobilization was so key at this moment.
03:59Also, another piece of information to continue understanding
04:03and also getting what is happening right now in Buenos Aires.
04:07We recently found out about the passing of Lila Pastoriza,
04:13one of the key activists in terms of the human rights movements here in Argentina.
04:20She was a survivor of the ex-ISMA, one of the most iconic for its relevance
04:27and for being one of the greater sites of torture in Latin America,
04:32one of the places here in Buenos Aires where many of those comrades who were kidnapped
04:39were detained, tortured to later be disappeared.
04:42But some comrades survived that process.
04:45Lila Pastoriza was one of them.
04:47And just to think about a symbol of how that memory continues to be constructed
04:52after surviving that period, Lila became not only an activist,
04:56but a key part in the building of memory efforts,
05:01precisely in that same site as well.
05:04The former ESMA, the former Navy Mechanics School,
05:08began and continues to be to this day a place of memory,
05:12a place where cultural activities and memory activities are taking place.
05:17In order to just teach society about that period, about what happened,
05:23and to make the entire society accountable for that violence,
05:28and particularly the disappearances of the 30,000 comrades.
05:34Those policies that build those sort of efforts, memory efforts,
05:39as the ones that Lila Pastoriza learned and also was part of,
05:44are the ones that are being defunded and money is taken away from those policies
05:50by the government of Javier Millet.
05:52So just remembering her at this moment in which we find out of her passing
05:57and understanding how that moment in the past, remembering and also denouncing
06:04every time that violent coup d'etat in 1976 and the way it marked our society,
06:09is also a key moment and a key impact of understanding the construction of memory today.
06:16So that's a little bit of what is happening right now.
06:18We're going to continue following everything and understanding little and different parts
06:24of what that period meant at that moment and what it continues to mean today.
06:28Luis, I go back to you now.
06:30Thank you, Valen, for the details.
06:32We're going to stay, of course, in touch in upcoming news briefs
06:34to have all the latest information coming from Argentina.
06:37Thank you, Valen.
Comments